2013.10.18 - Catching Up Over Coffee

Mid morning, cool autumn day but with that brilliant golden sunshine that makes autumn almost entirely worth living for, and the promise of a bit of warmth coming later. It's starting to get just a touch less disconcerting. Perhaps just a hint for it not being the first time, but rather the second that there's a flash of black and purple high up in the sky around Hammer Industries office tower. In specific, outside Justin's office. A fly by, quick to ensure she's not unduly disturbing a meeting, or tryst or anything else before Jazmin flies back on by and settles. The teen perches lightly on the ridge holding the glass in place, unconcerned about being dozens of stories in the air. She taptaptaps on the glass, pressing a notebook page up against the glass. 'Coffee?'
Nope, no meetings, no questionable behavior. Just one very preoccupied CEO staring blankly at his computer screen. Everything has gone haywire since the government shutdown, and it's started to cause a lot waves in how the company runs. When the grand majority of your money comes in from the government, and they pull a stunt like this, it starts to sting pretty quick. The numbers aren't looking good, and layoffs are looking imminent. Definitely not a happy prospect, especially during the latter half of the year with the big holidays looming.
Justin runs his fingers through his hair and sighs, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms. This is a puzzle he's not sure how to solve at the moment, and he's been thinking on it long enough his mind is just going in circles. If he lays off workers, then they fall behind schedule. But if they don't, the money's going to get tight, and keeping their deadlines (or close to them) may not even-
The knock on the window causes the man to jump and swivel his chair to look behind him, toward the glass panes. It takes him a second to process what he's seeing, so the startled look hangs on longer than he had anticipated. The teen balanced just outside his office on the 20th floor is recognized and draws out a grin and a shake of the head. Realizing how that may have looked, Justin quickly changes the gesture into a nod, pointing down toward the floor like he did last time. 'Meet you downstairs?'
There's just a pause and a quirk of Jazmin's head as she watches Justin's tension and the startle at her tapping. She smiles as he grins and nods to his suggestion of going downstairs. She tucks her paper away before quite literally diving off his windowsill to hurtle her way towards the ground.
By how she steps into the main lobby, pushing her long sleeves up as she does and pushing her sunglasses up onto her head, clearly she managed to land without faceplanting into the ashphalt.
The super-teen's method of getting to the lobby is a lot swifter than the CEO's, as the elevator doesn't run nearly that fast. Justin lets the appropriate people know that he's taking a break and will be out of the office, and heads downstairs. The tension among the employees in the building seems higher than normal, and many of them sidestep to avoid the CEO in the three-piece suit. Jazmin is easy to spot, and Hammer heads straight for her. "Long time no see, Jazmin," he comments with a smile that's more sincere than his usual. Once he's close enough that he can be less obnoxious, he adds, "I tried to get a hold of you a couple times, your number was disconnected. Everything alright?" His contacts with his superhero connections seem to be thinning out as of late.
"Hey, Honey." Jazmin isn't quite ready to let that in-joke die yet, reaching a hand out to give his arm a squeeze. Her smile turns a little wry at the 'long time'. "I.. mmm. Well that gets complicated. Everything is, currently, alright. It was a little less so for a while, although your lobby might not be the /best/ place to share that story. Coffee? Or brunch? Or a walk if nothing else."
Justin grins at the nickname the teen has given him. Nope, that one's apparently not fading into obscurity any time soon. Of course, an employee within earshot does do a double take. At least the rumor mill at HI will be alive and active for a while longer. The grin fades and he arches a brow at the explanation. "That good, huh? your choice, I'll just happy to get out of the office. It's not often I say that, either." He motions toward the front of the building, and starts walking that way.
"I'm starting to think I didn't return home to the right dimension if you're saying you want to get out of the office, and I haven't threatened or gone to find a crow bar." Jazmin moves towards the door giving Justin a sidelong look. "And the fact that everything in here has a sword of damocles feel to it.. yeah. Let's get coffee." She moves to step out of the building and look to him. "Walk, or are you feeling lazy?"
