It's been a while

[spongetastic]

Yeah. I guess this was inevitable, wasn't it?

Comments

[absorbings]

What was inevitable?

[spongetastic]

Wanting to do things with all of us. It's what happens when they rewatch shows.

[prezstandsalone]

[Nathan beams]

Pete....god it's good to see you.

[spongetastic]

[suspicious squint. He doesn't trust this]

Nathan?

[prezstandsalone]

[Nathan nods]

I'm not him Peter...I promise. My mind is mine.

[spongetastic]

Right. Yeah, different times and alternate worlds and everything. I get it.

[prezstandsalone]

Not that different. I just didn't die. My mum sent me into a game before Sylar could kill me.

[spongetastic]

Mine usually likes me after all that happens.

[prezstandsalone]

Yeah that's muns for you. Love their dramas.

[spongetastic]

[he smiles and shrugs] Yeah, well, I'm just used to it at this point.

[prezstandsalone]

So am I thought I've been asleep on and off.

[grayatonement]

I didn't expect to see you again, not here.

[spongetastic]

We're always going to run into each other eventually.

[grayatonement]

You say it like it's inevitable, like you never plan to die.

Well, permanently.

[spongetastic]

I'm going to live about as long as you.

[grayatonement]

And the cheerleader. We make an interesting group, forever intertwined, likely to live forever if not killed before then.

[spongetastic]

You know, you could call her Claire.

[burn_bright]

Fate's a bitch, isn't it?

[spongetastic]

Yeah. [Ted would know] I guess it's good that alternate realities are a thing here, huh?

[burn_bright]

And that these weirdos like to hang onto people like us for as long as they have. [He cracks a small smile.]

It's been a long time, Peter. Feels weird to say it, but it's good to see a familiar face.

[spongetastic]

Must be our charming personalities that keeps them coming back.

[he smiles a little] I'm glad to see you too, Ted.

[burn_bright]

Heh, yeah right. [Peter's not wrong, but considering that Ted was like the super-powered version of the Una-Bomber...]

I mean I'm still...me, but...but it was them that made it all go so wrong. I guess if I got a chance, I'd wanna just go back to being that guy that sold hospital equipment on road trips.

[Because really, before Primatech Ted had been just an ordinary guy. Now he emitted radiation from his hands, and was on basically every terrorist watchlist that existed.]

Or at least someone who didn't kill everything he touched.

[spongetastic]

We might've ended up meeting under completely different circumstances.

[burn_bright]

That's right, you're...what, some kind of nurse or something, right? I'd bet I've sold a dialysis machine or two to places you've worked.

[Ted shakes his head, admiring the irony.]

It's funny to think about, you know? What we were before.

[He shakes his head.]

So what's your mun got planned? Mine's been out of things for a long time, keeps thinking about sending someone somewhere, but he's never sure who or where. After a while they all start to look the same, y'know?

[spongetastic]

I'm an EMT now and.... yeah, you probably did. [he honestly never thought about it.

Nor has he thought much about who he was "before". In Peter's case, it's hard to imagine there ever was a "before". Being am empath was always a part of him; he just didn't know what all that meant at first]

I've been around a couple different places over the years. It's hard for a guy like me to settle, you know? Even when I was building a life, I was always ready to run into danger.

[burn_bright]

It's kind of funny. You remember that tracking bullshit that Primatech injected us with? Hana had me track down the manufacturer using my old shipping contacts. I found 'em because I'd made deliveries to those facilities probably a hundred times.

[He'd never imagined any part of his old life intersecting with who he was now, but when Hana Gitelman came into his life, it all changed.]

Yeah, I get it. Mine's never actually put me anywhere. Says I'm too...unstable. I mean he's right, what with the whole "walking nuclear bomb" thing, and then most of those places take away powers, which I'd never wanna change. [He laughs.]

[spongetastic]

That had to be a kick in the teeth. [or other body parts]

Funny. I've been called unstable, too. Which I guess is pretty fair. [he smiles] I lost my powers for a while. It felt wrong, like I lost a part of myself.

[burn_bright]

Oh, you don't know the half of it. I made 'em regret it.

[He hadn't killed anyone as far as he knew, but he hadn't gone out of his way to save anyone after he torched the building though, either.]

Price we pay for being able to level a building in our sleep, right? [He chuckles, but it's a bitter laugh. There's still too much anger about how his powers had ruined his life.]

I guess for you hero-types it's different. I worked so hard at trying to keep it locked up that the idea of just losing it like that sounds like a vacation.

[spongetastic]

You may be right about that. Sylar said the same thing when he couldn't access his powers.

[burn_bright]

[That makes Ted laugh. He didn't know much about Sylar beyond his reputation, and "knowing" that it was Sylar who screwed him over at the end, tipping off the FBI, and ripping his head open for his powers. The idea of someone like that suddenly losing it all gives him a sense of schadenfreude. It's also a little ironic that he could lump himself in with someone like that.]

It's like any kind of power I guess. Too much corrupts us. It's like walking around with the whole damn world on your shoulders.

[spongetastic]

[Peter lumps himself in with Sylar sometimes, too. It's a common malady]

You have a point. But it's hard to know if it's the power or the person sometimes, you know? Even I've been corrupted.

[breakablegirl]

Yeah.. [She half-winces, half smirks.]

Really thought it was over for real this time. And yet. [A short puff of an exhale. Then she's more relaxed. A little wistful.]

Hey, you.

[spongetastic]

Hey.

[he smiles] Good to see you.