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

[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.

[apricitous]

"I don't know," he says, and he's trying to keep his tone even and gentle. "But eventually, it might be a nice thing."

He pauses for a moment as he considers what to say before-

"...I crashed through a mountain while I was figuring out how to fly. If that makes you feel better."

[assholic]

Her breathing was less panicked, less ragged, slowing down into something calmer. Clark had a way of just... chilling her out. He always made everything seem so damn rational. Doable. Like it was something she could actually manage. Like she wouldn't just fuck it up by dint of being her. She looked him in the eye, trying to picture him flying through the air and decimating a mountain. "Yeah, it does a little. Nice to know that you weren't always so damn perfect."

[apricitous]

"At the age of five, I was terrified of cows," he says, straight faced, eyes meeting hers.

[assholic]

She was looking him in the eye when he said that, and it was the fact that he said it so bluntly that made her laugh. She unclenched a little, dragging her arm from around his neck and just holding him by the arms. Just in case. "Cows. And you were a farmboy? That had to go over well."

[apricitous]

"My mother laughed herself silly," he informs her, quite seriously, "and my father had his head in his hands trying not to for nearly an hour."

He nods to her, solemn.

"And yes, we kept cattle."

[assholic]

"With a moo-moo here?" She was snickering now, not really able to help it as she tried to picture a smaller version of Clark bawling over Bessie. "Those poor cows."

[apricitous]

"I can let go," he points out, but there's no indication he actually seems to want to do that. Instead, he rolls his eyes and sighs, just a little.

"I got over it. And I learned to fly."

[assholic]

Maybe she clutches a little tighter, eyes widening a bit before she thins her lips into a line. Don't do that, Clark. "At five?"

[apricitous]

"About two years ago," he clarifies. "I never really pursued it until I was told it was possible."

[assholic]

"Huh." So he was semi-new to this too. Mostly. Well, parts of it. "Is that your way of trying to tell me I'm not too old a dog to learn a new trick?"

[apricitous]

"Well, I wouldn't quite put it like that," he admits with a glance down and over at her, "but yes, that is what I'm trying to say."

He glances down at them again.

"Do you feel what I'm doing to you, exactly? Do you feel how I'm changing things, how you can change things? Like someone else bending your elbow... can you bend it yourself?"

[assholic]

She's not really looking at him when he says that, looking off in her head, eyes unfocused as she tries to actually grasp what he's saying and not just 'no' at him, like a goddamn broken record when she's the one that asked for his help. "I... don't really know. This isn't exactly my area of expertise. What I do, it's all just physical. I punch. I kick. I jump. This is something else."

She did feel something, though, and she was trying to focus on what that difference was. "There's... I don't know what it is. Something? Sorry. I'm shit at this."

[apricitous]

"You have to be bad at something for a bit before you can be any good at it," he points out mildly. "That's what practice is for."

He carefully starts to let go of his control of her gravitational field.

"Feel for it. See how I'm letting go. See if you can start doing what I was doing for yourself.

"Don't worry. I've still got you."

[assholic]

"You've met me. I think you can figure out I'm bad at everything." Sarcasm would help her get her feet under her, right?

She was, at that moment, really glad she wasn't in one of those stupid ships with him where they were all connected by feelings just then, because she'd be embarrassed at the sudden ping of fear she felt when he said he was letting go. God, get a grip, Jones. She did feel something, but again, it was hard to put her finger on what it was and how she could affect it. She chose to focus on something else. Like... "Why're you wet?"

And in boxers? "Did I interrupt something?"

[apricitous]

"I was in the shower," he says, pausing in his release. He won't make her concentrate while they're talking. "Nothing important."

He looks over at her and slowly exerts his power over her gravitational field again. Back and forth. Back and forth. Let her feel what he's doing.

"Try it again. Don't worry; I won't let go of your hand."

[assholic]

"You better not. I know where you live." A lame attempt at a joke, but she was feeling what he was doing, that weird... pressure but not pressure. It had her looking up at him, curious. "Do you do that all day? Just... check your gravity gauges or something?"

Because she was going to suck at that, Clark.

[apricitous]

He shakes his head.

"My default is to be down. But it is tied to my emotions, though in a different way from the heat vision." His lips curve in a crooked grin. "If I'm laughing too hard, I have to make sure I keep my feet on the ground."

He looks her up and down.

"I would bet that you'll be the same way. You're probably just floating like this because your body isn't used to the change yet. Like how you keep moving a limb when you're trying to get feeling back into it."

...from what he's heard. He's never had it happen.

[assholic]

Wow, rude, Clark. Everyone should experience the old 'flopping my arm into my face after I woke up from sleeping on it ow, that was my nose'. She raised one skeptical brow at him. "Guess I'm not going to have to worry about floating away once I figure out what the fuck I'm doing."

Translation: Jessica didn't laugh.

[apricitous]

"No, you probably won't," he admits, though he's not translating it quite the same.

A few more flexes, back and forth, before he looks to her.

"Anything catching?"

[assholic]

"It's a little like you're holding a battery up to me and it's tingling. Like there's some place that's... reacting. But it's like telling me I need to learn how to digest my food faster just by thinking about it."

[apricitous]

He nods, taking that in, before considering what to do next.

"All right," he says finally, "I'm going to let go of your gravity completely. Then I'm going to slowly start forcing you to the ground. Try and stay afloat, all right?"

[assholic]

"What? No. I don't want to stay afloat. I want anti-floating. No floating. I vote no on floating." She gripped his hand tightly, having let go with the other and just holding him there, like if he let go, she might start lifting up like a pissed off balloon again.

Except she didn't feel like she had before. She felt like she usually did, so maybe it was 'off'. Maybe it would stay off. Maybe...

[apricitous]

Well, he hadn't let go yet. So it was hard to say.

"I understand," still calm, still gentle, and he even turns to look her in the eyes. She's close enough that she can probably see the small spot in the left one, the touch of heterochromia at the top of his iris.

"But we need to help you find a way to control this yourself. If you find the on button, you've also found the off button. Are you willing to try it?"

[assholic]

... Stop trying to distract her with pretty eyes while being mostly naked, Clark. It was working. She was only human, after all. She hadn't noticed that fleck before, but hey, while he was there, he could discover her central heterochromia; green eyes with brown rings around the pupil. She might argue that blue was prettier-- but stop distracting her, Clark.

She was holding his hand harder than she'd hold anyone else's out of a fear of hurting them, but he was someone she couldn't hurt. That made him safe. Taking in a deep breath, she looked over at him, then down at her feet. The ground was so close, a nice safe distance away. But he was there and she trusted that he'd grab her if she started lifting off again. A nod, and then a deep breath. "Yeah, let's get this over with."