"Walk," Justin replies without much thought. Yeah, must be a different dimension, as he generally takes a car to save time. Now that they're outside the building, he talks a little more freely. There aren't as many people milling about outside, and it's practically deserted up to the security gate at the edge of the property. "With the recent government shutdown, things are a little strained. There's a chance of layoffs, even if this gets resolved immediately. So I think folks are a little more preoccupied than usual." Despite what people think, he does care at least a little for those under his employ. He grew up middle class, and he knows that without good workers his business would fail.
"It makes a lot of sense that folks find that ominous." Jazmin agrees as they walk, taking a deep breath of the fresh air in the less crowded and likely to be watched area. "I've been a government worker my entire tenure as a worker.. such as currently, really. Our team is paid, indirectly, by the government." She takes a deep breath as they walk, the journey as, or more, important than the coffee at their destination. "As for me.. I got trapped being shuttled from time to time, ending up mostly in relatively recent US history. Which, as a note, sucked immensely. Your country were sproking /psychos/."
Justin nods as he listens. It's only out of shear luck that most heroes seem to do what they do out of the goodness of their hearts, otherwise things may have fallen completely to bits during the shutdown. If the supers and metas were all working just for the paychecks, then it's certain there would have been at least one major villain takeover within the last month. He blinks at the teen's story. "More time travel? Dang, you really have been out of touch. Though, I must say, seeing history first hand must have been at least interesting." Hammer is one of the first people who would stand up and be patriotic, but he knows that history wasn't all rainbows and cotton candy. Still, seeing some of it first hand would definitely be an impressive perspective.
"Let's just say that the late 1930's does not mix stupendously well with indpendant and outspoken young black women." Jazmin points out with a rueful little glance to Justin. "So.. interesting is one word for it. Stunningly irritating, also a good word for it. Just as full of sleaze buckets as now.. yep. We did a bit of bouncing around, that's just flat out disorienting, when you're not sure when or where or how long you're going to be somewhere, but eventually we found our way back here at least." She steps nearer to give him a bump with her hip, playful in spite of the topic of conversation, and adding to the potential rumour mill. "So other than you having to fufill your duties as an evil heartless mega-corp, and other than being caught out of time. How's life?"
Justin grimaces slightly. He hadn't thought of that, but she's got a point. There are a lot of pieces of history where being a woman, and being black, wouldn't go over well. Add to that not knowing where you're going to end up, and that must have been pretty miserable. "Well, I for one, am glad you're done doing the Quantum Leap thing," he says just before being lightly hip checked. There's only two people who could get away with a move like that, and get a grin as a reaction. "Eh, like the song says, life is life. It's pretty much all been work the last couple months. I did finally hire a PA, which has helped a lot. You remember Fern, right? Finally managed to convince her to come work for me. Only bugged her about it for months."
"Quantum Leap?" Jazmin gives a little shake of her head, clearly not getting the reference. She ooohs at the mention of Fern, her expression lighting up. "Duh, of course I remember Fern. She's your PA? /Awesome/. Good for both of you. Is it working out? Well.. I'll totally have to ask her for the scoop from her perspective, but for you? She's such a sweetie."
Hammer chuckles, putting his hands in his pants pockets as they pass the security gate. The guard makes note that he's left, but otherwise says nothing to the pair. "Quantum Leap was an old TV show about a guy who kept getting zapped back in time, into the bodies of other people to solve problems. You would probably find the entire concept comical." He smiles lightly. "I think it is. She's darn good at the job, and she hasn't thrown me through the window of my office yet." And she's also naive of his shadier business dealings. Hopefully he's better at keeping those under wraps than he was about controlling his temper.
"I should totally look that up on Netflix." Jazmin laughs softly and shakes her head. "Zapped into other people's bodies.. I've never done /that/." She drops her sunglasses down now that they are out of the shade of the buildings, walking vaguely coffeeshop wards. "I dunno, that window's pretty solid, it doesnt feel like it's rattling when I bang on it to get your attention. You'd probably just bounce." She mmms softly, speculating on Fern tossing Justin around. "Still.. good for both of you. It's got to be less exhausting than working as a waitress."
