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Jake is ([info]derelict) wrote in [info]rooms,
@ 2015-02-18 19:39:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:!dc comics, *journal, *log, carson mcbride, jack corvus, jake ross

Public (Minus Ross family + etc)
[Public: except Penny Ross, Graham Ross, Clementine Murphy and Shane Alexander, aka 'Graham's']

Where the hell did everything go? Can't find noplace.


(Post a new comment)

Jake R/Carson M
[info]upintheclouds
2015-02-18 10:30 pm UTC (link)
Where the heck are you? I'm in Gotham City at Clem's place waiting on you.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Re: Jake R/Carson M
[info]derelict
2015-02-19 07:15 pm UTC (link)
[...] Carson?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Jake R/Carson M
[info]upintheclouds
2015-02-19 11:13 pm UTC (link)
The one and only.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Jake R/Carson M
[info]derelict
2015-02-20 07:08 am UTC (link)
How in hell did you end up in here?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Jake R/Carson M
[info]upintheclouds
2015-02-20 09:03 am UTC (link)
I wished real hard to not be where I was and wound up here.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Jake R/Carson M
[info]derelict
2015-02-20 07:51 pm UTC (link)
Why did you go on and do something like that?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Jake R/Carson M
[info]upintheclouds
2015-02-20 07:52 pm UTC (link)
My momma was making me get married.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Jake R/Carson M
[info]derelict
2015-02-20 07:55 pm UTC (link)
Huh?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Jake R/Carson M
[info]upintheclouds
2015-02-20 07:56 pm UTC (link)
Nuh huh. I told you one thing now you tell me one thing. Where are you?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Jake R/Carson M
[info]derelict
2015-02-20 07:57 pm UTC (link)
Someplace that ain't Clem's. I'm not going there.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Jake R/Carson M
[info]upintheclouds
2015-02-20 08:00 pm UTC (link)
That's all fine, but I ain't staying here without you. Where are you? I'm coming to you.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Jake R/Carson M
[info]derelict
2015-02-20 09:05 pm UTC (link)
Don't know. Don't know where I am. Got turned around and can't tell where anything is no more. Stay put, okay? Aunt Clem will look after you.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Jake R/Carson M
[info]upintheclouds
2015-02-20 09:11 pm UTC (link)
She ain't here, Jake! I want to find you!

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Jake R/Carson M
[info]derelict
2015-02-20 10:53 pm UTC (link)
[And nil response because Mommy finds Jake first]

(Reply to this) (Parent)

jake r/jack c
[info]vivreencore
2015-02-19 06:05 am UTC (link)
[With relief.] Jake Ross?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Re: jake r/jack c
[info]derelict
2015-02-19 07:15 pm UTC (link)
Yeah? I know you?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: jake r/jack c
[info]vivreencore
2015-02-20 03:59 am UTC (link)
[...] This is going to sound strange I'm sure, but I need to know where you are, so I can come make sure you're alright. It was Clem Murphy's wish. You know her?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: jake r/jack c
[info]derelict
2015-02-20 07:08 am UTC (link)
I know her. I don't want to talk to her none.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: jake r/jack c
[info]vivreencore
2015-02-21 05:45 am UTC (link)
You don't have to, but I do have to see you. If I don't, I have to look for you until I do.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: jake r/jack c
[info]derelict
2015-02-21 08:35 am UTC (link)
[Wobbly: Momma has shown up, or at least, Jake thinks she has.] don't know where I am.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: jake r/jack c
[info]vivreencore
2015-02-23 05:14 am UTC (link)
Any idea what door?

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Re: jake r/jack c
[info]derelict
2015-02-23 05:27 am UTC (link)
same one as before.

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Re: jake r/jack c
[info]vivreencore
2015-02-23 05:46 am UTC (link)
Any landmarks around? Street names?

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Re: jake r/jack c
[info]derelict
2015-02-23 07:07 am UTC (link)
[Street name.] There's a club, looks real fancy.

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Re: jake r/jack c
[info]vivreencore
2015-02-24 03:00 am UTC (link)
I'll come find you. Alright?

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Re: jake r/jack c
[info]derelict
2015-02-24 06:55 pm UTC (link)
OK. [...] Think some wish might be haunting me right around now.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: jake r/jack c
[info]vivreencore
2015-02-25 04:16 am UTC (link)
Haunting you? What kind of a wish is it?

