Gravity -- why hath thou forsaken me?

[assholic]

Who: Jessica Jones (assholic) & Clark Kent (apricitous) & OPEN
What: New ability rearing its head
When: December 07 - December 14
Where: Closed log @ her and Clark's home, randomly around Wyver.
Warning(s): Language? Will adjust if needed

Whether it was the Orbiters enhancing something she already had or something new creeping into her system, Jessica Jones was now capable of more than just 'falling with style'. Her morning with Clark and how well that had gone (/sarcasm) was making her a little concerned about having to leave the house. As to what that meant to others?

They might come across a scowling woman clutching onto a doorway. Or a tree. Or maybe she's reached out and grabbed someone -- perhaps a little too hard? Anyone noticing this might also notice that during these times, her feet might not always touch the ground, and if she's grabbed onto someone, that someone might feel an odd upward tug.

God help anyone that makes her jump. She'll remember you. She'll owe you.



[Feel free to PM about specifics or pp me @ junglewere. Open prompts for anyone in Wyver, but she can be pinged/messaged by people in Olympia if anyone happens to gossip.]

Comments

Learning to fly - Closed to Clark Kent

[assholic]

She'd been sleeping. She liked sleeping. It was the only time she could pretend that none of this had happened. That she'd wake up in her shitty apartment back in New York. That she'd hear yelling from outside the window and bickering over garbage day. She could pretend that her world hadn't been utterly destroyed, that Trish and Luke and everyone she knew wasn't locked up in sleeping tubes in space, that Kilgrave might not be resurrected up there. That she wasn't living a nightmare.

Sleep was great.

She felt a rough texture against her face, something not her pillow or her sheet, and she groaned as she wondered if she'd fallen out of bed somehow last night. Lifting her head and rubbing at her eyes, she blinked them open to see... not the floor. Shifting her foot, she felt it nudge something. That something was the light fixture. What the fuck was the light fixture doing on the floor?

No.

No. What the fuck was she doing on the ceiling? She pushed herself up, hair hanging down towards the floor, so at least it wasn't some fucked up gravity issue. Was it? What the fuck... "What the fuck?!"

And then, because shoving wasn't working, "Clark!"

This was getting to be a habit. This needed to stop being a habit. Excuse the half-state of dress, Clark, but she hadn't known she'd be entertaining a rescue when she'd curled up under her blanket in a tshirt and underwear. "Clark!"

[apricitous]

Which earns her a half-naked Clark Kent not-quite skidding into view in the doorway of her room. He'd been in the middle of getting dressed after a shower, so he's a little damp in the hair but thankfully wearing his boxers. The first words out of his mouth aren't particularly helpful.

"...I thought you said you couldn't fly."

[assholic]

"I can't!" She held her hands up, body still pressed to the ceiling before she kicked at it. The ceiling got a dent and she lowered about half a foot before bobbing back up. "I fall. With style. It's like... jumping really fucking high. This is not jumping really high. This is floating. Clark. I'm fucking floating."

If she hadn't been making out with her ceiling, she might appreciate the view more. As it was, she was trying not to do something stupid. Like have a panic attack.

[apricitous]

"Well," he says evenly, "apparently you do now."

He pushes off of the ground lightly, floating his way over to her, holding his hands out for her to take if she wants. He'll pull her down.

"And that's how it started with me, if that helps. Though usually I'd drop to the bed as soon as I woke up."

[assholic]

She tried to turn her head upside down, rolling so she was on her back on the ceiling instead of her front. Watching him float up to her was... surreal. She didn't want to take his hands, but that was more out of a stubborn sense of 'I can do it myself' than anything, but fear was crawling in her gut and she reached out for him, clutching onto him harder than she needed to and feeling suddenly grateful that she couldn't hurt him. She could freak out all she wanted and he wouldn't get a scratch. Awesome.

"For the record? This is not cool. This is not... no. I had my accident, I learned my curve, and this was not part of it. Is this because I had warm milk with honey? That you heated with laser eyes? Did I get infected with flying?"

[apricitous]

"I seriously doubt it," he says as he slowly starts pulling them down. Once his feet are on the ground and she's at roughly shoulder level, he just holds on and looks over at her.

"All right. You're going to have to do the rest yourself, but I can coach you. Close your eyes for a moment?"