"Depends on who you ask," Justin replies to the comment about waitressing versus being his PA. He's generally not the most laid-back individual to work for. "So, the whole time-travel thing, was that something you guys had to do, or did someone just throw you one heck of a temporal curve ball?" The CEO glances around as they walk, slightly on edge but no worse than usual. He doesn't have a security detail with him, so his paranoia is peaking.
Just a superheroine calmly walking alongside him, keeping an eye on their surroudings. Jazmin pffts softly. "You're wickedly type A, but I've seen some pretty crackpot customers who have lost their /minds/." She gives a little shake of her head. "We thought, originally, that it was a helluva temporal curve ball. I mean.. how stable me being /now/ is.. we've no real idea. Seems pretty stable, but .. we're still not quite sure how we all /got/ here." She gives a little shrug. "Eventually, however, there ended up being three of us who were getting bounced around, at an old nemesis showed himself to one of us.. which makes it feel a whole crapton less random."
Justin arches a brow. "Old nemesis, huh? That's never a good thing. You think he had anything to do will your team being here now?" If someone out there has control of time travel, that's a pretty damn scary thought. There's little to no defense against an enemy that can see the past and future. He draws to a stop at an intersection, waiting for the light to change to cross over to the strip mall that has the coffee shop in it. Traffic is fairly light today, but jaywalking is still a bad idea.
"Well." Jazmin hmms softly as they pause to wait for the light. She glances at the traffic and then up at the stoplight and absently gathers up a handful of energy as she waits for the car to pass. She tosses it absently over, speeding up the traffic light enough to make their wait negligable, and not utterly mess with traffic. "It's the same guy I was fighting when I ended up here. Soo.. yeah. Never a good thing." Her voice is light, dismissive really at quite how disconcerting she found it.
"No, that's never a good thing," Justin responds as he watches the teen do /something/. He can't see exactly what it was, but the result is pretty obvious. "Hey, that's a pretty neat trick," he says with a smirk. "That would really make getting across town for meetings a lot faster." He starts across the street when the single changes, never taking his hands out of his pockets. It's a terrible, sloppy habit that his mother yelled at him for half his life, but it didn't do any good. "So, you think this nemesis is going to try and start stuff here? In this time, I mean?"
"They dont actually let you be a real superhero without having /some/ powers y'know." Jazmin quips at him with a smirk. "I skip traffic by flying, that's serious win for getting across town." She walks with him across the street, letting the lights settle back to their normal schedule again without her attention upon them. "I expect so. I expect he did, which is how we got tangled up, or started stuff then, and it affected now, which coincidentally affected here. Then again, I'm pretty sure wearing spandex also comes with a ginormous 'please kidnap me' sign taped to our backs."
Justin can't help but chuckle at the humor that Jazmin throws into the conversation. If he were in her shoes, he most certainly wouldn't be able to pepper the situation with any sort of good humor. "That's just gotta get confusing," he confesses as he tries to process 'starting somthing there which affected here, etc.' "So, I'm curious, how /do/ you fly? I mean, I know about the time thing, I'll freely admit to having done some research after running into you and the others during the Wall Street attack, but I don't see how that ties into being able to fly."
"You have no /idea/ how confusing." Jazmin acknowledges as she hops up onto the curb outside the strip mall. "People eternally forget to ask after the when of things." She walks backwards a few steps, facing Justin as they stroll. "How I fly? Oh what.. now I have to give away /all/ my secrets?" She grins, pushing her sunglasses up on her head. "I don't natively fly, although it wouldnt be unheard of to mix and match like that. IT's just not how my mutant self evolved. I use toys."
Hammer stops when Jazmin does, watching her. "No, no, I was just curious..." He catches on to the joking manner of the statement, then grins. The mention of the use of tech, though, REALLY gets his attention and it's pretty evident. "I suppose it would break the prime directive for you to let me take a look at tech like that?" he asks. His tone is an attempt at joking, but he definitely won't turn down an opportunity to look at working, future technology. Even if he can't replicate it, the theories could be priceless.