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Re: jake r/jack c
[info]derelict
2015-02-25 06:48 am UTC (link)
Think it's his.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: jake r/jack c
[info]vivreencore
2015-02-27 04:32 am UTC (link)
[After talking to Clem.]

Okay. I'll come down there and meet you. It sounds like whatever's following you isn't dangerous.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: jake r/jack c
[info]derelict
2015-02-27 05:27 am UTC (link)
OK.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

Jake R/Jack C: Gotham city quick-log
[info]derelict
2015-02-27 09:12 pm UTC (link)
[Jake didn't know a thing about Gotham the way this Gotham had got itself all back to front. He knew daylight, short distances from the loft apartment which was sweet-smelling like sunshine and the south and he knew plenty about the skeletal structure of the old bricks and the way they looked in shadowed charcoal. But this Gotham was late at night and he'd gotten himself further in, down where the smell of the docks was real high and he didn't know which way was the way back. He hadn't looked at the door on the way in, he'd been set on getting the hell away from Graham, who had himself a new family and he'd been real clear on the door, even with his hands shaking some and the cold way his belly rolled over and turned itself inside out because he didn't want to go back to where the dead walked.

But he didn't know this place either. The streetlights glowed brighter than he'd seen Gotham shine at night, like this place had cleaned itself up a lick overnight. A set of wheels squealed past, through the blink of red lights with a streamer of laughter from the rich kids leaning out the windows, and Jake, he sat with his knees tucked tight up against his plaid shirt, and his arms knotted around his shins.

Because he could see the shadow, real well just then. The shadow, long and lean that smelled like magnolia and soap, and the memories flickered through his head like paint stirred into water. The tickle of her hair against his bare arm, the time he was sicker than a dog and she gathered him onto her lap and sang something sweet and real low and the words were lost but the feeling wasn't. He'd wished her to say goodbye, and he wished now he hadn't, because he couldn't say goodbye just then when he was mad enough with Graham and Clementine to snap teeth on.

And he couldn't sit tight too long, because the longer he sat, the closer that shadow got. He pushed off, slap of boots over concrete, and his sleeves long over his wrists flapping, and he wasn't a girl to go crying over the dead, but his nose was hot and wet all the same. And if he went crashing into the first person who came around the corner late night, he did so full force.]

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Re: Jake R/Jack C: Gotham city quick-log
[info]vivreencore
2015-03-01 12:09 am UTC (link)
[The person was Jack, come through from Marvel and headed for the street that Jake had cited. Since Valentine's day, there had been an inexorable pull in the pit of his stomach, dragging him onward. Checking in with Jake and his half-sister wasn't so much a suggestion as a requirement, and only in that sense was it begrudging.

Did he regret giving his wish up now? Not so much as he might have otherwise. It could have gone so much worse, if the wisher had held a grudge toward him, but he hadn't thought of that in the moment, and he didn't have any fear for himself. Still, it felt somehow wasted on compelling him to do something he would have willingly done if Clem had only asked. That was how it rubbed him the wrong way. She could have used it for her own happiness, or he could have kept it and done some good. But every prospect had presented too many ways it could go wrong, and in the end, giving it up to someone else had made more sense.

It was a shame there was no good way to wish to know what you wanted. That could have created a disaster all on its own, the hotel twisting it to make him want something dark. That was the root of the problem, really and it was nothing he could blame Clem for. There was nothing he wanted - one person, maybe, but he would never compel her to want him back. He didn't have dreams like he'd had when he was younger. He responded to what was happening in the moment, and let himself be where his friends needed him, without planning for himself. Maybe that needed to change, though he didn't have a clue where to start.

For now, all he could want was to make sure Jake was alright, and then go check on the baby. The boy seemed nice enough, caught up in familial intrigue that Jack only really knew the surface of. He did know that based on Clem's testimony he was starting to develop a distinct dislike of the boy's father, but, per usual, he kept his thoughts to himself.

When Jake slammed into him he half-stumbled, grabbing the boy by the shoulder to steady him. An apology for not looking where he was going died on his lips when he saw his face. He looked enough like his aunt for him to make the connection, and this was the place.]

Are you alright? [He hadn't yet seen the ghost close behind.]

