InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "No apologies. No regrets."

🎵 𝄞 🎸 𝄫 🎷🎶 🎻 (jukejoint) wrote in rooms,
@ 2015-03-09 00:43:00

Entry tags:

!marvel comics, *journal, *log, dylan mckendrick, jack corvus, luke henry, max main, thomas brandon

Dylan M, Jack C, Thomas B, Luke H
[Locked to Dylan M]
Hello.

[Locked to Jack C]
Hello.

[Locked to Thomas B]
Hello.

[Locked to Luke H]
Hello.

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	Re: jack c/max m vivreencore 2015-03-11 11:36 pm UTC (link)
	Do you still like beer? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: jack c/max m jukejoint 2015-03-12 12:35 am UTC (link)
	Do fish swim? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: jack c/max m vivreencore 2015-03-12 01:15 am UTC (link)
	Good. You're staying somewhere overnight? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: jack c/max m jukejoint 2015-03-12 01:44 am UTC (link)
	I'm meeting my lover. Remember? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: jack c/max m vivreencore 2015-03-12 01:52 am UTC (link)
	Dylan, I'm guessing? [...] Well, if you don't want to stay at his place, you have an apartment. [Flower shop address.] (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: jack c/max m jukejoint 2015-03-12 01:58 am UTC (link)
	I knew that. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: jack c/max m vivreencore 2015-03-13 01:25 am UTC (link)
	Then pardon me. I'm not sure just yet what you do and what you don't. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: jack c/max m jukejoint 2015-03-13 02:00 am UTC (link)
	[She so didn't know that.] Do better. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

quicklog: jack c/max m

vivreencore
2015-03-13 02:50 am UTC (link)

[Honestly, Jack had no idea what was happening with Max. He'd settled Jake at the apartment above the flower shop, checked on the baby, and felt the compulsion from Valentine's start to fade, finally.

But it never did let up. Things never calmed down, and they never got easy. Now Max had forgotten everything about the people she knew but the names, maybe, and even that she seemed unsure about. She was behaving strangely, and, entertaining as she might be, she didn't sound like herself. He didn't like it one bit. It all spelled trouble, the kind the hotel brought, the kind nothing could be done about but adapting and waiting to see.

Usually, Jack didn't worry about Max. Well, he worried about her some. He worried about her like he worried for everyone, but he didn't worry about her safety. He knew she was capable and could take care of herself. He knew she could handle almost anything life threw at her. This made him worry - this, this amnesia or whatever it was, was cause for concern.

In the end, the place he agreed to meet her turned out to be a pub with halfway decent food, large booths and a good beer menu. It was a lighter place than the dive bars she typically favored, but he'd opted for a place she didn't know on purpose. He wanted to gauge her reaction. Someone imitating her on the journals wasn't an outright impossibility, after all. He ordered a beer for himself, and he waited.]

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Re: quicklog: jack c/max m

jukejoint
2015-03-13 09:32 am UTC (link)

[Finding the place wasn't hard. Max had been in New York plenty of times with the General, and she knew how to ask for directions. Googling was new, as were other things on her phone, but she had this vague understanding about how to use all of them. It was like the names on the journals, which she vaguely recalled like something from a dream that she couldn't actually remember once she woke from it. None of it meant much of anything, but her fingers knew how to search maps with pins on tiny screens that hadn't existed in Fort Benning. It was cool, the phone. She was into it, and she was almost sorry she couldn't tell anyone how maybe slightly impressive it was.

It was nice out, nearly sixty, and she was dressed accordingly, heels and all, as she walked into the pub that felt a little too something. It didn't have enough character, she decided, as she stood there and tried to guess what a Jack C would look like in the wild.

In the end, she had no idea what Cougar-her liked, so she unabashedly stopped by each single-male containing booth and stool and awkwardly asked if the guy in question was in love with her. Deadpan, straight, and without even a hint of humor. But she had nice legs, and her heels looked good with those shorts; New Yorkers had a Lolita thing going, and she had a few takers that did not meet her expectations of Species Jack, so she moved on.

Newly acquired cigarette between her fingers, unlit, she stopped at the booth with the dark-haired man and asked him the same question she'd asked the others.] Are you in love with me?

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Re: quicklog: jack c/max m

vivreencore
2015-03-15 10:50 pm UTC (link)

[There was no mistaking Max, even if she hadn't been going from booth to booth asking who loved her, but when he recognized her it sent a dull throb of shock through him.

He hadn't expected this. He didn't know why - people had suddenly become younger in the doors before, so there was precedent for it. Had Max gone looking for this, or had it been an accident? No, an accident, had to be. Being young again had never seemed like something Max really wanted, not when growing up had been such an unpleasant experience. Although she had been talking about her age a lot lately. Was this on purpose?

He knew her face, even ten years younger than when they'd first met. It wasn't really that, either, that stung. Fine, Max was younger. That might change, or could be worked through.

But she didn't even recognize him. He'd been able to tell on the journals that she didn't know much, but it was worse than that. He was a stranger to her.]