"Yeah, kinda breaks the prime directive.. and honestly, there's nothing to look at /really/. It just does." Jazmin continues walking, far slower, as she continues to face him. "The whole 'no user servicable parts' sort of deal, and I'm just paranoid enough about gear failure.. for stunningly good reason.. not to let you or your engineers try and break it. I have no desire to have it short out while I'm flying up to tap at your window."
Justin holds up his hands in a gesture of defeat. "OK, OK. But you have to admit, it was worth a shot." He walks along, matching Jazmin's slower pace as she walks backwards. "And you're right, best not mess with something that works. A failure at altitude would be pretty harsh. But if you ever change your mind, you know where to find me." He grins slyly as they approach the coffee shop. He reaches for the door, actually acting like a polite gentleman and attempting to get the door for the young woman.
"Yeah.. my brother determined that the hard way." Jazmin explains briefly as she turns around to let him get the door, before heading into the coffee shop. "I may, just possibly, know where to find you. At least at work, which is where you practically live /anyhow/. And I will deny any accusations that I'm no better."
Justin follows Jazmin into the coffee shop, pausing at the door to let his glasses adjust back to the dimmer light. Walking in the shade of the awning helped, but they're still darker than needed. Unlike Jazmin's sunglasses, he can't just take his off. Well, he could, but seeing everything in a blur would lead to a quick headache. "Your brother had a bad fall? That's not good..." He chuckles lightly at the work comment. "I get back to the townhouse once a month or so, just to remember if I have carpet or hardwood floors."
"Yeah.. his tech failed at the wrong moment, and he was killed." Jazmin answers simply enough as she heads up to the counter to put in an order. "See? I don't know if having to go somewhere else or not is a feature. I can shuffle from my suite to the tactical centre in fuzzy slippers in the middle of ht enight."
That causes the CEO to blink and stutter a bit. "Oh, I, um, sorry to hear that," he says. He makes a note to not bring up reverse engineering any of Jazmin's tech again. The last thing he wants to do is damage a positive relationship with one of the hero types. That would make for bad publicity. He rolls with the change of subject easily enough, dropping the other thread. "Oh, I have a home office set up too. I can work from home if I choose, but most of the time it's impractical. And sets a bad example." Not that his employees wouldn't prefer that he work from home a bit more often. Justin approaches the counter, but stays back far enough to indicate to Jazmin that she can order first.
"It's been a long time, or will be a long time.. it's alright. But it does make me a touch more paranoid about my tech." Jazmin adds into the more complicated conversaton and then smirks a little. "Latte, please." That comment is directed at the clerk rather than Justin, but she turns back to him in a moment. "Technically.. I can probably reroute the monitors to my suite, but its easier to just wander down the hall. And doesn't traumatize my fish."
When the barista turns her attention toward Justin, he orders a salted caramel mocha for himself. Venti, of course. He pays for both of the drinks if Jazmin will allow it. After the transactions are complete, he looks to his coffee companion. "I can respect that," he replies, honest about it. "Traumatize your fish? You got an aquarium?" There, this should be a nice light conversation that can't get him in trouble. Hopefully.
"I have a goldfish in a bowl." Jazmin laughs and does let him pay for her equally bucket sized coffee. "I almost got a cat, and then started thinking about a kitten, roaming HQ, and the freaky people I live with.. and decided something that was a little contained seemed really sane. Besides, it was a little less likely to whine about me not being home." She leans her hip against the counter thoughtfully. "Crappy at snuggling on the couch though."
Justin moves down to the end of the counter with Jazmin to wait on the drinks. Again, his hands go into his pockets. It does make him sort of sloppy. "Yeah, a cat may have been a bit much. Plus, fish are easier to take care of. At least one in a bowl would be, I suppose. I would guess that an aquarium would be more work." Hammer knows very little about pets or taking care of animals. It's been many, many years since his family had a dog when he was growing up, and he didn't have much to do with the animal even then.