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Re: Jake R/Jack C: Gotham city quick-log
[info]derelict
2015-03-01 12:22 am UTC (link)
[Valentine's day didn't mean nothing to Jake, save that the horrible, awful conversation on the stairs in the hotel wouldn't happen any without Graham being prompted some, he knew that much. He hadn't read on in the book, to find if Clem had said any more than before, because the smell of magnolias and sunshine was thick and it coated the back of his throat and he hadn't put two and two together and made four the whole damn time the loft had smelled like home, but he had now.

He collided off a shoulder and he didn't know who the hell it was when his hands closed over plaid to steady him some and Jake, Jake was just real glad the hands were warm because he feared running into the dead like a nightmare brought itself on into waking by some dumb wish. He was wild blue eyes in a sharp-boned white face and the thatch of dark untidy hair was in disarray. Jake didn't know who all Clem knew, but he didn't know the man's face even when he looked into it, a good stare that made sure nothing about it was rotting any.]

Something behind me. [He choked on the words, the gasp in for breath knotted around them and broke them off at corners and swallowed up the sibilants, so it sounded a whole lot 'mthing hind' but he was too set on getting away from the lilting hum he was starting to hear, that melody that dug itself out of his memory to be humiliated by his own inability to open his mouth and have things come out how he meant them.]

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Re: Jake R/Jack C: Gotham city quick-log
[info]vivreencore
2015-03-03 03:14 am UTC (link)
[Jack looked up. He did see something behind Jake, not far off now, and while it didn't look like a ghost (lord, did he know ghosts) it was the odd humming that tipped him off, and her steps, single-mindedly following the terrified boy.]

I'm Jack. [In case that hadn't been evident thus far.] Let's go then, yes? [Time to move, somewhere that the flesh and blood specter couldn't find him.] Is there somewhere you can stay? Somewhere private? [He was already moving, pulling Jake along in case shock kept him briefly rooted to his place.]

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Jake R/Jack C: Gotham city quick-log
[info]derelict
2015-03-03 06:25 am UTC (link)
[Shock didn't do a lick of good for moving forward if Jake even know it was shock. It tasted like old sweet tea in his mouth, felt like warm breath on the back of his neck, fingertips sliding against the prickle of the tiny hairs at its nape. Memory shuddered beneath his skin and he stumbled after Jack because it didn't matter none where he went, long as it wasn't staying in one place to wait for her.]

No. [He didn't, not anymore. There was Clem's, but he couldn't go on back to Clementine's. That was a door closed, and he wasn't going to go crying none over it. Carson was there, and he figured it was safe enough but not for him. Jake stared blindly at Jack and his feet kept going even if his mind was struggling to keep up.] Where am I supposed to go?

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Re: Jake R/Jack C: Gotham city quick-log
[info]vivreencore
2015-03-04 03:25 am UTC (link)
[Jack didn't have the faintest idea. The brewery was, so far as he knew, still the site of a potential faked murder, and he couldn't bring the boy back to the flowershop while this ghost was following him around, not with Amanda there. They could find him a hotel, maybe?

But maybe this was just the wrong way to go about it. Jack didn't slow, but it did occur to him that he might not have asked the right questions yet.]

Is there any way to get rid of her? Can you banish her? Face her? You'll have to do it eventually, at this rate. She's not a danger, is she?

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Re: Jake R/Jack C: Gotham city quick-log
[info]derelict
2015-03-04 06:48 pm UTC (link)
[Jake thought about it. His mind wasn't gripping real tight to anything much, except the painful way his heart thudded against his ribs like it was hollering to get out. He stopped, boots dragging and he considered it, his face narrow and pale and focused right over his shoulder.

The shadow waited just out of reach. Jake didn't know a lot about his momma, nothing that couldn't be gleaned from photographs and when his grandpa got too drunk at Christmas once, but he figured maybe that was like her. Waiting on him.]

Do I have to? [His teeth were chattering like he had ice on his tongue.]

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Re: Jake R/Jack C: Gotham city quick-log
[info]vivreencore
2015-03-05 03:41 am UTC (link)
[Jack kept one eye on the woman as well, but she was stopped now, not coming any closer. That was a good sign. If she was violent, or if the wish that had brought her here had gone really, terribly wrong, she would have kept advancing when her son slowed down. He still wondered how real she was, how cognizant she could actually be. Jake would be able to judge that much better than he ever could.]

You don't have to. [He put a hand on his shoulder.] But your other option is to run from her forever, and to not stay anywhere because she's still following behind. And nobody should have to live like that. Even if that isn't really her, I doubt she'd want that for you.

