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]

She laughed bitterly into her coffee, shaking her head. "Whatever I have, it's not some... evolutionary enhancement for my survival. It was the result of an accident. It made me a freak."

Sorry, Clark. She wasn't born this way.

[apricitous]

"And where I grew up made me the way I am.

"That doesn't mean I'm wrong."

Unless she has another theory, this is the one he's sticking with. He barely understands what happened with the Storm, fair enough since he was literaly dead at the time. Or so he thinks.

[assholic]

"... It must be really exhausting being you. You're so goddamn optimistic." Like all the answers were just there and he had access to the book. Why didn't she have access to the book? It was her body.

[apricitous]

He puts his breakfast plate down. Something about what she'd said hits him awkward, something harmless that manages to strike the bone just so.

Optimistic. She thinks he's optimistic. He sure as hell hasn't felt optimistic about anything for what feels like forever. From the world to the senator to the capital building to the Bat to Luthor to Doomsday.

To being here, with his world destroyed.

There's an inclination to cover the fact that that'd stung, but he shoves it away. He's lived and worked in all manner of places, met and dealt with and done his best to help all kinds of people. If there's one thing he's learned, it's that there are people who want to be lied to, and people who can't stand it. Jessica, he'd figured out very early, was in the latter category, and to do that would be endangering the entire friendship. She couldn't be who she was with him if she had to worry about whether or not he was hurting inside. If it hurt, he had to show it.

It hurt. He showed it. Closed his eyes and pulled in a breath.

Once he's settled:

"It's just a guess, Jess. I don't know any better than you do. I'm just going by the information we have."

[assholic]

Well... shit. She hadn't meant to do that, and she felt a twinge of guilt and shame settle over her. Familiar sensations, but ones she hadn't been going for. He hadn't deserved that and she knew it. She was lashing out because she was scared and in the dark and she couldn't hurt him.

Except, apparently, she could. She pinched the bridge of her nose, letting out a long breath. Sorry didn't come naturally to her. Self degradation, however... "I'm an asshole. You're trying to help and I'm just... I don't like this. It's my body and it's doing something it didn't used to."

[apricitous]

He looks over at her and shakes his head, just a little.

"You're not an asshole. It's... terrifying, when your body starts doing things you don't understand and didn't ask for." His smile widens just a little, goes uneven at the corners. "I remember pretty well."

He picks up his breakfast again, making a small eggy sandwich with two of the bread pieces.

"You don't have to like it. But we do have to deal with it." We, because they're together on this. "We'll get through it." Bite. Chew. Swallow. He has his manners. "And that's not optimism. That's realism."

[assholic]

"We don't have to deal with anything, Mork. This is on me. I'll figure it out one way or another, if that requires tethering myself to a tree every time I go out or not." Because Jessica owned her own shit. She didn't like putting it on anyone else, and it was bad enough that Clark had convinced her that spreading the monitoring of Kilgrave was a good idea. He didn't need to keep getting woken up by her and her goddamn outbursts.

[apricitous]

"...that's stupid," for any number of reasons. Especially the part where tethering herself to a tree was a terrible idea.

"And the fact of the matter is, I'm going to care about how this goes. So you can either let me help and feel useful, or leave me twiddling my thumbs worrying about you until you've actually got a handle on it.

"I'll respect your decision. But those are the options."

[assholic]

Tethering herself to a tree was a terrible idea, but she didn't want to keep dragging him into her shit. That bit got a roll of her eyes in his direction. Big roll. Much eye. Wow. "You don't need to worry about me. I'll be fine. I'm always fine."

Mostly. Okay, usually not, but she always pulled off like she was and no one but Trish was the wiser.

[apricitous]

"Well, that's not happening so let's not make decisions based on impossibilities."

He hadn't been Superman long enough to have the patented Superman Arms^tm, but his arms crossed over his chest were definitely the prototype version.

[assholic]

... Hey. Don't do that. Don't give her that dad look. She was immune to all looks of judgement and... stop that.

She shifted in her chair, looking off to the side as she sipped her coffee. "Weren't you busy shoveling food in your mouth?"

[apricitous]

There's a blur... and then the plate is clean. And arms go right back where they were as he tilts his head expectantly.