"So far at least, the bowl is pretty low key." Jazmin confirms with a little laugh. "I might surrender and inflict a kitten on them all. Might be totally worth it just for Rokk's face when he gets pounced." She reahces for both cups as they get set on the counter, offering him his. "I never had any pets as a kid, it wasn't part of our culture, and it's not like I lived at home all that long."
Justin takes his cup from the heroine with a nod. "We had a dog, but that was many years ago," he says as he looks for a table to sit at. "Haven't had the time to put into having any animals since then." He heads for an open table near the windows, sitting down. He fails at gentleman at this point, sitting before Jazmin does. Guess the good manners only go so far. "So no pets in the future? Did a PETA member get elected president or something?"
"I'm not from Earth." Jazmin points out wiht a laugh. "So I've no /clue/ what Earth culture is like. I'm an alien /and/ a mutant. I'm telling you, I just need to be disabled and gay and I hit all the affirmative action check boxes." She slides into the seat across from him, not even noticing the lack of gentlemanly manners.
"If I hired you, you'd make HR cheer and cry, all at the same time," Justin says as he samples his coffee. It's still very hot, so he's careful with it. "So, you said that humans colonized, right? I think you told me which planet you were from but I can't recall. Wasn't it a moon of Saturn?" He's been busy as hell, and committing personal information about people to memory has been low on the priority list.
"Xanadu. No.. we're further than that." Jazmin gestures easily, unconcerned about the details on how, and where, exactly, her home is in relation to Earth. "Although exactly where.. well.. I'm not a pilot. I've no clue. I let someone else drive." She doesn't seem concerned that he doesn't remember, accepting it easily. "That's what we're taught in school, that we were a colony planet way back in the day. Which translates to way far head in this day."
Justin nods as he listens. The idea that they were taught they were a colony actually causes him to chuckle. It's like being taught that the U.S. was previously a colony, then independent. It's the same thing, just... Home base was a lot farther away. Strange parallel. "That's what we're taught too- since the United States used to be an English colony. Did your world go through a revolutionary war as well? Or was the break up a lot less like a messy divorce?"
"We.. no.. no war. Not like the US.. not like here. It was more of like a kid leaving home than a messy divorce... kinda 'okay, you're self sufficent now, we're good without expending a crap ton of energy on you. Shoo.'" Jazmin grins. "Not that /my/ mother is good at the whole 'shoo' thing, but she's a mother." She takes a sip from her coffee and wafts at her tongue. "Damn.. hot!"
Justin winces as Jazmin apparently burns herself. Ouch. "Well, it's good to know that things seem to have matured in that department. Colonies always break off eventually. Sort of a fact a life, you can't have your ruling party that far away. Never works." He takes another drink of coffee, being double-careful this time.
Jazmin waggles her tongue, the most common casualty to burning and then tucks herself into her seat. "Yeah.. only takes like a few centuries." She teases with a grin. "They do.. I mean.. light years away. It's just nto practical on any level. Some colonies assume that they'll need to be self sufficient right off the top.. which I can't imagine that works super well."
"I think the running theory for space colonization that is on the table right now is self-sufficiency," Justin offers with a slight wave of his coffee-bearing hand. "Since, at least right now, space travel is costly and time consuming, so we're trying to engineer ways for a colony to be completely self-sustaining. Or at least self-sustaining for a long period of time. Even the International Space Station only needs occasional replenishment."
"Which.. Y'know, I kinda wish I knew anything about how to get from this to my experience, but it's so different, it feels as if I'm not only from the future." Jazmin muses and shakes her head a little. "Sadly, I suppose, I'm like.. totally a consumer. Was.. am still. Not a researcher, not an engineer. Not a Brainy type. Just a superhero."
Justin leans back in his chair. "That's still a lot, though, am I right?" He holds up his cup as if to toast. "I mean, you're out there saving lives. That's a lot more than a lot of people. So I can totally forgive you for not being one of us engineer types." He may be smart and have an engineering degree, but in reality Hammer's really not much of an engineer. Far more a businessman. "Were you a hero back home too, or just here?"