Max. [Not an answer, but an acknowledgement, which was about all he could manage for a moment.

Then, because nothing better came to mind.] Do you want to sit down? ....And who told you I was in love with you? [He tried to seem amused by the idea. The last thing this girl needed, this girl who looked like the woman he knew, but shared so little with her, was the pressure of a grown man with longstanding feelings for another version of herself. He knew he ought to try to meet her at her level, but all he could think about was how long this might last. Jack didn't have many friends in the world, and now one of the few left didn't even know his face.

And the very fact that he had to think it through that way was insane. All of this was insane. He had the beginnings of a headache. Maybe it was best to be honest? He suddenly had no good idea of how to behave.]

You're not...exactly who I expected.

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Re: quicklog: jack c/max m

jukejoint
2015-03-16 12:38 am UTC (link)

Luke told me.

[She rolled her eyes as she slid into the booth.] No. Please. Contain your joy.

[She hadn't given a lot of thought to the fact that the people here might not want her. That was just youthful selfishness, maybe, or maybe it had something to do with the fact that she wasn't much of a thinker. A doer, always, but not a thinker. She was glad to not be in Fort Benning, and she figured she was still her, and that would be enough, but maybe she was wrong.

Huh. Something to consider, and the awkward girl she'd always been hid any insecurity that made her feel; she was good a that. She'd learned it a week or two into her Army stint; never let them see your underbelly. She'd learned that lesson early with the General, but she'd mistakenly thought being out on her own, in the Army, would be different. It wasn't. Or, it was, but not in a good way, and every rejection letter from every newspaper ever was had made her realize she was never getting out.

Until now.]

Does this mean I don't get a beer?

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Re: quicklog: jack c/max m

vivreencore
2015-03-16 11:47 pm UTC (link)

[Of course Luke did. And this younger Max did a pretty good job hiding her disappointment in his lack of enthusiasm, but he'd known her too long, and she was a little too young. He noticed.] Of course you still get a beer. I'm not a monster.

[It was a moment of surprise and disappointment, but that would fade. Max wasn't dead, even if things weren't the same. It was still her, and he wasn't about to give up on her just because she didn't know his name. It changed things - there was no way that they could be the same - but it didn't invalidate them.] You can't take anything Luke says too seriously. [As mildly as he could manage. Hopefully she'd forget Luke had ever told her that, or decide it had been a mistake. He could pretend, he thought, at least for a while. He wouldn't mourn the person he knew. Not yet.

Bitter as it felt, it didn't escape him that this was a great opportunity for her. Even if things were never the way they were before, maybe Max would be happier. She'd always seemed regretful about the way her life had turned out. But it would mean Amanda growing up without a mother, and that had to mean a lot more than whatever it made him feel. Putting other people's feelings above his own usually made them easier to handle, and this was no exception. He didn't have a right to be all that upset about it, so he wouldn't be.]

Where did you end up crashing last night? You look too clean to have been under a bridge.

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Re: quicklog: jack c/max m

jukejoint
2015-03-17 03:10 am UTC (link)

[He didn't ask her for ID, which said he wasn't a complete square.] Domestic. Expensive beer is pretentious. [She said it like being pretentious was the worst crime. At the base, the cadets who came from money were the most insufferable, and she'd gotten tired of them from her first day folding military corners on cots. She was going to write an article about pretentious Army dickwads one day.]

You don't want me to trust him. Why? [Her eyes narrowed, a hint of the future spy in the dark-eyed girl.] He said more than the rest of you. You know who was the worst? The babydaddy. I question my sanity. [She did. She wasn't even exaggerating. Thomas B had left much to be desired. He wouldn't even tell her where the small human they apparently had was. She didn't care much, admittedly, but she'd never wanted to be a parent. She hated both of hers, so why would she want to be someone else's?

When he asked where she crashed, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the credit card that had been in her jeans at the old bird's house.] Plastic. It's an amazing new invention. [Deadpan.] It rents things like hotel rooms. [She added a roll of her eyes.] I wouldn't sleep under a bridge. I'd shoot out a locked door in an abandoned house if I needed to. [Smugly, because she might not have any confidence about boys, or about men with dark curls, but she knew how to shoot in a door.]

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Re: quicklog: jack c/max m

vivreencore
2015-03-18 01:14 am UTC (link)

[When the waitress swung by he ordered a sam adams and a bud, assuming she'd take whichever she preferred. Nothing pretentious there, so far as he knew.

When she asked about Luke, though, he arched a brow.] Not what I meant. Luke's a good person. He's my friend and yours, and you can trust him. But he sometimes...exaggerates things about me, a little. [It was a difficult thing to explain, and not something he could convey in a bite-sized chunk. Luke always wanted to think the best of him, but he also felt that his friend sometimes gave him too much credit as a result. He and Wren had clearly been hoping something would happen between him and Evie, and that never had come to pass. And, true or not, he probably shouldn't have told Max what he felt about the version of her he'd known. There was no reason why she should have to think about that. It would be nothing but useless baggage to her - the less importance placed on it, the better.

