Jessica Jones (thehword) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-07-05 18:27:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, ahsoka tano, jessica jones |
Who: Jessica and Ahsoka
What: Jessica discovers a dream ability; Ahsoka gets an unexpected passenger on her starfighter
When: Recently
Where: Above the OC
Ratings/Warnings: Swearing, mostly
Status: Complete
The downside, as a private detective, to not having a car was that finding a lowkey place to stake someone out was a little bit of a challenge. There was no just sitting in the car, waiting for someone to come by and ducking behind the window if someone glanced in. No, she had to get creative in her hiding spots, which usually ended up being in a tree or on a fire escape.
Today, it was likely going to be the fire escape. She’d waited in the alley across from the apartment building until she found her mark and her lover entering the building. Jessica waited, and then, after what seemed like the appropriate amount of time had passed, the light behind one of the second floor windows flicked on. That was likely where she had to be. The fire escape was too high for Jessica to reach. Even on her toes, the ladder was still at least a foot above her hands. But if she tried, she could probably jump that high and pull herself the rest of the way up.
She crouched down under the ladder, and, with all her strength, jumped, reaching for the bar. What she wasn’t expecting was to fly right past it. And to continue flying even higher. In a matter of seconds, she was higher than the buildings, the city spread out beneath her, and still she rose.
There was a second, about half a second, where she couldn’t keep herself from smiling as she looked down. This was amazing. This was quickly dispelled as she realized that, with as high as she was, a landing was not going to be pretty. No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than she started to descend. A sting of panicked expletives left her mouth, her life flashing before her eyes.
The last thing Ahsoka expected to come across today was a person. After all, she was giving her Starfighter a nice test flight after some repairs and she as a good thousand feet in the air.
And then, there she was, a woman in mid air and Ahsoka managed to slow the fighter enough to not smear her but not enough to avoid hitting her.
Jessica wasn’t quite sure what hit her, but she did know that it was large and metal. Frantically, she clung to the wing with all her might, hoping that she wouldn’t let go and plummet to her death. She probably would have let out a sigh of relief if it wasn’t so hard to breath going so fast so high up.
It was only after she had a firm grip that she actually looked at what she was grabbing onto. It wasn’t a plane, like she first assumed. In fact, it looked weirdly familiar, like something she’d seen in a movie once. She looked at what she assumed was the cockpit, and would have waved at the person inside if she felt any confidence at all in letting go of the wing. Instead, she sent a look that hopefully conveyed how much she desperately wanted this damn thing to land.
It wouldn’t be the first time Ahsoka had had something on her wing, but usually it was a Separatist droid of some kind. Not a person. Locking eyes with Jessica, she nodded at her and very, very carefully angled the starfighter towards the ground, and some kind of park. She made a vertical landing and popped the cockpit, “Are you all right?”
For a moment, Jessica didn’t move from the wing. She was focused on breathing, which she was still having trouble with despite the fact that she was no longer a thousand feet up and flying at who-knows what speed. But then the pilot spoke. Get it together, Jessica, she scolded herself. You’re on solid ground now. Or she would be, once she let go of the wing and dropped to the ground, which she did now.
She attempted to smooth her wind-tousled hair down. She couldn’t see herself, but she was pretty sure she was fighting a losing battle and stopped.
“Oh yeah, just peachy,” she said, a little venomously. She knew she probably shouldn’t be taking it out on this woman who’d just saved her, but she couldn’t stop herself. “You know, jumping into the clouds and then landing on…. Whatever that is happens all the time. Just a regular Tuesday.”
Ahsoka hopped out. She was tall, and orange, and very, very alien. “Honestly, in Orange County, this is the third strangest thing this month.”
Jessica stared at the woman that came out of the cockpit, eyes wide. For a moment, she couldn’t process what she was seeing. Of course, she was having trouble processing anything that had just happened in the last ten minutes or so. “Nope,” she said after a moment, turning on her heel. “This is too weird. I’m out.”
“Are you.. I’m sorry?” Ahsoka rubbed the back of her neck, then cursed in some alien language. A moment later she shimmered and her human form was what remained. “Is this better? Hey, I’m not the one who was freefalling!”
Jessica looked over when Ashoka asked if things were better, and frowned. “Not really,” she grumbled. Someone being able to change their appearance in a matter of seconds really only made things weirder. “I didn’t mean to go free falling. I meant to jump a foot, maybe two at most, and I ended up…” Well, she didn’t really need to finish that sentence.
“Can you fly in your dreams?” The thought was a fascinating one to Ahsoka.She’d always wondered if the Force could make a person fly but had never really wanted to test that theory.
Jessica’s eyes narrowed suspiciously for a moment. She hadn’t said anything about having dreams. But then she realized that it was probably only people who dreamed who could jump into the clouds, and the alien girl was probably a dreamer too. And Klaus, for that matter, give how strong he was. “Not really,” she said after a moment. “I can just jump really high. Is that what that was? Something from the dreams?” Because the leather jacket that had come through her dreams that she was now wearing was one thing, but suddenly being able to jump over buildings was not something she was looking forward to.
“People have been known to be changed by the dreams.” Ahsoka gestured at herself, “This was what I looked like before I dreamed I was an alien. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you, but I don’t usually wear my glamour when I’m flying.”
“I can’t fault you for that,” Jessica allowed. She doubted she’d wear a ‘glamour,’ as the woman called it, if she was alone in a plane either. “I guess I should just be glad I’m not orange,” she added. She took a deep breath. “I guess I should thank you for not letting me fall the rest of the way down. I’m Jessica.”
“Ahsoka Tano.” She held out her hand, smiling reassuringly. “Since you were up there, it was the least I could do. Most people can’t really survive a fall like that.”
“I’m not particularly eager to find out if I’m one of the ones who can,” Jessica muttered. She was pretty sure she only knew one person who was likely to: that Logan guy who had had his throat ripped out in front of her. “Guess I’m lucky you just happened to be flying your…” she looked at the vehicle, and frowned, “plane around.”
“Starfighter,” Ahsoka corrected automatically. “But… close enough.”
She looked at her worriedly. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
A Starfighter. Well, why the hell not. It was far from the strangest thing that had happened today.
“Of course I’m not okay,” Jessica snapped before she could help herself. “How could anyone be okay after all of this? It’s too much.” She took a deep breath. Way, way too much. “You don’t have any booze in that starfighter of yours, do you?”
“Flying while intoxicated isn’t the brightest idea,” Ahsoka pointed out. “And I don’t typically use this thing for grocery runs.”
Yet another reason why Jessica never got her license. “Well then, I’m going somewhere where there is,” she said. “Sorry for interrupting your day.”
“It’s okay. I’m glad to be of service. There are worse days.” Ahsoka started back towards the ship, jumping into the cockpit with supernatural speed, precision and distance.
Jessica turned away, not really sure where she was going to know, but figuring if she just followed the road far enough she’d turn up somewhere she recognized. But she hadn’t gotten more than a step before she bit her lip, gave a frustrated sigh, and turned back around. “Hey, thanks again. I mean it.”