InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Hello Nevi"

JJ Byrd (mastertinker) wrote in aftertheendic,
@ 2018-08-22 17:36:00

Who: JJ & Roz
Where: Roz's house
When: Saturday 8/18, late afternoon

JJ was up early, spent the morning with her brother. Things were still a bit awkward but they were working on it... slowly. Then there was the stuff with Alex, she was still processing. After dropping the meds off at the doctors she swung by as planned to meet up with Rosalind. The two were as close to friends as JJ had seeing as the times they'd been out scavenging together. And she really didn't have any other neutral parties to share things with, well there was Lily, but Roz was older and sometimes it was nice to get an opinion of someone she looked up to.

Knocking on the woman's door, JJ adjusted her backpack, which had been previously holding a pocket dimension filled with meds and was now just a backpack, and waited. She felt a little anxious about sharing the news and asking her about bringing TJ when she went out for security to give him a purpose. She also wasn't sure if she should kiss and tell about Alex, but she was really excited about this new thing and couldn't really share it with her brother- yet. She figured he probably was still sore about the whole kidnapping thing.

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desertbloom
2018-08-24 01:48 pm UTC (link)

Rosalind had set herself up in a home that she'd found on the edge of town. It was a tiny house that had been cobbled together out of what could possibly have once been two shipping containers. It was simple and easy to maintain for someone who was going to be on the road often. It also had a huge window overlooking her bed that would allow her to warm up when the sun rose in the mornings. That was especially important now that her body was starting to turn more and more like a reptile. In general, she adored her home. It also happened to be far enough away from everyone else that she got the kind of silence and solace that she preferred.

The day had passed by very slowly for Roz. She was somewhat worried about JJ and what may have been going with her. Finding her brother, while excellent news, was also something unexpected. How many people had they lost? And to actually find one now? That sounded ominous to her.

The younger woman knocked and Roz opened the door with a smile. She adored JJ as if she was an older sibling. She couldn't remember if she had siblings or not and that, she supposed, was what had made her more prone to accepting JJ as such.

"I suppose your week has been exciting?"

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mastertinker
2018-08-29 02:06 am UTC (link)

"I think that's an understatement." She said, entering with a small laugh. "Oh, here." She said reaching into her backpack as she pulled out a small space heater about a a foot long. "I figured you could use this." JJ offered. If anything it was 'payment' for listening to her and being someone she threw stuff off of to get it sorted.

JJ wandered a bit into Roz's home and tried to be casual about her news, but was so excited about it she just had to share. "So, I told you already... I found my brother! He was up in Washington but Alex found him and brought him back for me... It was... well..." JJ made a bit of a face. "Not as smooth as I hoped. But the cute new doctor Liam helped. Now everything is okay- well it will be." She said, not giving a lot of details yet, just sort of rambling. "Oh! and I kissed Alex... and he kinda kissed me back."

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desertbloom
2018-08-29 12:59 pm UTC (link)

Roz took the small heater with a thankful nod, setting it down on her small kitchen island before moving to the stove to warm up some water for tea. Of all the things in the world that Rosalind could be the most grateful for, tea from Lily's garden was the best. It provided her with the smallest amount of normalcy in a world gone mad. Everything else was just too strange to pretend it was ever close to normal.

JJ always flew into your presence like a tornado. She would spout things and rattle off bits of conversation so fast that you almost wouldn't be able to follow unless you understood how her mind worked. Roz understood. JJ liked to unload it all like a rapid-fire pistol just to get it out into the open. Once that was done, you could start from the beginning and get a slower-paced, easier to follow explanation for the things she just shot you with. It was her way of making sure she forgot nothing important.

"Wait, what?" Roz paused, holding her teapot several inches above the stove, and turned her gaze back toward the smaller woman, "You kissed? Alex?" With all the excitement, she wanted to make sure she had heard the woman correctly.

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mastertinker
2018-08-30 01:01 am UTC (link)

A blush crept over her cheeks. “Yea.” JJ replied with a small giggle. “And he kissed me back. A few times.” She could feel her cheeks getting warm. “I really thought after TJ hit him I’d totally messed up with him. Even our friendship. But turns out he actually likes me back.” She let out a small laugh. “He thought I had a thing for Bear.” Granted she’d been with him in the past, but it wasn’t really anything but physical. Emotionally they were just friends- or as much friends as they could be.

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desertbloom
2018-08-31 12:33 pm UTC (link)

The polite smile that Roz had initially given her friend grew much larger when JJ blushed and giggled. It was nice to hear about things other than scavenging and hard times. Young love was a beautiful thing, even in the midst of the apocalypse.

She sat her teapot down on the stove and made sure the burner was lit before turned back to JJ. She leaned forward onto the island that separated her teeny-tiny kitchen from the open living-slash-dining space of the first floor. Roz propped her head up on one hand as she waited for the water to begin its boil.

"Your brother hit him?" She was still smiling a she questioned her friend. "I think you need to start from the beginning. You were with Alex? And he was taking you to..? Where ever? Was this like a date?"

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mastertinker
2018-09-01 03:19 am UTC (link)

JJ laughed and shook her head. “Okay. So, umm. I got a lead on where my brother was, and asked Alex if he could take me. But he said it was dangerous there so he’d go instead. When he went to teleport TJ back, TJ hit him. Turns out TJ had lost his memory and was working with the Raiders. But then Doc Turner- the guy. He used his telepathy to help TJ find his memories again. A few days later Doc Turner- the girl. She asked me if I could go without Alex to pick up some medical supplies- apparently something happened with the sheriff and she had to stay with him.” JJ took a breath. “I was worried because, like I thought he’d be mad because of TJ and stuff and he didn’t seem too happy when I showed up. But then when we were in Canada we started to talk. That’s when he said he thought I liked Bear and I said I didn’t like him that way and he said he thought he’d scared me away after the snow cone and beach... then I kissed him.”

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desertbloom
2018-09-02 05:02 pm UTC (link)

"So you kissed him?" Rosalind was trying to pick out the relevant parts of JJ's tide of information. She hadn't know who JJ was interested in, but she really hadn't asked either. Alex was a good boy and she would be more than happy to see JJ in some sort of relationship with him. In general, she preferred for everyone to have happy moments. It would take their minds away from the horrors that they had to live with daily. "Are you thinking about being exclusive with him now?" Dating in the aftermath of the apocalypse was still very similar to the past. You just had to be hope you didn't die before you found your perfect match.

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mastertinker
2018-09-03 02:02 am UTC (link)

JJ nodded, tucking some hair behind her ear. "I guess.. yes? Maybe? I mean it's still new and everything, but he is sweet and nice and... cute..." She giggled slightly. "And he doesn't seem to be too upset about TJ, so that's good." Because the last thing she wanted was the guy she liked to be fighting with her brother she just got back. "You don't think it's completely insane, right? I mean who 'dates' at the end of the world? Some people talk about how it's all about 'procreation', but with so few doctors that's a daunting thing. And there's so few people so, is it expected that everyone will find 'the one'? Or just 'close enough'?" She sighed slightly. She did like Alex, and didn't feel like she would be settling, but how was a 'relationship' in the apocalypse supposed to even work?

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desertbloom
2018-09-03 06:59 am UTC (link)

"Probably like it used to work," Roz shrugged a bit, "Just with more guns and running from raiders instead of going to see a movie." It was a harsh reality, but it could be lived in. They'd been living in it for this long already. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, almost like doing a little jig behind the counter. "But is this someone you would want to spend the lean and hard times with? I think that's the question you should ask yourself. That's the only real difference between then and now. Do you think you could follow Alex into danger and not regret it or vice versa? If not, I would't waste my time on it." Rosalind had a very practical viewpoint to dating post-apocalypse. If they wouldn't kill for your or because of you, then they didn't really want to be with you.

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mastertinker
2018-09-03 07:26 am UTC (link)

"I'm not worried about the danger." JJ shook her head. "I mean you know I try to avoid it... not really the fighter, but I've taken risks for my friends... I don't see myself not doing it for Alex. It's just... all the other times I don't know how to do." She admitted. "I mean I spend so much time working on things, being around machines and not people... and with his ghosting..." The young woman rubbed her arm a bit. "I'll probably be a shit girlfriend." Or so she feared.