He did chuckle at the mention of 'the babydaddy.'] I won't be swaying your opinion, then. Thomas and I don't talk. He isn't fond of me, and I'm not fond of him. But things were different back when the two of you were together. You weren't insane, you were just in love. [He leaned back a little, a little amused at her likely reaction to that thought in advance.] I think maybe he was different then, not that I can really tell what's changed.

[He eyed the credit card and nodded. Alright then. The beers appeared a moment later.] Some people come with nothing. [She was lucky that the card actually worked, if she wasn't just trying to bolster her claim that she could look out for herself. He didn't underestimate Max, not even so young. He bought the claim that she'd shoot out that locked door, but it made him think of her many, many threats to blow out his kneecaps. It was bizarrely nostalgic, and it made him miss that woman all the more. He knew he was being an idiot, that she was right there, but it wasn't the sort of thing you got over all at once.] Did you come with a gun to match the credit card?

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Re: quicklog: jack c/max m

jukejoint
2015-03-18 05:07 am UTC (link)

He exaggerates about you. [It was a statement, deadpan and offered with a quirk brow. So, while not technically a question, it kind of was a question. She didn't know anyone here enough to be able to read them yet, and it was even harder on the journals, where there were words without any body language to speak of. To be fair, she'd never been good at reading anyone. Period. She wasn't cut out for black ops or espionage, that was for sure, no matter how much the General wanted that to be his shining achievement - his kid at the head of black ops. And she didn't feel weird about what what Luke had told her; maybe she just wasn't emotional enough to let some feelings Jack had for some old version of her matter.

She didn't feel all that connected to the old woman they were all familiar with.

She leaned forward when he chuckled about Thomas, because maybe Jack would be more honest than Luke; she'd gotten the feeling the kid was protecting his dad, which made sense for people with normal dads.] Why do you hate him? What he did he do? [She made an unimpressed face when he said she'd been in love with Mister Lecture, and she decided to hope Jack was wrong about that.] He doesn't seem like a good person to be in love with. Cold. Fish.

[She took the Budweiser, and she took a long swallow that said she was used to booze, underage or not.] I'm not packing heat right now. [It was in defiance of the General's desires for her life, that stupid decision, but she was willing to take the risk to feel free of the weight of killing people for the first time in her life.] You miss old decrepit me.

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Re: quicklog: jack c/max m

vivreencore
2015-03-19 01:49 am UTC (link)

[That deadpan was very Max, and he smiled.] Yes. I...we've been friends for a long time, and we've been together occasionally. Nothing long-term. [Perhaps that would satisfy her curiosity - but probably not. Still, he could hope.] Luke knows that, and he knows I care about you, so he said I was in love with you.

[Thomas was an even more complicated question to answer, and he shook his head.] It's an impossible and very long story. Put it this way - you were in love with him, and I felt like he treated you badly. Then you got pregnant, and I thought he treated you even worse after that. It was hard to watch. Cold fish doesn't even begin to cover it. [He leaned back a little.] You should make your own decisions about him, though. I'm sure...well, Luke I think feels roughly the same way about him, but I'm sure not everyone does. Form your own opinion. He hates me right back, so we just don't talk, and that suits me fine.

[He'd guessed she'd grab the Bud, and he wasn't disappointed. He picked up the cold glass.] Good, I was worried. [Dry, he apparently did have a sense of humor after all.

Her assessment wasn't a surprise, and it wasn't untrue, but it felt unfair. He looked across the table at her and took a swallow of his beer. There was no use denying it, was there?] Sure. Of course I do. But you're still the same person. It's not as if she's dead. She's you. [He smiled a little.] Whatever questionable life decisions you think she made between where you are and where she was, you're still the same person.

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Re: quicklog: jack c/max m

jukejoint
2015-03-22 03:14 am UTC (link)

[She rolled her eyes.] You're bad at this. [Lying. He was bad at lying. She wasn't in touch enough with the whole feely thing to realize maybe he was embarrassed. She had spent her entire high school experience being embarrassed, but it was because of physical inadequacies, not because of feelings. He was not inadequate. Nope. Not even slightly inadequate.]

I knew he was a mistake. [She knew Thomas was a bad choice after two comments on the journal. She wondered how she'd made that choice. So very unimpressed, self.] He must be a real hottie. No other explanation. Also, buying birth control once we leave here. [Because getting knocked up was not something she ever wanted to do. No kids, not for her. They were fine for other people. Ella probably had a half-dozen of the things hanging around.]

Dylan says I'm not a criminal. Are you? [She would be disappointed if there wasn't at least one criminal in her life. How boring.] I'm unmaking those questionable life decisions. [She swigged her beer. Older her did some stupid shit she was not going to be repeating.]

I own a flower shop. [So deadpan. So disgusted.] I'm going. I need to process.

[She took his beer, and she bailed.]

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