Normal is a lie we tell ourselves

[assholic]

Who: Jessica Jones (assholic) & OPEN
What: May catch-all
When: Early May to the end of May
Where: Wyver (home/city/arenas), the Space Station, the Wilds, possibly Khalo Village
Warning(s): As always, language. Will edit if needed. Edit: NSFW sex in thread w/Clark

She'd gone to the Coalition and surprise, surprise, no one had died. Well, not that she was aware of. Things seemed to be settling down into something less hostile. There were talks of diplomacy, and she'd heard of refugees starting some diplomatic guild or something, which she also trusted about as far as she could throw any of them in it. The Outpost was being turned into some sort of Swiss neutral zone, but it wasn't what she'd been hoping for.

Still, it was probably better than nothing. She'd limited her visits to Olympia, which had left her with time and the need to line her pockets with something other than those deliveries. She'd seen requests for finding things out in the wild, and while Jessica was definitely a city girl, she could at some points during May be found out in the wilds, looking for things to shove in a bag. She was also blowing off steam by continuing to fight in the arenas, though she'd been politely requested to step up a level, since the coordinators were aware that she was pulling her punches and taking easier fights instead of putting in any actual effort. Damn.

So, for May, Jessica can be found:

• Wyver
  • Home - Chilling with Clark and possibly inviting people she knows over so someone will eat the food she's only nibbling on
  • City - She still goes to the pubs, still visits the marketplace, still goes to see what's available for her to do for time and money
  • Arena - Probably the easiest place for people to find her, as she's there more often than not, having 'things at home' she doesn't want to work through
• Station
  • Pod Room - Checking up on those few she gives a shit about and the one she doesn't
  • Market - Spending some of what she's earned getting new jeans and a few bottles of stuff she can't get down on the planet
• Wilds
  • Out and about trying to harvest flora, fauna, or whatever she comes across that she hasn't seen in the markets. This prompt is open for multiple instances and available for team hand-ins
• Wildcard
  • Khalo Village - Someone could talk her into visiting there
  • Flona Cove - If anyone needs to just take a day and chill, it's her
  • Random - Something else in mind?

[Feel free to PM or PP me if you're not sure about something and would like to iron out the details, or if you'd like me to write up a specific starter.]

Comments

[apricitous]

"I don't know," he says with mock doubt all over his face, "It seems like an embarrassment of riches already."

But he's rocking his hips up against her even as he says it.

"I really think I should trust your judgement here."

[assholic]

As opposed to any other day when you're totally willing to listen to anyone trying to tell you what not to do.

[She brushed her hair out of her face. She was hot and tired. She'd been out here for a couple hours already trying to find something to bring back to the vendors that wanted new things. She'd found diddly.]

[assholic]

"I wouldn't if I were you. I'm heavily biased and very greedy when it comes to you. I want it all, Kent. You, your body, your attention. I hate admitting it, but I'm... happy. With you. Enough so that I'm selfish and want as much of you as I can get, because it's never enough." She moved her lips up to his, dragging her mouth on his before kissing him. "I want you to keep wanting me."

[impavid]

"Yeah, she implied that was the plan. Take it to the shamans, I guess do whatever shamanistic ritual it is they have to do to bring it back. Assuming it's a ritual. Guess it might just be a machine they stick it in or something."

He rubs his face with a wince, glancing around uneasily.

"They're out here in Wyver, right? So it's gotta be somewhere here too."

If they just knew where it was maybe they could find it, get it back. Although something the bandit said nags at him, like a sore tooth. The heart is more powerful than you think. Even those without magic can't help but find it captivating.

[assholic]

"They don't seem to be too big on machines around here. Probably some magic hokey bullshit." Not that it made it better. If anything, it made it harder to figure out where they'd be doing anything. "Pretty sure most of the boltholes they had before were searched and burned out after their little nab and torture stint. If they have other areas in Wyver or around it they're hiding out, I'm not sure how much anyone around here's going to know. They fucked up before. They seem to be making a pattern of it."

And people with power doing dangerous things were something that needed to be dealt with. She didn't want a repeat of last time. She didn't want anyone else getting taken. If they could subdue her abilities, what if they took Clark next time? She felt her hands curl into fists, tension radiating through her body. "God, I really hate this magic undead bullshit."