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Re: Jake R/Jack C: Gotham city quick-log
[info]derelict
2015-03-06 07:16 pm UTC (link)
[Jake didn't think staying noplace ever again sounded like a real solid plan, but it sat a whole lot better in his belly than facing up to a wraith that was meant to be his mother and wasn't. He had plenty of memories of his momma that were sweet smells and soft, cool hands, the no-nonsense set of her mouth that meant trouble and the hum of her voice late at night. The wish lurked, in the corners and in the shadow while he thought real hard about blank paper, ink spreading in the center, blood-red.

The weight of Jack's hand was warm and sure and alive, and he didn't mind it. It wasn't nothing more than manly, which Jake figured was OK, and he looked again toward the shadows, and he turned away from the palm settled on his shoulder and toward the shadow, one reluctant step dragging at a time. His face fell into shadow, the profile cut away into darkness and Jake closed his eyes because he didn't want to see nothing that wasn't the soft, kind face of memory.]

I don't need you. [He said it brave as he could, and his voice only struggled on the n a little, fought for the push into the vowel a second and then lapsed.] You can go. I said goodbye once already before. [The press of presence, the smell of magnolias, generous and floral threaded closer and there was, in that dark little street-corner of Gotham, the faint pleasant pressure of a kiss to brow, the kind of kiss that sent good little boys right off to sleep. Jake thought briefly, fleetingly, of blood, of curled fingers loose on a pillow, but the kiss was real, real nice and the minute he opened his eyes, a flitter of dark eyelashes lifting over blue, the presence, the strong smell of magnolias, was real gone. He stood, shoulders slumped and his back slack and the thread of tension gone, but something real unhappy about that posture, staring at nothing in a Gotham alley.]

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Re: Jake R/Jack C: Gotham city quick-log
[info]vivreencore
2015-03-08 03:51 am UTC (link)
[Jack knew something about saying goodbye to ghosts, but as he watched Jake face down his own apparition, Helen wasn't standing beside him. She was still coming and going, more present now than she'd been in years. It had to be something about Silent Hill that had brought her back, about buried and hidden things The further he got from it, the less he saw her.

He understood why Graham might have wished for his wife. Personally, he hadn't trusted the hotel not to alter that wish, to twist it, to bring Helen back wrong, or to hurt her doing it. More importantly, it just felt wrong. Dead too young or not, it wasn't up to him to resurrect her just because he wanted her. She'd been a person, more than the cipher who comforted him and trailed a few steps behind him ever could. She'd had things she wanted, and a full life. Wishing her back would be his decision, and it would be about what she'd meant to him. It wouldn't be about what she might have wanted, or what crossing through death would do to her.

It didn't escape him, too, how long it had been. Almost ten years stretched between her death and now. The image of her that he saw was still as young as she'd been then - soon enough, he'd be old in comparison. It was a reminder or how slowly he had let go of her, how long it had taken to be able to think about her as dead, how much further he still had to go.

Watching Jake say goodbye to his mother, he felt a faint, strange sense of jealousy. There had been no chance for him to say goodbye. He was there for her last moments, but they'd been violent and agonizing. He had watched her suffer, watched her die, and fallen unconscious almost immediately. By the time he woke up months later, she'd already been buried. No sweet farewells, there, no 'closure', no softening of the blow when he felt as if he'd been in suspended animation from the moment of her death to waking up again in the hospital.

But maybe that didn't matter. Jake had said goodbye to his mother before, and he had still run for miles rather than face her.

The spectre said goodbye in her own way, and she vanished. A moment later, Jack closed the gap between them.

He stood just behind Jake for a moment. Then, when the silence felt appropriately measured, he spoke again.] How do you feel?

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Re: Jake R/Jack C: Gotham city quick-log
[info]derelict
2015-03-08 04:17 pm UTC (link)
[Jake didn't wish up ghosts out of nowhere. He remembered his momma plenty, but the memory that dragged itself out of the sweet-scented, sepia-toned memories he had like any boy did of childhood, was the one where her hands were as cool and still and waxy as magnolia petals, where the bright, bright blood had spurted over pretty sheets. Wishing hadn't even entered in, except he'd thought maybe it would fix things, somehow. To have a goodbye that was real clear, a door closed, one that he didn't sit the other side of to Clem, and pass on notes back under.