[assholic]

This sucked so hard. He was on the ground, all safe and snug and making it look easy, and she was held out, parallel to the ground, like... like a fucking weirdo. What the hell, Clark? How was that fixing it?

She scowled at him and his suggestion, closing her eyes and screwing them up. "If you tell me to meditate myself anywhere, I'm going to super smack you in the puss."

[apricitous]

His voice gets just a touch arch.

"Do you want to complain, or do you want to get down?"

But he doesn't go any farther than that before letting out a huff and starting to breathe deep.

"We're not meditating. We're paying attention. Closing down a sense gives your other ones more motivation to pay attention, and gives you less distractions. For the moment, you need to try and find a sense that's different now. When you used to jump, that feeling that made you fall slower. Reach for that, try and get a handle on it."

[assholic]

Don't you grumble at her, Clark. She was the one floating half naked, here. Rude.

Cracking open one eye to give him a scowl, she closed it and tried to do what he said. But Jessica Jones was not a fan of being in her own mind or body. All she could feel was that her body felt 'different', and the hold he had on her hands that was keeping her tethered from floating up again. She tried, Clark. Really she did. But Jessica sucked at this. "The only thing that feels different is that I'm fucking floating."

[apricitous]

He considers that for a moment before-

"All right. I'm going to try and effect your gravitational field. See if you can feel what I'm doing."

Then he reaches out, trying to pull her down to the ground with his own power, as if he was landing on the earth.

[assholic]

She wasn't sure what he meant, or what he was planning to do, but suddenly something shifted in her, something felt a little different, and Jessica did something she'd never done before -- she clung to him.

Her feet hit the ground and she wrapped an arm around him, eyes wide, staring down at the ground then back up at him. Relief was clear on her face, but there was still a little fear there as well, because what the hell...? "What'd you do? Keep doing that. How can I do that? Please tell me this isn't going to happen again..."

[apricitous]

"The way I fly is by controlling my personal gravitational field," he says, not reacting to her clutching, not touching her anywhere she wasn't choosing to touch him. "But I can expand that field a little with some effort. I reached out to try and effect your field and pulled down to the ground."

He tilts his head for a moment, glancing down at her.

"I'll keep doing it, but you'll have to figure out how to do it for yourself unless you want to live your life on my hip."

[assholic]

"I could do that." In response to living attached to him. It certainly sounded better than her floating away. She was still holding onto him, because this was weird and not okay, her arm around his neck, her other hand holding onto his bicep as she tried to wrap her head around all this. "Why... Why? Why this? Why me? Why now?"

That was the question of the day, Clark.

Randomly around Wyver

[kaleorbekaled]

[Kale practically jumps when she feels someone grab her, and she gives even more of a start when she sees the way the woman is scowling.]

Um...sorry, but do I know you?

[Because she doesn't recall making anyone angry, but she remembers what Stannis said about alternate realities. Had some alternate reality version of herself offended this woman?

She feels the odd sensation of being tugged upward, and she also notices that the other woman's feet aren't touching the ground. Oh, great. Did some alternate reality version of herself offend someone who can use their ki well enough to fly and hover in one place?]

[assholic]

[She hadn't really been paying attention to who she'd grabbed, or even that it was a who she'd latched onto. She'd been more panicked by the sudden sense of lifting that was happening, one that was starting to feel all too familiar. Goddammit. And she'd been doing so well today.

The words made her realize that a) she had grabbed someone and b) she was probably scowling at or in their general direction. That didn't erase the scowl, but she relaxed her hold a bit. Not entirely, but enough that she wouldn't float higher.]

No. Drag me over to that fence there.

[Because why say 'hi' when you can just order someone around instead?]

[kaleorbekaled]

[It's an odd order, but it's enough to make Kale realize that this woman is not hovering on purpose. If she had that level of control, moving over to a fence would be easy and wouldn't require any assistance.

Dutifully, she walks her over to the fence. She also consciously plants her light weight down on the ground, resisting against being tugged upward. Small as she is, she also possesses superhuman strength.]

I...um.

[How to make this offer without sounding stupid...it eludes Kale right now. She does want to be kind, though. If this woman truly isn't able to control what she's doing for some reason, then Kale is one of the better choices for helping her, at least as far as getting home safely.]

I can help you get home, if you need it, Miss. I can fly. A-and I'm strong.

[assholic]

Great. So am I. Seems like that's the requirement for a lot of people here. Strong flying assholes.