[assholic]

She couldn't help it. It just came out of her mouth without her being able to stop herself. "That must either come in really handy, or make people really disappointed."

... Oh no. She did not.

Except she did. She was going to just blink at herself, then tilt her chin up as if she'd meant to do that, taking another sip of cooling coffee.

[apricitous]

"I can also make it vibrate."

He just lets that hang in the air because it wasn't as if the city had invented sex, after all.

"Not that that's here nor there with what we're talking about."

[assholic]

She was going to have to put her hard earned money into buying new mugs, because that was the second one she just broke in her hand. Thankfully, she didn't cut herself this time, but he could have the joy of the gaping look of surprise she gave him before that silence-cutting crack. "Well."

It was a good thing that she had a mess to clean up, because it kept her from looking where she shouldn't be looking. Goddammit, Clark. She had to live with you. "What were we talking about?" She'd forgotten.

[apricitous]

Clark was no stranger to shame, but it had nothing to do with sex or not talking about sex or anything related to sex. The comment had done it's job, though, of snapping Jessica out of that particular funk.

"We were talking about the next phase in you learning how to fly. Think we should try it out here? I think the ceiling's a little higher here."

[assholic]

She almost put a coffee-smeared hand on her face, stopping at the last minute and opting to roll her eyes at him instead. "You're a jerk, you know that?" A kind of attractive, shameless jerk -- a fact that kind of only made him more attractive. She didn't like shy or bashful. She had no use for it. She said what she wanted. And if he kept that up...

"What if I don't want to learn how to fly? What if I just want to go buy a diver's belt and maybe invest in getting fat?"

[apricitous]

He just nods to the first, because he's been called much worse, and leans back to cross his legs at the ankles.

"One, a diver's belt won't work because you're affecting your personal gravity and it will just adapt around the belt. And two, same thing with getting fat, even ignoring the difficulty there given your metabolism."

He doesn't say "try again" but the headtilt says it loud and clear.

[assholic]

"I could try." No, she couldn't. She would always be a rail. Even without her drinking problem. Still, it was the stubbornness that had her squinting up at him before she gathered all the bits of the cup in a towel and threw them out, then went back to mopping up her mess. Great. She had coffee all over her pants. Now she'd have to do laundry again. Thanks, Clark. Goddamn alien vibrating tentacle dick...

After a moment of musing, she thought she came up with something. "I could get a grappling hook." That should at least keep her from flying off, right?

[apricitous]

He'd actually been referencing his tongue, but it wasn't incorrect regardless.

The grappling hook gets a rather withering look. Seriously, Jessica? Seriously?

[assholic]

Yeah, well, Jessica didn't get oral enough for her mind to go there. Bigger picture, Clark. Apparently a much bigger picture. Stop harshing her fantasy. God.

"What? If I start floating off and I'm outside, I can just... shoot a tree." Yeah, she was still kind of stuck on the previous topic and her brain was having a hard time getting out of that thought-rut. Clearly it was time to go change her pants. She just walked past him, ignoring him and blatantly not looking at anything that may or may not vibrate.

[apricitous]

Clark just breathed in deep, turned, washed his dish properly, put it in the drying rack, and went to go to the living room.

"I'll be here whenever you feel like working on it."

...GRAPPLING hook. Goodness.

[assholic]

She stuck her tongue out at him through the door. He couldn't see it. She could do what she wanted. Then she took her pants off, threw them on the ground, and stood there, hands on her hips, scowling. She was right back where she'd started, and he was probably laughing at her. With his stupid vibrating body parts. She'd hate him if he wasn't so goddamn nice.

Sticking her tongue out at the wall again, she grabbed her clean jeans and yanked them on, muttering under her breath before finding her socks to put on, then her boots. Then pulling off her shirt, because she might as well do a full load, and putting on a bra and a new shirt. Look at her, acting like an adult. Then she stomped back out into the living room. "Don't you have to work. Or like... be bright and shiny somewhere?"

[apricitous]

He doesn't even look up.

"Switched shifts with someone else for the day. My shift's Saturday, now."

[assholic]

"When did this happen?" It better not have been today, Clark. He better not have shifted his schedule for her.