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desertbloom
2018-09-03 07:53 am UTC (link)

"Then you two will have to find ways to make sure you can communicate." Roz shrugged a bit, because she had no real idea. "He will have to make sure you are more aware of his presence. You can't help what happens due to his abilities."

Her kettle finally started to give a low whistle and she turned back to the stove to remove it. She filled two small cloth bags with some tea from a jar and set the down into two mismatched coffee mugs before pouring hot water over them both. Roz set her warm kettle into the dry sink and carried the two mugs to the tiny dining table on the other side of he island where tiny boxes of sugar and powdered milk had already been set out. She hadn't asked JJ if she wanted tea, but made it anyway. She'd drink it if she wanted it and didn't have to if she didn't.

"Are you still trying to find a way to negate his ghosting? I still say that boy needs a bell collar of some kind, even if he is the best scavenger in the town."

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mastertinker
2018-09-03 08:01 am UTC (link)

JJ sat down across from Roz and gave a small nod when she was offered the tea. "Oh, I have too, but that doesn't even work." She laughed. "Dinner a few weeks ago, he touched me but no one else could see him... but I could because he was holding my hand... he fired a freaking gun in the room and no one heard it." She said shaking her head. "It's almost like an impenetrable perception filter around him when he wants- and when he doesn't."

JJ sighed and blew on the tea a little bit to cool it down. "But he promised to touch me before he started to speak- just in case." She said softly. "And he offered to take me anywhere in the world, or everywhere if I wanted." It was a daunting offer, and now that she'd found TJ she had started to wonder if staying was the plan, or if they should go back on the road, as they had been before. For the time TJ needed...

The young fixer remembered the other reason she'd come to Roz. "So... I also kinda had a favor to ask..."

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desertbloom
2018-09-03 08:40 am UTC (link)

"Like I said, you just have to try to make it work." Everything she described was fantastic. Firing a gun and no one heard? It's no wonder he was such an amazing scavenger.

Roz stirred the bag around a bit before pulling it from the mug and setting it on a small dish she'd laid out earlier. She added sugar and just a light dusting of milk to her tea, stirring it before looking back up at the question.

"Who doesn't need a favor from me?" She chuckled a bit as she took a nice long sip of her tea. "But you know I would do anything for you, Jujubee. All you have to do is ask." She frequently referred to JJ as "Jujubee." It was similar to a kind of candy that she'd loved as a child, small but wonderful. That was how she liked to think of JJ: small but wonderful.

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mastertinker
2018-09-03 09:31 pm UTC (link)

"Well, it's not really for me... I mean it is, but it's..." JJ pulled the bag out of her tea and set it aside before taking a sip to give her a moment to gather her thoughts. "It's my brother. Tae-Joon has been through a lot and forgot- and now remembered a lot. He's kinda been running in bad circles for a while now and I don't think he thinks he can 'fit in' in Carter." Which would mean that if he couldn't she probably would end up leaving... She still wasn't sure how she felt about that idea. "So, I was thinking... maybe you could ask him- next time you go out- to come with? He'd make a great bodyguard." JJ put up a hand, adding quickly. "Not that you can't take care of yourself... I've seen you in action. But," She shrugged. "It might be nice to have someone watching your back? And I think he'd be good at that."

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desertbloom
2018-09-05 01:45 pm UTC (link)

Roz eyed the young woman somewhat suspiciously over the top of her mug, but didn't say anything. She was trying to go over as much as she could in her mind and make sure that she hadn't missed anything important when JJ fired all the information at her. There was one little thing that was bothering her.

"Did you say he had been working with raiders?" It wouldn't be abnormal for someone from their group to have been working with some kid of raiders at one point in time, but she wasn't entirely sure if she liked the idea of branding someone new as her body guard. "And now you want me to take him scavenging?" What kind of game was she playing here?

"I don't know if I would feel comfortable doing that, JJ." She wouldn't want to get her brother killed. Trust was something earned and it would be hard to rely on someone who hadn't yet earned that trust.

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