Closure wasn't real well-understood back home. Closure was shutting the drawer tight on memory, closing it off with handprints in clay and outgrown sneakers, like putting away childhood. Jake had said goodbye when he hadn't had a voice to say a word with, but he'd stood on beside folks in black and wept as they wept, and he'd cleaved to Clementine's shadow plenty after that.

He could feel Jack, close enough on by and living, loud as living did, the way the ghost hadn't and his hands were shaking and his palms were slick-damp and cold, and he wiped them surreptitiously on the sides of his jeans because Jack, Jack was old enough Jake wanted him to think he was a man, instead of a scared little boy. Little boys went crying in alleys, men faced things down. Jake wasn't sure what he was for real, but he wanted to be a man, bad.]

Okay. [It was a lie, and it was a lie that stuttered on the tongue, but he wasn't about to say how it was he felt for real, not off-pat like that. Jake turned, and the tear-tracks were stained and old and gray, and he'd mostly forgotten them because he wasn't crying now. He sounded tired: he felt like he'd been hit by something big and heavy, that dragged every bit of him out of himself.]

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Re: Jake R/Jack C: Gotham city quick-log
[info]vivreencore
2015-03-09 02:58 am UTC (link)
[Jack didn't believe that falsehood for even a moment. He looked at Jake, and the salt tracks running down his face.]

Are you still going to need a place to stay? [No one could fix this, fix Jake's relationship with his father and the revelation that had driven him out of the house in the first place, or bring his mother back to life in a way that wasn't painful. But maybe Jack could at least make sure he had a place to crash, for the time being.]

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Re: Jake R/Jack C: Gotham city quick-log
[info]derelict
2015-03-09 06:25 pm UTC (link)
[Jake didn't figure on being believed either, but he figured lying on it was better than telling the truth because it was already real unmanly to be stood there looking like someone had just kicked his Sunday out of the week. But he was real sure on one thing: he couldn't go back. Not now, not when he'd chased her off as soon as he'd let her come close enough to catch the smell of her perfume. Because Clem's place? It smelled like his Momma had stood in the hall and soaked in it, magnolia and salt and ozone and he hadn't looped the two together because Clem had smelled like something different when he'd been young enough to hold onto his momma's tight enough to know.

Jake gave a tight little nod of the head, and he didn't care that he didn't know Jack any. Any place was better than a Gotham backalley, and any place was better than going home someplace that wasn't a home no more.]

Yeah. Think so. [Oblique, and he trusted Jack as easy as a child does, certainty that the man who'd stood at his back facing down ghosts wasn't nothing to go afearing. Trusting.]

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Re: Jake R/Jack C: Gotham city quick-log
[info]vivreencore
2015-03-10 03:04 am UTC (link)
[Jack trusted Jake, insofar as the kid seemed harmless, and he trusted Clem enough to think she would have said something if he had any dangerous indiosyncracies. He doubted it, even after being in his company for a few short minutes, but he knew well enough that the people who seemed the gentlest could sometimes harbor the most heinous violence. Knowing Clem would have said something was just a piece of additional insurance.]

I can give you a temporary place, but I'm afraid it can't be for long. [The flower shop wasn't his home, and he didn't own the building. In the long term, he'd need to help Jake find somewhere else. But he knew Max well enough to know a short term stay wouldn't be a major issue, though he'd have to run it by her, particularly since Amanda lived in, now.] I have an apartment above a shop a friend of mine owns. It's her place, but I'm sure you can stay a while.

[With that, he stepped just past him, waiting to see if he would follow toward the door.]

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Re: Jake R/Jack C: Gotham city quick-log
[info]derelict
2015-03-10 06:43 pm UTC (link)
[Yeah, Jake followed him. Temporary sounded just fine, long as it was a place in between here and there and it wasn't alone in an alley where wet, hot fear had drained out of him and left nothing but air swaying through his veins. He didn't have a knife on him anymore, not even one to cut pencils and he didn't think of fighting nothing. Mostly, he just figured he'd shamed himself by going on running, and it had taken a man who knew on how to be one to tell him to face on up to things.

The apartment above a shop sounded OK. The shop part meant foot-traffic, and Jake liked foot-traffic plenty, it meant safe, the way no one knew where to look for someone in a crowd of people. He followed, tired shuffle and a nod and cleaving some to Jack's heels as he headed toward the door and giving up on Gotham that hadn't felt like home outside of Clem's place. ]

(Reply to this) (Parent)

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