[Not that she'd say who else she met who could do that. That was her little secret. But still, she appreciated that the girl didn't just let go of her and let her bob up until she could get her head straight. She still hadn't quite gotten the grasp of turning it 'off' yet, and was, frankly, getting pissed off with it going 'on' just because of a thought or a mood.

Still, she takes a breath, letting it out slowly as she looks at the person calling her 'Miss'. Don't do that.]

It's Jessica. And if you're in the mood to do a little escorting, I'm going to the bar. They have ceilings there.

[Clark was entertaining friends at her place and she didn't feel like being around people that she couldn't scowl into leaving her alone.]

[kaleorbekaled]

A lot? Did you, by any chance, happen to meet any strong flying people with spiky black or brown hair?

[This is very relevant to her interests, and her voice takes on a hopeful tone when she asks. She's wondering if anyone she knows woke up from stasis without her realizing it. Especially her friends. As fond as she is of her surrogate big sister, Caulifla could quite easily be classified as a strong flying asshole.]

Okay. I don't mind. Mi--Jessica. I was going to get something to eat anyway.

[Hopefully the bar has something that's cheap and filling.]

Are you new to flying?

[She wants to ask if Jessica's from a planet with much higher gravity, but she isn't completely sure if Jessica is a fellow refugee or perhaps a local that learned some magic that's not working out as well as planned.]

[assholic]

[Black hair, yes. Spiky, no.]

No.

[But that tone implied that Jessica knew the girl was hoping for someone specific, and she wondered just how many people that damn ship had hostage to make everyone play nice. For all she knew, those pods were empty.

Jessica was not the trusting sort...]

Yes and no.

[Look at her, little miss informative. Enjoy this conversation, Kale.]

[kaleorbekaled]

Oh. Um...what about anybody with green or purple skin?

[Because her other teammates would also fit the bill of strong and flying. Kale has actually done the legwork of going through all of the pods that were anywhere in the same vicinity as her. She knows where they all are being kept. She knows their scents. But she's still hopeful that maybe a couple of them may have woken up.

Jessica's not exactly a well of information here. Kale can't tell if it's irritation or if she's simply a reserved person by nature. Perhaps it's both. She's not accustomed to having to take the lead in conversations.]

When did you start floating by accident?

[assholic]

No... wait, is that a thing? Jesus.

[The last thing she needed was some Skittles collaboration of people running around. She wouldn't be able to keep the rainbow comments to herself.

The next question has her wanting to tell her it's none of her damn business, but since the girl's taking her somewhere semi-safe, she could try not to be a complete asshole.

Try, being the operative word.]

Recently.

[kaleorbekaled]

It is in my univ---university, in my colony. I have one friend with purple skin and two with green skin.

[It's a slip, but she catches the fumble as well as she can. She's trying to be careful to follow the Natha's rules about not telling people about other worlds and universes, even if it makes it hard to explain experiences.]

Oh, I see. Are you a refugee, like me?

[She genuinely wants to try to help Jessica figure this out, at least enough that she can get around safely without mishaps. She doesn't want to force her company where it's not wanted, but she does want to be kind to a person who's clearly having a difficult time.]

[assholic]

Refugee... yeah, sure. We'll call it that. I prefer to consider it 'participant of a fucking nightmare that I can't wake up from', but sure, refugee works.

[She rolled her eyes, but kept her grip on Kale's arm, mind finally starting to deviate away from what she'd been thinking of that had her floating in the first place. Her feet started to lower to the ground, and she took a stumbling step, still not letting go.]

This place is bullshit.

[kaleorbekaled]

I wish the storm had a face so I could punch it.

[How many lives had been lost, how many others displaced and disrupted, all because of a strange storm?

She has to wonder how it's powerful enough to cause such mass devastation, and how it crept up on so many people's universes. Her one consolation is that two dangerous beings are still fast asleep in those pods. May they stay that way for an eternity.]

I wonder if maybe there was something about your home that made it easier to control the flying...or it could be a side effect of the storm. It's more tiring for me to fly here than it used to be.

[assholic]

Find someone being a jackass and go punch them. It'll make you feel better. Doesn't fix everything, but it's a good fix.

[Carefully, she let go of Kale, waiting for that tickle that signaled she might start floating again. So far, so good.]

I didn't fly back home. That shit started here. If that's from a storm, that storm can suck my dick. I've had enough waking up with different things changed.