hatesdeerstalkers | IC INBOX FOR DAYBREAK

Uhhh, somewhere that I won't be overheard, preferably? Have a reputation or some shit to uphold, after all.

Then I would recommend my office - it's quite well insulated.

[He may have...made some modifications. it's fine.]

[It's totally fine when it's exactly what she needs.]

Gimme about ten minutes and I'll head down that way?

Very well. I'll make some tea for the both of us.

[And true to his word, he does end up making tea for them - quietly waiting in his office for her to show up.]

[Luckily she doesn't take too long to get there and is just quietly making her way in without any sort of knocking. Because she's just like that.

She still doesn't seem in the best of shapes, but it's pretty clear she'd tried to wash her face to stop anything popping up properly.]

I hate this place. [Jolyne no. She does take her time to take a seat, however.]

The college, or my Office?

[He says it with a minor bit of humor, but quickly pushes a hot cup towards her on his desk - letting her decide to take it or not.]

Jokes aside, it's clear you've been having a rough patch of sorts.

[Tea isn't her normal style but she'll take the offer anyway, hands gently clasping the cup. Enough to feel the burn if nothing else.]

Understatement. Lots of shit all at once within a few days, not even a week and it feels like everything is falling apart around me.

Ah yes - 'Trouble always comes in bunches', is it?

[He takes a sip of his own tea, thinking before he next speaks.]

I have certainly felt like that before, myself. It's not a pleasant place to be for any period of time, and even worse when it feels like you have nothing solid to hold onto.

[He's not going to outright ask her - letting her spill the issue, but making it clear he understands and wants to help, but he respects her enough to allow her to do it on her own time.]

[Honestly, she's prefers things working more like this. It's part of the reason why she's decided to just... not... go to their therapist here anymore. It didn't seem to be doing much for her and she'd rather not feel like she's being continually judged.

He won't say anything, that much she knows for certain, which is why she's letting out a slow sigh to let her relax maybe just a bit.]

On top of the whole... Hunt thing, I also might have threatened someone's guard, snapped at someone else through the private messages stuff, and also then had to deal with my boyfriend at the time breaking up with me because... well, evidently I just don't understand and that I'm getting in the way of his getting better because of my actions and how they'd reflect on him. Oh and some shit about how I just don't want to get better or whatever.

[She's huffing and just going to take a drink of that tea just to get her words back together.]

It's not like I hadn't been trying, it's just... slow. And not something that'd just happen overnight and it's fucking difficult to explain when all the shit fucked up with me isn't just my own goddamned doing.

[It's a complicated situation Jolyne is in - the complications of youth, of the intricate dance between humans. Still, he notes her relaxation, quietly happy that she trusts him enough to allow him this small thing.]

Unfortunately, most humans wish for instant results, even when it doesn't work out as such.

['Humans', putting himself apart from them - well, because he is, as an immortal. But he still does understand, however - though he's never had the issue of romance, the way how everything got too much for her...

That is always understandable.]

And if you fail to provide, then you are cut off. It is not surprising, but no less painful when it happens.

[He's quiet for a moment, before speaking again - after all, he told her of how he first turned to crime in the first place.]

...Yet, whoever he was - he may have been blinded, in regards to you. After all...the mere fact that you are speaking to me about these issues instead of bottling it up inside is an indication that you are trying to 'get better.'

[Someone with so much anger, born from frustration and betrayal and hurt...most people had no idea how to handle it.

Thankfully, Moriarty had been working with such people all of his life.

Though...that brings up another question.]

I don't quite know what 'better' means in this situation, however.

[That's the real question of all of it, what does it mean for her to get better? She's letting out a small frustrated noise and setting her cup down again to rub at her face. What does it really mean? At this point she's not sure, because what she's tried has only ended up in her exploding at people instead and is that really better?]

It... might have been for the better anyway, I guess. Since it might have been a little questionable in the first place and sure as shit not legal back home. [Age differences are utter shit as far as she's concerned, but what she had heard of that history also didn't make her more keen to get involved with him, but to back off instead.

Was it a good idea to continue that mess?]

I... guess it'd be not being as aggressive and abrasive as I am, which isn't an easy thing to fix to begin with. When you're used to fighting tooth and nail for someone just looking at you the wrong way to keep up and image. Or to protect yourself if someone comes after you for supposedly being weak.

Or, you know, just holding onto your anger because of the bullshit in your life that you can't do a damn thing to fix because it doesn't involve you in the long run and it's not your place.

[This is going further than she had meant for it to, really.]

I'm sure he hates me now, anyway, after the shit I said. But it hurt and I had told and showed him things I hadn't to anyone else and it just got thrown back in my face instead.