[impavid]

"Yeah, it's not in my top ten either. Especially without my guns."

If something undead and flying is going to be out and about any time soon, John would much prefer to have something to shoot it with. He sighs, working his jaw to stop himself clenching it as he thinks.

"A little bird," Ianto, "told me they have some kind of altar around here. If you're going to perform a crazy ritual I'm guessing altars would be involved. Is there just the one?"

Or are there more? How many altars is he going to have to visit before hitting the right one? How long, for that matter, do they have?

[apricitous]

"Not a problem," he says, to the last of it, to all of it, as he pulls her closer and holds her against him for the moment. He'll kiss her, kiss her slow and passionate, the kind of kiss that'd hold desperation if they weren't at home, on top of one another. But they are, and all the kiss holds is promises.

"...but I do want to get off the floor, I think. Maybe make it to the couch."

[assholic]

She can feel her toes curl with that kiss, making a somewhat needy noise into it as she slides her hand up to grip into his hair, curling fingers into a fist through dark strands while she licks into his mouth and somehow both relaxes entirely against him and writhes a little in eagerness. "The couch, huh? You got something against beds?"

[assholic]

She gave him a lopsided shrug, trying to ignore that rising anger that yet again, there was more shit going on that she didn't want to be involved with but might land right on her goddamn doorstep. Possibly literally. "I have no idea. I wasn't religious back home. I haven't been keeping up on where they're sacrificing to what gods here. As long as it doesn't involve me or mine, I really don't give a shit."

That was Jessica Jones in a nutshell.

Wyver!

[pluspetitpoete]

Jehan is about and about to explore the marketplace, looking for things he might be able to trade for. Not that he has a lot on him to trade, but perhaps purple ink is a rare and desirable commodity, who knows.

He is distracted, as always, by bright colours and people chattering, and doesn't notice the woman in front of him until he slams into her. "Oh! Ever so sorry, miss. I'd lose my head if it weren't attached."

[assholic]

The woman he banged into dropped the shirt she'd been looking at, bending to pick it up quickly before dusting it off. She turned and scowled at whoever had knocked into her, not wanting to be bullied by the vendor into buying it via 'you break it/drop it, you buy it' bullshit. "You might lose it while it's still attached if you don't watch where you're going."

Someone hadn't had caffeine yet.

[pluspetitpoete]

"Oh dear! I think then I'd be even worse at watching where I'm going. Without a head." He twiddles his fingers, tugging at them with a soft frown before offering his hand to the woman he's crashed into.

"My name is Jean Prouvaire, but just Jean is fine. Pleasure to meet you!"

[assholic]

She didn't take the hand, looking at it with a sideways glance before folding up the shirt she'd been looking at and tossing it haphazardly back on the pile. She reached for something grey with blue flecks in it instead; a man's shirt with a button up front done in a subtle design. "Sure it is. I'll bet you're just freakin' delighted."

[impavid]

No real judgement on that, John wishes on many levels he could ignore this.

"Yeah, well, unfortunately I took it personally when one of them stabbed me in the arm so I guess I'm involving myself."

That, and he feels responsible. He was meant to be guarding the shipment. He was meant to stop this happening. Sure, other people were there too, but he still feels the weight of the responsibility to fix it sitting heavily on his shoulders.

[assholic]

So long enough to know about all the bullshit that's been happening recently.

[Jess wondered how the natha expected anyone to actually want to stay down here and do anything, and she figured that was half of the reason they kept so many people in pods. Unspoken threats. Or, it was to her. 'Do as we want or...' was implied when they pushed people into shuttles and transports to go down and play nice on the planet.]

Wyver's not that different, just so you know. Just less... boujee.

[assholic]

She wanted to scoff at a mere stab in the arm. After what she'd seen in their careful hands, she felt her and a lot more people had more of a right to be pissed off in general. But this wasn't a contest of who was more wronged. They could all be pissed off, and being stabbed wasn't exactly a picnic either -- she'd taken plenty of slices and wounds while fighting here regularly. Her first week back after being rescued, she'd gone overboard on her self-loathing/beating herself up and had to be dragged off and cared for by interested parties.

