Tweak

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Tweak says, "RINOAAAAAAAAA"

Jesse Custer (cowboy_god) wrote in we_coexist,
@ 2012-05-25 19:42:00

Entry tags:

jesse custer, lois lane

A few questions (Lois)
Jesse was still overclocking himself. Only taking the one day off for the dinner with Dinah and Dean, the time spent since then had been continuing his deeds. Even with the City streets back on their regular routine, he felt like he was needed. Maybe it was because he'd already been doing it for so long, now everything felt kind of natural. It certainly wasn't because he'd changed his mind about responsibility.

What it all came down to in the end was that he was tired. Exhausted, really. He was back to falling asleep on Zoe. But the sleep wasn't the best. He woke up at odd hours and never seemed to reach that state of deep slumber that assured a really good rest. He was thinking too much about things, and never felt like the work was finished.

It was a growing problem, and he knew that he had to find a way to stop, or at the very least, cut back. The City was providing again. He'd made sure of that. Sending the City back the way it was supposed to be had been easy. All of it was easy, really. Just a toll on his energy. He wasn't so sure it should be so simple, any of it. Just making a decision and going with it.

Jesse was sitting in the park, half watching a game of soccer and half just thinking about these things.

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i_changelanes
2012-05-26 02:15 pm UTC (link)

Lois had been scouring the City for the man who had mysteriously shown up and saved her from the potential riot during the time when the City had been at a standstill. It had taken awhile to track down information on him, but actually finding him? That was even tougher. There were rumors, reports of a guy with a southern accent doing amazing things to help people. But not a lot of concrete evidence. Not enough for an article to be sure.

Lois wouldn't divulge just how she had found Jesse in the park. But she had. She took a seat on the bench next to him and waited a minute before speaking up.

"You're a tough one to track down."

She didn't reintroduce herself because he had apparently seemed to know who she was before.

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cowboy_god
2012-05-26 09:26 pm UTC (link)

Jesse looked up. He'd been leaning over his knees watching ants and trying to not blow smoke on them. Maybe a little part of him that went back to boyhood was curious as to what might happen to the creatures if he did, but he managed to keep himself from actually following through.

"Lois Lane." He smiled crookedly. "Well, I didn't know you were even tryin to find me."

He sat back and slid over so he wasn't taking up the entire middle of the bench. That was she could sit if she wanted to. But since he had no idea what she was here for, there was a chance that she didn't.

"Whatcha want from lil' ole me?"

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i_changelanes
2012-05-27 02:36 am UTC (link)

Lois took the seat and grinned at Jesse.

"Well I wanted to thank you again for saving my life to start."

She wasn't always stuck in story-mode after all. She did have the capacity to show gratitude.

"And I wanted to know your story."

She had a lot of questions, but sometimes it was more telling to just tell people that you were interested in knowing about them and give them the chance to tell you what they would. The questions to tease out the rest of the information could come after.

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cowboy_god
2012-05-27 03:05 am UTC (link)

"Ya don't gotta thank me again. I was just doin what I could to help." Jesse waved it off. He wouldn't have let her get trampled, no matter what she thought of it after.

"My story?" He looked at Lois and lifted a brow. "Whatcha wanna know about it? It's long and mostly horrible."

Jesse was back to smoking a lot when he wasn't in Zoe's house, so it was just a reflex when he reached for his pack before his current cigarette was even finished.

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i_changelanes
2012-05-27 03:18 am UTC (link)

Lois took out a pad of paper and a pen, ready to write.

"All of it," she said, though she realized that was asking a bit much.

She did give him a sympathetic smile as he mentioned it being horrible.

"I don't know many heroes who have easy life stories." She was sorry for that and thought that it wasn't fair. Even if the world needed heroes, that didn't mean that the heroes deserved the turmoil that sometimes drove them to helping people.

"You could start with your abilities. Where did they come from?"

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cowboy_god
2012-05-27 03:40 am UTC (link)

Jesse laughed. All of it. Wow, was she ever walking into a snake den with that. But he realized that she was, in fact, Lois Lane, and not the type to skirt around the ugly stuff.

He took a deep breath, trying to come up with a good starting point. He didn't miss the note taking implements, either. She was angling for a story. Jesse didn't know how he felt about that, but figured enough people in this place knew the things he could do that it didn't really matter anymore.

"It's just gonna lead to a lot more questions." He commented, knowing. There was no way that she would be satisfied just knowing that part of it.

"I was a preacher." Jesse shook his head. That wasn't the best way to start it, not at all. "Heaven and Hell, Angels and Demons, they're all real, and there really is a war between them. Just so happened that one Demon and one Angel discovered each other'n fell in love. Purely accidental. From em came a being called Genesis.

"Genesis had more power than God himself. Which scared the stupid fuck, so he abandoned the world. Shortly after, Genesis got free of the prison they'd put it in. It was lookin for the one thing it didn't have, a soul.

"As I said, I was a preacher. I was up doin a sermon to a full church. See, night before, I'd gotten more than a little drunk and started spoutin off everyone's confessions. Callin them all wasteful, lying shits and the like. When a preacher does stuff like that, people wanna hear more. So they all showed for my sermon. All of em. Whole town. This was Annville."

Jesse shook his head, remembering the horror of it. The ruination. The deaths. It was the icing on the crap cake he had started.

"The being, Genesis? Decided mine was the soul it wanted. Came crashing into the church. Killed every last one of em. I only survived cause of it, Genesis.

"From Genesis I learned about what had happened, 'bout God and all that. I got a power called the Word of God. Could make anyone do anything I wanted, just by sayin they should. Even made a fella burst into flame just by sayin the word 'burn'. I went on a quest to find Him and make Him come back. Middle of that, I'm in a plane, fallin out of it. I landed here. In the City. Here's where I met a woman named Tia Dalma.

"I should tell you that me and Genesis could talk to each other. It weren't out loud or nothin. But we got this idea of merging. Being one being, one soul. I didn't know what would happen, neither did it. Tia Dalma, she knew a way to do that. After it was done, I was this."

Jesse waited for Lois to catch up and come out with the questions he knew he was bound for.

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i_changelanes
2012-05-27 01:22 pm UTC (link)

The pen in Lois' hand had flown across the paper, furiously taking notes as Jesse talked. She was a little surprised that he had been so open with his story, and what a story it had been.

When he finished speaking, there were a lot of questions. She had to take a moment to finish writing and collect her thoughts before she could narrow down which question to ask first.

"And now you use that power to help people? Why?"

The question wasn't phrased as though she thought he was wrong for using it to help people. Quite the opposite, in fact. All the same, she was always curious about people's motivations. She knew heroes who did the saving-people thing for the sake of helping people with no personal motivation, but she also knew people with great power (whether of the financial/political influence of someone like Lex Luthor or the abilities of the various meteor freaks she'd encountered) who used it for their own personal gain. In Lex's case, he had even feigned acts of charity though all of it had had an ulterior motive.

She usually had pretty good instincts on people and her instincts on Jesse told her that he had good intentions, but it was still of interest to hear his motivation in his own words.

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cowboy_god
2012-05-28 10:05 pm UTC (link)

"The way I grew up." Jesse said, letting it hang in the air for a moment while he let the new cigarette light and had a long drag off of it. "I didn't live with good people. The only good people I knew got dead. Was raised by a witch and her two dogs, Jody and T.C. Pair of em were the worst kinda people you can imagine. Wouldn't even call em human, cause they had no souls."

He shrugged a little, thinking over his words. "Marie was bad. Thought that she was all about God and bein a Christian. But she weren't. She was cruel and hateful. Mean. After both my parents were dead, which she caused, she raised me to be what she wanted. I didn't get school past maybe sixth grade, maybe. She started to cram the bible into me. Workin me up to be a Lord's man.

"I even tried to run off so I could have a life of my own. But they found me, her dogs. Took me back to her. She set me right back on the path she'd wanted. When the stuff with Genesis happened, when I found out about what God'd done, it just made me mad as hell. How can a God create all this and then just leave? Turn His back? After our joining, it was the only right choice to make."

Jesse was leaning over with his elbows on his knees, thinking of his past, his childhood, his parents. His face was stony with the sadness it had all brought up.

"I ain't a bad man." He said it mostly to himself. "With great power comes the responsibility fer it. I just do what I can. That's all."

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	i_changelanes 2012-05-30 03:23 am UTC (link)
	Lois took a moment to let it all sink in. She was impressed that Jesse had managed to turn out so well with the childhood he'd had. "So what's the best part about having those powers? And the worst?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

cowboy_god
2012-05-30 04:26 am UTC (link)

He smiled, then. "Well, I don't gotta go out for smokes ever." Jesse tapped the pack in his hand. "I also don't have to work out none. I cheat a little and make it so I ain't a big fat slob."

Which he probably would be otherwise. With not much to do within the City as he'd done most of his life - no farm to work, no fights, no training from either of Marie's little pets - and all the food he really enjoyed, Jesse might have just turned into a lazy couch potato otherwise.

"Worst part? Knowin I can help folk, but being torn to do it cause of what it might mean." He thought of Dinah. "Have a friend who lost her son. I could bring him right back for her. But it seems wrong."

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i_changelanes
2012-05-31 01:11 am UTC (link)

Lois nodded. She could only imagine what it might feel like to know someone was suffering and to be able to help them. If she'd had the ability to change things, she wasn't sure if she would be able to be impartial when it came to the people she loved. If she could, she would probably move Heaven and Earth and to hell with the consequences.

Since she'd asked a bit of a heavier question, she figured she'd direct the interview back to a slightly lighter topic. This was usually the rhythm of her interviews. She didn't constantly stick to the tough questions because that would eventually cause the person you were questioning to shut down. But she also didn't skate around the tricky topics. If she wanted answers, she went for them.

"So what about your down time? Assuming you have any down time. What does a man with Godlike powers do on his days off?"

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cowboy_god
2012-05-31 03:52 am UTC (link)

Jesse had no illusions that Lois wouldn't come back around for the deep stuff. He knew that there was too much he'd opened up and very little he'd actually closed up for her. She was a good reporter. He'd seen as much in the comics and in real life. Or... whatever being in this City was.

"It was all just one big fuckin day off until the City got messed up. Then I started helpin people, and I just ain't been able to stop. But before that, booze. John Wayne movies. Smokin. Women." He tilted his head a bit. "That changed fairly recently, too. Only one woman now. She'd kick my ass if I were tryin to see anyone besides her. She could do it, too."

Jesse sat back, enjoying the cigarette. "Just meetin people and wanderin around, mainly. Helpin a little here and there. Becomin a mutt when there was that werewolf thing. That was kinda fun. Got bit by a polar bear."

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	i_changelanes 2012-06-01 05:11 pm UTC (link)
	"A polar bear?" Lois repeated. She hadn't been around for the werecreatures thing, which had made it hard to wrap her mind around everything that had been running through the City at the time. "So you didn't start helping people until the City stopped moving?" she asked. That was interesting. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

cowboy_god
2012-06-02 12:30 am UTC (link)

Jesse nodded. "Yep. Polar bear. Was swimmin down at the docks. He could kinda talk a little. Nice guy."

He was careful not to mention Hank by name, because that was unfair. Lois was here to interview Jesse and Jesse didn't need to set her on the trail of somebody who might not want their private business out in the papers. He didn't know how others felt about their time as animals. He'd loved it.

"Was fun bein a dog. I didn't have to let it happen. You know, what with the powers. But I wanted to see what it'd be like. What it'd turn me into. Since there weren't no pattern to it."

Jesse scratched his chin, letting her move on to the next question. "Not like I am now. Here and there I'd help. Do things for people every once in a while. But when the City stopped and the panic started, when the folk who were born here didn't know where to turn or what to do, I felt like I couldn't just let them suffer. So I stepped in. Since the City's been back to normal, I've been tryin to slow down, but it's like... I dunno. Hard. I got used to doin it."

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	i_changelanes 2012-06-03 03:02 am UTC (link)
	Lois nodded her understanding. She knew that once you started doing something that seemed like it was helping people, it was hard to just stop doing it. Helping was something that you just wanted to do more of once you've had that first taste of doing something good. "So are there side effects to using your power?" she asked. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

cowboy_god
2012-06-05 03:21 am UTC (link)

"Side effects?" Jesse shook his head. "I think of side effects bein like bad things. While I might be runnin myself ragged right now, I'm helping people, so that ain't bad. I've learned to control what I know 'bout people, learned not to look into the future or nothin like that."

He smiled at Lois. "I suppose after I've had a few more years to think on it, I might come up with somethin, but right now, everything's pretty positive."

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i_changelanes
2012-06-05 09:53 pm UTC (link)

Lois returned the smile, though she wasn't so sure about the idea of someone having all of those powers without any sort of side effects. As far as she knew, power like that always had a downside. Since Jesse seemed genuinely interested in using his powers to help, she hoped that she was wrong in this case.

"So the woman you were raised by-Marie-was she your mother?" she asked.

She didn't think so, judging by the way that Jesse had talked about her, but it was possible. Whatever the case, she was curious about his parents.

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cowboy_god
2012-06-06 12:50 am UTC (link)

"No. My grandmother. From my mom's side. My mom was Christine L'Angelle, my daddy was John Custer. He fought in Vietnam."

Jesse showed her the silver lighter he'd been holding. A zippo with the words fuck communism across the front. He looked at it himself, then.

"Was given to him by The Duke himself. He met my mom when he was comin home from there. She spit on him. Cause she was protesting the war, you see. Or, said she was to the hippies that gave her a ride. What she was really doin was runnin away from Marie. Funny though, they fell in love. Got to live together for a good long while, too. But Marie's boys eventually found em. Took em back to Angelville. It's here, you know. Angelville. Out in the swamp nearby where that motel is. Bates. I don't go there. Anyway. Neither of them wanted me to grow up to be what Marie wanted. My mom taught me what she could."

Jesse looked down at his hands. He hadn't talked about this in a long time. A very very long time. It still hurt. He guessed that it always would, even if he did end up living forever.

"My daddy thought to escape. But they caught him. They caught him and shot him, and made me watch. Later, when Jody killed my dog and Marie heard me curse, she put me in the coffin." He shook his head. "This punishment she devised. Coffin is sealed tight and has an air tube attached. They put it at the bottom of the swamp and left me there. That's when they killed my mama. While I was down there."

Jesse looked at Lois again. "She came here, too. Marie did. She's dead now. I made goddamned sure of that."

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i_changelanes
2012-06-11 07:09 pm UTC (link)

Lois sucked in a breath. She was used to prying information out of people, but it wasn't often that someone opened up quite this much. The tragedies that Jesse had experienced... offering condolences seemed a bit trite.

All the same, it was the best she could do.

"I'm sorry. About your parents, I mean."

She had more questions. She always did, but she didn't feel right pressing for any more information right now. He had given her more than enough for an article and some of the things he'd shared might not make it to print out of respect for the man who seemed to want nothing more than to help people with his powers.

"I think that should do for now. Would you mind if I contacted you with any follow-up questions I might have in the future?"

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cowboy_god
2012-06-12 03:58 am UTC (link)

"Done already?" Jesse smiled. "You can call anytime. I don't mind."

He pulled a pen and a wayward napkin out of a coat pocket and scribbled down his number. Handing it over, he wondered if it would appear in Lois' contact list without her having to do anything. If the City was still doing things like that.

"Yanno, you can use the phone, or just... call. I can hear it when people call for me."

He made a bit of a circle with his finger. "Helps with all this helpin whatnot." A new cigarette was already in his mouth.

"An' just so ya know, it don't hurt me none, talkin 'bout where I come from. Just didn't think anybody'd be interested in hearin it."

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i_changelanes
2012-06-12 09:37 pm UTC (link)

Of course he could hear people. Lois realized that she shouldn't have been surprised by that, but she was all the same. She did her best not to gape in response to the statement but instead managed a smile.

"I'll keep that in mind. Could come in handy. Especially since I seem to sometimes find myself in tight spots every so often," she said with a laugh.

She stood and nodded to Jesse.

"Thanks again. I think you'll find that people find your life story more interesting than you might think."

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