Any sign of hesitation, kindness - these could be taken for weakness, yes. Especially in the background you've had - and once a reputation is built up, it is not so easily forgotten.

[There's a faint bitter note when he says that, but he listens. Illegal? Age, he assumes, but considering the age of most students here, it couldn't be less than a decade at most. And to his perception of time, such a thing was practically non-existent to consider.

Oh, perhaps not in the eyes of the law. But who cared about what the law wanted, anyway?]

But, of course it hurts. Revealing yourself so deeply is always a risk - one that can always backfire on you, if you're not careful. But -

[He pauses, before looking her right in eyes, his butterflies fluttering around him quietly.]

...What do you want, Jolyne?

[It's said softly, but -

he feels no one has ever bothered to ask her what she wanted, in the end.]

You've realized - you can't continue this way. Even through the pain of separation, you're still trying, instead of shutting out the world and handling it through your anger. But - what kind of person, in the end, do you want to be?

Edited 2019-10-03 07:06 (UTC)

[She'd been carefully listening to him until he's looking her in the eyes and she can feel herself sinking into the chair. There's something about it that unnerves her just a bit, not fright, but something more like embarrassment. How does she even answer that question? She hadn't really thought on it before...

Continuing on doesn't help this feeling, either, slowly taking a deep breath to hopefully calm down her frazzled nerves. What does she want? Where does she want to be? Who is she actually? She doesn't know, that's the problem.]

I... I don't know. [Her voice is soft, careful, hesitating on those words.]

I just want to go back to being normal, I guess? Be somewhere quiet where my reputation doesn't matter and I can just pretend none of this happened, not have to worry about the supernatural or any other bullshit like that?

I don't know how that'd even be... possible at this point, so it's just a real unobtainable dream than anything else.

...If Nightfall is successfully defeated, you could use your involvement in it as a bargaining chip against anyone who would ask anything of you.

[His voice is calm, his hands lacing together on the desk - back straight, looking just like the professor he really is.]

Then again, it would be a simple thing for 'Jolyne Kujo' to die during Nightfall, and make a new identity for yourself if you truly wish to be free of this.

...The choice, however, is yours - and I am not completely aware of the circumstances surrounding you.

[A bargaining chip against anyone who asked anything of her? It wasn't necessarily a bad idea, as far as she was aware, no one had really done anything of this magnitude in her family other than... her father. And she was fairly sure he continued working on this kind of mess because he wanted to.

However, the last parts have her letting out a bark of a laugh and leaning back in her chair a bit.]

If only it was that simple! Even if I pretended to die, to get a new identity, this fucking birthmark is enough to give me away. And, evidently, trouble finds us whether we want it to or not, so I'm kinda stuck.

Hm...It is impossible to hide, conceal, or remove, then?

[If it's just a birthmark, then it's easily hidden, but....if it's magic bullshit, then he can understand the issue.]

Regardless, then merely use your success to argue for yourself, if they attempt to immediately press you into service after. At the very least, you should be able to get a few years to yourself.

...However. It may be best to eventually make peace with what your life has become - even as unfair as that may seem.

Yep. Tried concealer, it just sank into my skin like it never existed. I guess I could wear sleeves and cover it, but at the same time it seems to make us magnets to others, so even that wouldn't really stop it...

[It's all kind of magic bullshit curse nonsense and she hates it and doesn't entirely understand it still, herself.]

It's tempting to take those few years and find a way to disappear entirely, but given the Foundation... [She trails off with a frown.]

If anyone could find me, it'd be them.

[He hums, nodding at the comment about concealing the mark. Magic Bullshit sure is difficult to deal with.]

Did they ever make clear what it is that they want you to do after Nightfall is averted?

[Of course he brings that up and she's rubbing at her face with a slightly annoyed sigh.]

Not exactly, but if it's like any of the rest of my fucking family, then they'd want me to get involved in any Stand related bullshit that might pop up somewhere. Depends on the type, depends on the place.

Which, honestly, there's fucking at least four others still kicking around, so why the fuck does it matter? [One literally does not count, but it's fine.]

And how often do you see yourself being called in for that sort of work?

[He's just trying to talk this out - if it's not often, then it's a pretty fair deal, honestly.]

[What? She's quiet for a moment as she mulls it over, not entirely sure how to even quantify such a thing...]

If they're going with home turf for each of us, which makes no sense since two of them are fucking Japanese, then I guess it depends on how much shit pops up in the states or I guess South America or what-the-fuck-ever.

Hm, yes....so, ultimately, it may be that you might not be called in often at all? Perhaps, say...thrice a year at most? Would that sort of thing truly be such an issue to you?

Edited 2019-10-31 10:16 (UTC)

IC INBOX FOR DAYBREAK

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject