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

[assholic]

Jessica's experience with things coming back from the dead was that they came back wrong. Stephen King had been on to something, and the idea that there was factual evidence of that in her own world made it hard to doubt that something like that could happen here. She wound up sighing, running a hand through her hair and wishing that life could at least go back to her semblance of normal.

"So what, is this something we need to actually get out there as information for the public? Or is this along the lines of what they don't know can't hurt them?"

[impavid]

John squints in thought, presses his lips together and glancing around in thought as he bites at them.

"Well, the last thing we need is a mass panic but if we can't intercept this before it kicks off people need to know there's a danger. Give it long enough to see if we can't just shoot some idiot before they begin their creepy chanting, if it's a lost cause we can let people know they might need to move."

Some sort of in-between. John hates too many people getting involved in trying to achieve the same thing, but sometimes you can't prevent it.

[assholic]

"The problem with that is that by the time anyone knows there's a problem, it's usually too late." That had been her experience, after all, and that was the experience she was going on. And god knows there was always someone that thought they could 'fix it' that just wound up making it worse.

Looking at you, Iron Crotch.

[impavid]

"Well, if that's the case then we're already too late right now."

Since John is pretty sure that whatever the outcome, there is indeed some kind of problem. It's less a case of preventing one entirely and more a case of minimising how much of a problem it ends up. Small, diplomatic problem involving artefact thievery, revolution and creepy magic is better than large scale problem involving all of the above plus undead dragon.

[assholic]

She looked almost resigned when she answered. "Story of my life. So what part of that has you coming down here to shit-face your life into a gutter? The possibility we're all going to wind up as a zombie dragon's chew toy collection, or is this just a classic case of trying to ignore the problem?" Not that she was judging. She'd done the same, if not worse.

[impavid]

"Can't be both?"

Though really, is not exactly either. A large amount of it is guilt. John cannot help but feel he is responsible for the world, and that he has to do everything himself. Bad traits in a team leader, in some ways, but his instincts are mostly down to protecting civilians when he's the one with the most training.

He should have seen the fucking ambush coming. Hell, he did in a way. He still wasn't prepared for it properly.

[assholic]

"If you have to ask me, then no, it can't." She sighed, hoping she wasn't going to have to take on the task of babysitting him tonight. Not that she liked him or anything, but he was, maybe, a little funny, and she knew that vice he was battling with. It didn't hurt that she saw that same glint of guilt in her mirror on occasion.

[impavid]

His face scrunches at that, at the sigh especially, because don't do that Jessica. Don't give him the concern.

"I'll work it out, don't worry about it."

He'll do something. He'll pull it together. He always does, he's the guy who does the heroic-stupid thing. There's no reason to assume that this time would be any different, that they wouldn't somehow pull it all together at the last minute.

[assholic]

Uh huh. Watch her sit there and hold her breath while waiting for that little miracle to happen. "Do I look worried to you?" No. She probably looked put upon and vaguely bitchy, but Jess just had resting bitchface. Hardly her fault. "That's not an answer, by the way. You get your ass handed to you and you're going to be the one suffering for it."

[impavid]

Admittedly, it is indeed not an answer. He shoots her a cynical sideways glance before dropping his eyes uncomfortably to the floor, then away to the crowds.

"I figured this might be a hole where someone could point me in the direction of troublemakers who would know about rebels and shamans. I'll admit I also figured I could pick a fight here."

There, that's pretty close to the truth. John isn't good at hiding how he feels, though. Under pressure and interrogation he can bite his tongue and not give things away, but his emotions tend to paint easily over his features unless he makes an effort to contain them. The guilt and unease is there, barely penned in beneath the surface.

[assholic]

"If you want a fight, this sure as shit is the place for it. But if you're going into it looking for one, might as well go in a ring and make some cash off it. It helps pay for the bottle to wash away the rest of whatever's stuck up your ass."

Not that she blamed him. Having a thing against the shamans was sort of part and parcel of refugees in Wyver at the moment. And refugees in general, she felt. They and the rebels had put a giant fucking target on themselves, and they only had themselves to blame for it. Jess had zero sympathy for whatever shitstorm fell on their heads.

John, however, was clearly spiraling, something she could recognize.