Afterimage [Closed to Scott Lang]

[vision-ya.livejournal.com]

{OOC: Set right after this conversation.}

Jonas arrived in the Media Library first, from the looks of things. He had learned that Stacy did not particularly appreciate him doing too much scanning; and if Scott Lang had decided, for some reason, to shrink down and hide when he had been the one who wanted to talk...

Jonas shook his head to dismiss that particular train of thought. It was both stupid and unproductive. He moved to the nearest stall, again ignoring the broken one, and leaned against the wall next to it to wait.

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[sum1yourownsize.livejournal.com]

Scott arrived five minutes later, carrying his helmet under one arm. He went past a few stalls before he found Jonas. Standing there. It almost seemed like the young man was brooding.

Scott cleared his throat. "Hello, Jonas?"

[vision-ya.livejournal.com]

"[Hello Mr. Lang,]" Jonas said, standing up straighter. It was still hard to look the man in the face. "[This stall is empty,]" he added helpfully, completely failing to find a topic of small talk to carry them through to the actual meat of this conversation. This was definitely going to be awkward.

[sum1yourownsize.livejournal.com]

Scott looked to the stall, then to Jonas, and nodded, entering. "Do I need to ask whether or not you held romantic intentions toward my daughter, Jonas?"

[vision-ya.livejournal.com]

Jonas swallowed the urge to say something smart in response about how everyone else had always seemed to think his feelings for Cassie were almost baldly obvious.

"[If I lived ten-thousand years and and fell in love a hundred times, you could add it all together and it still would not equal the feelings I had for your daughter,]" he answered instead.

[sum1yourownsize.livejournal.com]

"I'll take that as a 'yes'." Scott arched a brow at Jonas. "I apologize if I'm making you feel uncomfortable. I just want to know if I've come to the right person for information about who my daughter became. If you really did love her, I think it's safe to say I can trust you with my questions."

[vision-ya.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it had sounded a trifle melodramatic, but Jonas felt rather entitled to melodrama on the subject.

"[Indeed sir,]" he said. This talk did promise to be uncomfortable, but Cassie would have been heartbroken if Jonas had refused her father the information -- and it was not as if Jonas was not thinking about Cassie all the time anyway. "[Where would you like to start?]"

[sum1yourownsize.livejournal.com]

Scott thought for a moment. "Let's start with whether or not her cooking talents improved. That was important. I remember that clearly..." His daughter had thought of herself as a little chef, preparing meals whenever she could...even some of the most strangest dishes. He swore once that she had a stomach made of scrap iron.

[vision-ya.livejournal.com]

That actually made Jonas crack a smile.

"[Not as such, no,]" he said. "[A teammate of ours liked her cooking, but most of the team figured it was because he is half-Skrull.]"

[sum1yourownsize.livejournal.com]

"Half-Skrull? So then she followed after her old man and made some interesting friends." He had to smile. "I used to just smile and bear with it on whatever she cooked. Because, why not? Even though it often hurt my stomach, it made her happy. And...she was slowly starting to get better once she got her hands on cook books. ...or was that more creative?"

He chuckled. "In any case, she was inventive."

[vision-ya.livejournal.com]

Yes, very interesting friends. Like, oh, a teenage Kang the Conqueror. And the children of a mysterious cabal of west coast super-villains.

"[She was,]" Jonas agreed. "[You are aware that she was pilfering Pym Particles from you, correct?]"

[sum1yourownsize.livejournal.com]

Scott gripped his knees at the shock. "No." His voice was cold. "No, I was not aware of that."

[vision-ya.livejournal.com]

"[She did not believe that you had been,]" Jonas said with a nod. "[She never said precisely how long she had been doing so, but I assume it was a significant amount of time. I met her for the first time the same day that she finally managed to activate their shrinking and growing capabilities. She wanted to be an Avenger, like you.]"

Now, how precisely was he supposed to tell this man that he had died before his daughter's fifteenth birthday?

[sum1yourownsize.livejournal.com]

"That doesn't mean that it was right..." Scott reached up to massage his temples with the pads of his fingers. "...there's no point in being mad at her. Not now."

[vision-ya.livejournal.com]

No, there really was not any point in being angry at her now.

"[She went up against some very impressive foes,]" he said. "[You would have been proud of her.]" And terrified for her, of course.

[sum1yourownsize.livejournal.com]

Scott look up, hand to his face. "I would have been--I am proud of her. I may not agree with what she did...but I am proud."

[vision-ya.livejournal.com]

Jonas shifted his weight uncomfortably, glancing away from Mr. Lang's face.

"[She would have been happy to know that,]" he said softly.

[sum1yourownsize.livejournal.com]

Scott sighed. "Did she make a lot of friends? She was always good at making friends. She could walk into a room and befriend anyone."

[vision-ya.livejournal.com]

"[She was well-liked by our teammates,]" Jonas answered. "[She was the youngest of all of us, and everyone thought of her as a younger sister.]" Except him, obviously.

[sum1yourownsize.livejournal.com]

"I suppose that you didn't?" Scott fixed Jonas with an arched brow look.

[vision-ya.livejournal.com]

Jonas matched Mr. Lang's raised eyebrow with one of his own.

"[I rather think that my more-romantic love for her would have made viewing her as a sister "squicky",]" he replied dryly.