But none of that was something she wanted to share with a veritable stranger, uniting fury or not. "So what, you thought you'd bum around town looking for them? They're persona non grata in here. Assassination attempts on royalty are apparently frowned on." Not so much assault and murder of natives and refugees alike. Figures. "Or were you just looking to find someone to finish whatever job they were doing on you." Her chin nodded at the bandage.

[krasnaya_vdova]

Mostly second hand. I didn't really decide to get involved until Voss' miracle and the recent talks about the Council.

[She's not unaware of the threat that the people in pods represent. Even if there's nothing in the Natha's words or tone that make that explicit, it's something she can't help thinking about. Sana. Natasha. Coulson. Her team from the Academy; Jinx and the boys. Rollins.]

I'll take less boujee. I mean, I grew up in Brooklyn-- and not the hipster parts. But I like this place well enough, anyway. The fighting ring's neat, and I got a job at the forge which is a lot less academic bullshit than Olympia was.

[assholic]

Olympia's good if you're looking for a brothel or some fancy-pants upper crust shit. They seem to really like that class divide, and driving it home is their specialty. But Wyver's good for cheap shit that still does what it's supposed to. Booze, clothes, food. And the fighting games in Olympia are pathetic.

[At least here, they had a mostly self-monitoring situation, but they still kept an eye out to make sure that there were no deaths or mortal injuries beyond actual to the death challenges, which she hadn't actually seen while she was here.]

[krasnaya_vdova]

Yeah, that's not quite my scene. Wyver's easier, I guess. Not that one's really better than the other, but it's easier to blend in here. And they have dragons.

[Ava's seen a lot of weird stuff, heard about even more, literally lived through an alien invasion on New York City, but dragons and unicorns and that sort of thing were all the land of fanciful stories until she came here. So there's that.]

I didn't even believe they existed before I saw them here. Did they have them in your world?

[assholic]

[She snorted out a laugh, moving to start wrapping her hands up for her next match. She hadn't learned much in terms of fighting, but she'd had that much nailed into her, if only so Clark wouldn't have to keep seeing beaten up knuckles every night.]

Hell no. My world just had people with abilities and doctors that turned into jolly green rage monsters and viking gods and, oh right, fucking aliens coming in and destroying New York. You know, the usual...

[krasnaya_vdova]

[She quiets for a moment because that come back is... pretty exacting. And so instead she opts for:]

Did you every try Hulka-Hulka Burning Fudge?

[One of the Ben & Jerry's flavors they'd put out a while after the Battle of New York. Saying something to the tune of oh gosh me too was a bit much, so instead, it's something smaller, easier to brush off. But the recollection of the Battle of New York puts a tension in her shoulders and she sighs, shaking her head.]

So how about that drink?

[assholic]

[She paused in her wrapping, both at the offer of a drink and the mention of someone else that knew what she was talking about. Subtle, but hard to miss when you were in the know. She didn't have to have her next match right away. It was a filler more than anything, and there were plenty of bodies to throw at each other before larger events. Bigger money-makers.

Besides, it wasn't often she got to meet someone that knew that kind of crazy she'd known before coming here.]

Sure, why not. Long as you're buying.

[krasnaya_vdova]

I'm buying the first few, more than that and you're on your own.

[There's a laugh to it, a touch of amusement. Because there was buying someone a couple drinks as an introduction, and then there was being a sucker, and Ava knew the difference. But she was interested in talking to her, and willing to cover the first couple rounds.

Besides, she sort of missed having other women to talk to. Especially one that seemed to be from the same kind of world.]

[impavid]

Something about that hits a little too abruptly close to the mark and John reflexively drops his eyes away with a sardonic twist of a smile.

"Maybe I'm multi-tasking."

You know, getting information and seeking out danger at the same time. Which is true. He wants to fix this, but he's in no way going out of his way to be careful about it and on some level he knows that. He can almost hear Ianto's passive, gentle voice telling him your methods and outcomes could perhaps use some fine tuning. He never gets angry, and it only makes John more angry at himself every time.

[beatupgrass]

Sometimes I just want validation and appreciation for my shenanigans, Jess.

[Like Jessica has ever validated him about anything. But at least the trek up there won't be boring- bitching at each other is definitely not boring.] 'Sides what else are you gonna do with your day?