"At the moment, I'm more management than actively out there saving lives." Jazmin points out with a wrinkle of her nose. "The joys of leadership, I suppose. You can probably empathize.. you aren't in the lab.. or at the computer.. what /do/ engineers do? Other than think of smart things? Anyhow.. I'm sticking with lab. Or in your case, being damn charming." She swirls her coffee, trying to get it to cool more quickly. "I was a hero back home as well. This is, scarily enough, all I've ever done. It was with a different team at home, of course. Well initially. I took over my brother's place, and name, after he died."
"Ah, the joys of being in charge," Hammer says with a smirk. "You're right on that one, I can sympathize. I don't get to do a lot of the active development work any more. I have to hire people for that. Administration takes too much time." The comment about being charming gets a chuckle and dip of his head. At least someone thinks he's not just an obnoxious ass. "Most of my engineers are in labs, yeah. They take the ideas, then make them actually work. My engineers are the backbone of my company." His expression sobers a bit at another mention of Jazmin's brother. "Hell of a way to get a job. That had to have been rough."
"Yeah. I .. basically joined the Legion out of spite and to be a complete pain in their ass because I blamed them for killing my brother." Jazmin explains with a shrug. "Annnd.. now I'm the leader of the Legion. Which the irony of it is not at all lost upon me." She pauses, considering her coffee. "Annnd.. I should go back to talking about my fish, cause I'm turning this into a /serious/ downer conversation, and that wasn't my intent."
Justin sets his coffee cup down. His expression is somewhere between admiration and concern at the story. He had a feeling that Jazmin was the sort to stir the pot, and he was right. He shrugs lightly at the comment about it being a downer conversation. "It's half my fault," he says, "I mean, I'm the one who keeps asking questions. So, fish... Did you name the goldfish? I've always heard that's bad to do, because as soon as you name them..." He trails off. Great way to get away from a downer conversation. Good job, Justin.
"I eventually learned that James screwed himself over, against orders, massively." Jazmin adds after a moment. "He got cocky, and it bit him in the ass. Took a long time to get /that/ notion through my head. Big brothers aren't supposed to be dumbasses." She laughs at his comment. "Soon as you name 'em, they die? Yeah.. I've heard that. And I'm going to sound like the /worst/ fish owner ever. I totally named him, implied that he was a boyfriend staying in my suite to taunt Rokk.. and I can't /remember/ what I named him!"
That story draws a wide-eyed look from the CEO. "Seriously?" he asks, "That's a hell of a prank... As long as you didn't name him Justin we're good." The whole conversation over lunch a while back hasn't been forgotten, that's for sure. He takes up his cup again and takes a drink.
Jazmin grins and shakes her head. "No.. I didn't name it Justin. I'm pretty sure about that. I didn't name it /after/ anyone.. oh well. Now its just fish, really. It's hard to take naming a creature that won't remember its name for longer than a minute all that seriously."
That gets a chuckle. "Yeah, you could name it a different thing every day, and chances are it would never even know it had a name to begin with." Justin glances out the window at the parking lot beyond. "So how long have you had said fish? And how long did your teammate think you had a guy squirreled away in your quarters?"
"Like.. about an hour for how long Rokk bought it." Jazmin admits with a rueful look at her ruse not being all /that/ effective. "Clearly he knows me better than that. I got the fish.. mmm.. shortly before the election. So three or four months now? About that. I might get a cat to celebrate not being on the ballot next time. Ideally." 
Justin grins. "So how long are you stuck as team lead before elections again? At least you won't get conned into a second term, it sounds like." He would never admit it, but there's no way that Hammer would ever relinquish control of his company, no matter how frustrating it seems at time. He's way too much of a control freak, plus his company is his pride and joy.
"Six month terms." Jazmin takes a drink of her now cooled enough coffee. "I.. it's /better/ if there's more perspectives than just mine. And Rokk's. I mean.. it's good for the team. Right? Yeah. So, yeah. I've a couple months left." Someone may be fighting her own control freak issues on relinquishing it.
Category:Log