trustinthedevil | [ tlv inbox ]

[ That makes Matt chuckle a bit. ]

I think procedural shows romanticize it a bit. It's a lot of long hours in offices or court rooms. Mostly I just try to help good people who are getting screwed over.

[She'll let them in as he's talking, getting the door first to be polite.]

I mean, that's the dream, isn't it. That's part of why I'm here. Wanna make sure no-one else gets hurt by the stuff we're dealing with back at HQ. Maybe bring them back, if I'm here long enough.

Right, the contained zombie outbreak.

[ That's what she said, right? He follows her in, familiar enough with the lounge that navigating it isn't too bad for him. ]

I hope you end up with someone who helps you get that quickly, especially if you're planning on trying to get more than one deal before you go.

Right. It's... a little more complicated than that.

[She'll wave down a beer as she grabs them a table; it's not like the place is bustling at the best of times.]

Zombies just- seemed like the easiest comparison. It's more of an... interdimensional resonance-based life form? It infects people by exposure to its specific frequency - so, uh. Sound. It has this specific chant, l-like a white noise zombie. [She twists the top off with a quiet pop of carbon dioxide.] We call it the Hiss. And the. The Hiss zombies also have psychic superpowers.

[ He grabs a beer as well, something not unlike a fussy European beer since he knows there's some of that kicking around. Behind his glasses, his eyebrows raise up a bit. ]

That's ... Something.

[ Matt presses his tongue to his lips. Thank God that hasn't come up in his life, but never say never. ]

We had an alien invasion led by Loki a few years back. Really decimated a good section of Manhattan. No crazy infections, though, so there's that.

[She tilts her head curiously. Not that he can see it, but the habit's not going to stop.]

Loki. Like, the Norse god Loki?

[I don't wanna say it can't be coincidence, but there's an awful lot of it going around, here...]

That's the one.

[ He flashes a wry sort of smile and takes a sip of his beer. ]

Luckily, Thor was there to stop him, along with a whole band of superheroes. Some of the damage drove down real estate prices, made a lot of people sell or get bought out. I had some clients dealing with the fallout.

Not that helping people deal with the government fairly isn't a superpower in and of itself...

[God knows she would have had an easier time of foster care if she'd had someone like Matt.]

How about you? Just 'cos it seems like this place doesn't really tend to pull people who don't have something pretty insane going on on the side.

Insane really depends on your perspective.

[ The only person on this ship that knows anything about Daredevil is Alan, and that was only because of those echoes he has, not by Matt's own choice. He's aware that getting a permanent warden means someone else will know, but that's a bridge he'll cross when he gets there. ]

I have enough tenacity that criminals I'm trying to keep behind bars want to drown me in the Hudson, and enough stubbornness that I tend to push people out of the way when I'm solving a problem. Maybe the Catholic guilt wasn't enough, the universe had to send me here to really let me feel the weight of it.

Well, I kind of got turned into a human battery to channel anti-Hiss resonance. And got made the director of a secret government agency because I picked up the magic gun that only the boss can use.

So. [A swig of her beer.] My perspective's pretty weird.

Then I must be pretty normal to you. But maybe insane to someone more normal than me.

[ He's trying to decide where on the scale she lands for him. The Hiss thing is pretty wild. But Danny "I'm The Immortal Iron Fist" Rand isn't far off from being a human battery himself. Matt supposes that puts Jesse somewhere in the familiar category, but on the cusp on out of his wheelhouse. ]

So, your first deal is stopping this Hiss thing?

Right. We already closed the door that let them into the building to begin with, the Oldest House. It operates on a different plane of existence to the rest of the world - think like being in the Enclosure versus being on Deck. Same place, different... layers, I guess. Only one door from the House to Earth, and that got locked down tight. No Hiss, no people getting in or out.

[Except for me.]

So they can't escape, but it's... self-replicating. Like an ear-worm. And there's a lot of the House we haven't covered. If we don't clear it all, and one of them gets out, to New York? [She blows a raspberry.] Game over.

[ Matt lets out an slight whoosh of an exhale. She's right, something like that would spread like wildfire in the city, and then there'd be no stopping it. He can't even pretend to think of how to stop that without the Admiral or something similar intervening. ]

Those are some dire stakes. I'm sorry.

[She shrugs bodily, and lets out a heavy sigh. Her voice has a grim wryness to it though.]

That's how we roll in the FBC. Saving the world in the background, one alien invasion at a time.

The world needs invisible heroes as much as it needs the ones getting all the publicity. And the real ones don't do it for the recognition, anyway.

[ Matt tips his beer in a vague toast. ]

But as someone who loves New York, thanks for keeping some version of it safe.

[She taps her bottle against his with a little grin.]

I mean, I don't mind the hard work cleaning up the Oldest House, but it restructures itself at random. Gives us access to new rooms, takes away old ones. [She drapes an arm over the back of her chair.] Unfortunately, I learned here that I've got a couple of people here from the same world, and they confirmed the FBC didn't send back-up to a situation they had agents at. So. [She sucks a hiss in through her teeth.] It's not looking good.

You're the boss now, right? Once you get the whole Hiss situation cleaned up, you can clean up the processes of the personnel.

[ Doesn't that sound fun, Jesse? ]

Do you talk to them a lot, the people from your world?

[ Because Matt knows there are some here from his, actual Avengers even, but he doesn't really keep up with them. Maybe he should make an effort or something. ]

Yeah, don't I know it. [She snorts, making a puff of air ring across the mouth of her beer.]

Oh, yeah, sure. Me, Saga and Alan get coffee like, every morning. Writer Alan, not like- the Barbie doll or the teenager.

[ That catches his interest. His head tilts a bit. ]

I know Alan. He's across the hall from me. I'm going to teach him how to throw a punch.

[ He's also Matt's only actual friend here, which is pretty par for the course. Matt's likeable but he doesn't really collect friends. ]

[Huh. Good for him.]

I'm glad he's leaving his attic a bit. Being a hermit's a hard habit to break.

He shuffles over from time to time.

[ Or Matt shuffles over there. They both help each other be moderately more social. ]

I met Saga once, too, in the gym. Hard to forget that name.

[The grin is audible in Jesse's voice.]

Saga's pretty cool, yeah. She's got some pretty cool tricks up her sleeve.

Yeah?

[ It makes Matt chuckle a bit, if not somewhat wryly. ]

Is that common where you're from or are you three the exceptions?

Well, I'm director of an entire actual secret government agency devoted to making sure supernatural bullshit doesn't kill us all. And Alan's been on our radar for years thanks to the shit that happened in Bright Falls.

I don't actually know Saga's deal. [A shrug.] I think maybe she's just too cool to function on the same level of reality.

Considering everything you've told me so far about where you come from, I guess I'm not really surprised there'd be a reasonable number of people with something going on.

[ He gets now why she'd be pretty convinced there's something at least moderately not-normal about him. She's right. The barge doesn't really seem to deal in Average Joes. ]

It seems like where I'm from, new heroes are popping up every day, too. We've got a guy in Harlem who's bullet proof.

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