Office #2 at the school, Thursday mid-morning.

[biotic_psychotic]

[CW/TW: Jono's thread goes some dark places. Torture/etc.]

Jack had decided on office hours so once she hit the coffee shop for the largest to-go cup they had she went and camped out in her spartan school office. After about twenty minutes she became bored and out of coffee. Examining the lock on her door, she pulled a multi-tool from her pocket and began disassembling it. Once it was off the door she took pictures of the whole rig and reassembled it. It was tossed carelessly into the bottom desk drawer.

The door was propped open with the wastecan. From another pocket came a tennis ball. Leaning back in her desk chair, she began doing a slow bounce with it from floor to wall and back to her hand.

The teacher is in.

[Open office hours!]

Comments

[biotic_psychotic]

"Yeah, but have you met an adult one?" Jack challenged, "Most of the ones you meet around the galaxy are in the Maiden stage and that's totally different from when they hit the fucking 'Mysterious Matron Who Knows All But Won't Share The Secrets' stage and think they know better about every-fucking-thing than everyone else. It's a goddamn racial trait."

It was annoying.

She gave him another up and down and then she snickered. "If you thought it was just the blue, you're dead fucking wrong. New genome. I'm surprised you didn't get swarmed."

[furnaceface]

//Then I suppose I haven't met one in that stage, no,// Jono replied, reaching a hand up to scrub the back of his neck. //Though, yes, I did get the impression that there was something of an interest in the... novelty of it all.//

Hooboy.

[biotic_psychotic]

She laughed at him a little, "Yeah. Hope it was just physical fun. If you did the mind-melding thing where their eyes go all fucking black? I got bad news for you."

[furnaceface]

//Physical fun,// Jono replied quickly, blinking. //But all things considered, I can guess at what that news might have been.//

Nooooo thank you.

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack bobbed her head. "Good. I mean, they ask. They don't just.. y'know.. thieve it. Not sure the physics of how it works but babies require the mind-meld thing, so you're fine."

Probably fine. Unless the Asari had been lying to everyone and that wasn't something she'd entirely discount considering the beacon on Thessia fuckery.

[furnaceface]

//Good,// Jono replied, shaking his head a little. //God knows the last thing the multiverse needs is some little genetic offshoot of this mess.//

Or the mess he'd been before, even moreso. He had some vague idea that the Asari mapped those genomes to create new Asari, but he had no idea how factoring in Apocalypse's blood would complicate matters. After all, no small part of what he did was re-map genetic material to fit his imprint, too.

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack lifted a shoulder, "Not sure how it works. They'd want it though. The genome. They can somehow pick and choose the traits they want. The only kind of bad birth they ever get, or that we ever heard they ever get, are the Ardat-Yakshi and those ever only happen when both parents are Asari."

[furnaceface]

//So there's really something to be said for a broader genetic sample,// Jono mused, nodding a little. //Well, hell. Good to know.//

Not that he was running off to make little Asari children any time soon. Still, given this island's tendency to pull people from that galaxy, too? Understanding more about them didn't hurt. He'd known Liara, after all. Somewhat. As a peer, in one instance when the island had gone to hell courtesy of Umbridge, and then awkwardly as a student when he'd gone back to being a teacher, after. There was no small amount of respect, there.

[biotic_psychotic]

"Yeah," Jack acknowledged, "Considering they're just clones otherwise. I like 'em in the Maiden stage. Once they age up, though, fuck 'em. Can't stand that damn attitude. Liara's bad enough."

Liara was fine. She was just a little stiff was all and needed a good shake to loosen her up. Jack had far too much fucking fun providing the shaking.

[furnaceface]

Jono couldn't help but look amused.

//Little serious for you?//

[biotic_psychotic]

"Are you fuckin' kidding me?" Jack laughed, "Holy shit yes. Her idea of raging fun is watching a TV show and skipping the commercials."

Not really.

"She's boring as hell."

Also not really.

[furnaceface]

Yeah, Jono wasn't completely buying that one, either.

//Mmm, but at least she's got a level head about things,// he offered. //... Possibly the most level head I've ever seen.//

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack blinked at him, "Wait.. when the fuck did you meet Liara?!"

.. Oh. Right.

"You mean the kid here. That's not Liara. I mean sure, it's probably a version of her but that one ain't been through what Liara's been through. You think she'd learn some fucking fun by now but no."

[furnaceface]

//People go through some interesting things here, as well,// Jono offered, hiking up a shoulder. //Met this one on the wrong side of the bars in a dungeon that never existed. Was a hell of a thing, watching her tear the place apart when we found our opening to get out.//

[biotic_psychotic]

"That.. sounds more like my Liara," Jack smirked, "but that's what she's like now. She didn't get interesting until she came onboard the fucking Normandy from what I hear so this's gotta be a different one."

She frowned at the hallway. "Funny I haven't bumped into her yet. Met Peebee."

[furnaceface]

Jono tilted his head a little, considering. How long ago had Liara been here? He'd still been... blue... at the time. But however long that was kind of chewed at his head when he tried to pick it apart.

Time was a messy thing for somebody who remembered entire extra lifetimes.

//I haven't seen her in a while,// he settled on, instead. //Peebee seems like good people, though. I've got her in my class this semester.//

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack scrubbed a hand over her scalp. "I should probably avoid her anyway," she admitted, "It'd just be a matter of time before I said some fucking thing I shouldn't cuz I forgot she's not my damn Liara."

A soft chuckle. "Peebee is hell on wheels and I wouldn't have her any other fuckin' way. She's a baby Asari for all she's probably in her sixties."

[furnaceface]

//Always a little surprising when I remember just how long they live relative to us,// Jono admitted, after a pause. //I do know she tends to throw herself into any new experience with a gusto. It's interesting seeing what manner of trouble she tries to get herself into every week.//

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack smirked, "Maiden-stage Asari. This is completely fucking normal for her for the next century at least. It's why Liara's sort of a damn weirdo. It's like she skipped this stage."

She loved Liara all the same and anyone else who called her weird would be spitting teeth.

[furnaceface]

//Takes all sorts,// Jono decided with a shrug. //I mean, hell, I've done 'insufferable teenager' three times. In my own head, anyway.//

[biotic_psychotic]

"I was a joy and a delight as a teenager," Jack deadpanned.

She'd been killing her way out of a slave pen as a teenager.

[furnaceface]

//Teenage years are overrated anyway.//

He'd been wearing red and yellow spandex.

Really, he'd just like to write the nineties off entirely.

[biotic_psychotic]

"So I'm fucking told," Jack agreed. She didn't really know anyone who'd had a great time then. Wrex, maybe, but he didn't really talk about shit a thousand years in the past.

"Guess that's one reason I teach the little shits. Make sure their teenage years don't go the way mine did."

[furnaceface]

//Make sure they're a little more equipped for their adult years while we're at it,// Jono agreed with a nod. //Hell, make sure they make it that far.//

[biotic_psychotic]

"That's the goal for the little shits back home," Jack agreed. "Here I got less control. They're gonna go back through a fuckin' portal at some point and not come back. While they're here?"

She smiled. It was bright and glittery and showed an awful lot of teeth. "Anyone comes for my kids, they better fuckin' hope there's a god and even then? My fucking money's on me."