Conversations with Jenn [a series of posts]

[HDub]

He'd spent the night at the apartment. Elijah was now actually content to maintain two residences, especially since both sets of people were not aware of each other and this was not at all an entirely awkward conversation. It wasn't something that was quiet, lurking animosity. It was... well, it just was what it was. It was the beginning of something, the beginning of something that had changged, something he'd hoped would change, something he was desperate to see move and push the boundaries and not stay stuck and calcified. It had to move, things had to be more.

[Jenn said she has a surprise for me in the morning, so I'm spending the night. TTYL!]

So, there they were, sitting on the floor of the apartment where the coffee table used to be because Elijah, in one of his more interesting demonstrations of the fabric of reality, explained in painstaking detail to Jenn where they would need to apply minimal pressure to break the coffee table (and they could get a new one at an IKEA or at a yard sale or an estate sale because he really wanted to go to an estate sale and maybe they could bring Kalen, or at least invite him because he likes these kinds of things and has surprisingly good taste in furniture and is generally awesome and oh my god Elijah if you don't stop talking about your mentor like you're in absolute lust with him I swear- Anyway, lust wasn't the point- decay was. And thus they had no coffee table and were forced to eat Chinese takeout on the floor because heavens forbid they actually use the dining room table- that's for piling books on top of.

"So what do you think about perfection?" Elijah asked, awkwardly holding a pair of chopsticks. Jenn Laurent was having none of it, but was content to let him struggle because he'd been struggling with chopticks for years and was too stubborn to just use a fork.
"Perfection," she repeated.
"Yeah, perfection."
"It's a nice thing to reach for, but..." she fudgetted, picking up a container of hot and sour soup and inspecting it.
"Buuuuuut?"
"But it's not possible."
"It's not?"
"Nope."
"Huh," he said with a harumph. Noodles in the mouth. Bite, chew, swallow.
"I know, you're gonna say anything is possible but everything changes so in order for anything to be perfect it has to exist in a vaccuum."
"What do vaccuums have to do with anything?" he asked with a laugh.
"Gah, how did Alicia ever talk to you, you get, like, no science," Jenn replied with mock indignation, "nothing can act upon it. Everything has to stay the same, but the whole world is constantly changing."
"And in order to be perfect, legitimately perfect, you need to be omnipotent and omnipresent and that stuff."
"Yeah, and then you end up with this weird paradox, like- if something is perfect and things change and it's no longer perfect, was it ever perfect?"
"That's a big one," Elijah replied, offering the box of noodles to Jenn, who shook her head and got back to drinking soup. "I don't think true perfection is actually attainable outside of being a legitimate god-figure. At least not in this plane of existence. It's worth seeking, though."
"Oh, totally," she said as she finished off the soup. Unashamed. Entirely. "It's cool to have, like, an ideal self to aspire towards but thinking you've actually attained it is super full of yourself."
"Really?"
"Yeah, like, think about it like this-"
"You say like a lot," Elijah said. Jenn laughed and gave him a shove.
"Shut up! I'm on a roll!"
"Okay, shutting up, continue with your roll dahlink."
"Thinking you've achieved perfection without attaining omnipotence implies that you're too closed minded to see that the world is vast and infinite. Thinking yourself perfect and finite is, like, not possible. Beings that lack that degree of self awareness? Totes can't achieve perfection."
"Totes can't achieve perfection," he replied, putting the carton of noodles down.

[HDub]

He was starting to regret the perfection conversation.

Not because of anything in particular, just because he realized halfway through a weekly run that he was lazy. Jenn could outrun him, hands down. She was a pretty agile little human projectile, someone who sprinted like she was waiting to launch herself into the air with a pole and land gracefully. Ah, yes, and she could land gracefully, but there was something to be said about endurance. There was something to be said about being able to keep going, to regulate your breathing- in through your nose, out through your mouth, focused. Having something that was there. Jenn was faster than he was, but he could last longer than she did.

She waited for him to catch up, taking her time to catch her breath.

"You're slow," she told him.
"You burn out," he retorted with a grin painted across her face.
"You gonna be happy with just being- you know-" she spun her hands around in a little circle.
"Happy wiiiiiiiith?"
"What's a word for being able to stand a lot of crap?"
"Endurant? Being endowed with perseverance? Having fortitude? Tenacious?"
"Any of those work," Jenn clarified, "but you're gonna plateau. Push harder."
"Ugh, c'mon Jenn, I just hit the point that I can kind of keep up with you."
"And I'm an out-of-shape former pole vaulter who spends most of her time trying to expand on her visual art portfolio. That is not an accomplishment."
Elijah laughed, taking a second to stretch before they would, inevitably end up going again. "Geez, Coach Laurent, why you gotta ride my ass like that?"
"Riding your ass is how we build champions. Neglecting something in favor of focusing on something else doesn't end well. You're a full person, not parts of one. You're really smart, but you're also, like, stupid lazy because everything's come easy for you."
"Shit just got real."
"Hey," she said with a little laugh, "you wanna understand the mysteries of the universe and insist that barriers are bullshit, then I'm going to push you until you get past them."
"Same thing applies to you, ya know," he chided, none of it was whole hearted.

Elijah stood up, taking the time to look at how far they'd come in the park. Past trees and running out of trail to run on, he wondered if they should turn around or blaze a path by themselves. Make something new and damn the consequences. There were trees, there was dirt, and it was the type of trail that was week worn and beaten. He didn't much care for something so obviously.

"If you're gonna rely on your speed, what's gonna happen when you run out of energy?"
"Point," she told him, taking a second to make sure her shoes were tied well and properly. Jenn grinned at him, "try and keep up this time?"
"Don't wuss out on me at the one mile mark like last time and I'll keep up," he replied.

Jenn's only response was to halfheartedly shove Elijah and keep on running. it had become a routine for them, and frankly? It was one he was pretty sure he could get used to.