Rooms

[Because he doesn't appear to have any other choice.]

Jake Ross?

[Although the conversation about the wish was extensive, the wish itself was fairly simple. Graham Ross wants his wife back. The problem comes from a conflicting wish generated by Graham's own son. Jake Ross wants his mother back for everyone, but briefly, only long enough to say a goodbye that matters to each individual person.

Lorelei Ross comes around late at night to each of them in turn. To make both of the wishes meet somewhere in the middle, she comes to each of them with no intention of staying forever. She comes to make ammends, to tell them how much she loves them, but to ultimately tell them that she can't stay. She doesn't remember dying, she doesn't know anything about that. Even so, she is automatically in place amongst her loved ones, she isn't disturbed that her son is older, or her sister, or her husband. To Lorelei, she doesn't mind the missing memories. She isn't an apparition, she's flesh and blood with a pulse. She really is back, but she doesn't want to stay. She has somewhere to go, but she won't go until the one she's visiting with is ready.

Each of the family members can spend a whole week with Lore or even just an hour, as long as it takes for Graham, Jake, and Clementine to make peace with her death. At which point, she will hug and kiss and walk out their door, back to the afterlife(or not if someone can't let go.) The longer that she is kept around however, the more agitated and insistent about leaving she will become.]

[Graham considered bringing Joy. He really did, for a good half hour or so, but then he decided a new baby half-sister was something Jake needed to be eased into. He didn't want to force anything on the boy. Plus, after their talk, he was half sure that his son was going to be even angrier with him then he had before. The truth wasn't a fix, he didn't think it was. Wouldn't take away the hurt but at the very least, Jake did deserve answers and, maybe, it would help. How, he didn't know, but he held onto a tiny flicker of hope that someday the boy would understand that his father had just tried to do what was best for him. Even if he'd gotten it horribly wrong, he'd tried. Meant well. He thought--hoped--that mattered.

Valentine's Day was coming up real close, and he hadn't forgotten his wish. But he had no faith in the hotel, no belief that this wish would be different than the countless others he'd sent up to a God that wasn't listening; getting Lore back for real seemed like a dream that wasn't ever meant to become anything more. So yeah, he remembered, but he didn't expect a miracle.

The halls of the hotel were quiet, empty, and Graham sat himself down at the bottom of the staircase to wait. Jeans and plaid, warm since Marvel was cold, but the snow didn't extend out here in no man's land.]

[locked to jake r.]

hey.

[Locked to Marina S]
You wish for your boy, honey?

[Locked to Jake R]
Saw you looking for your wishfolk. You handling this fine?

Hey Valentine. I figured out what it is I want.

[It was early on, but Clem was plenty awake, despite only napping some after a shift at the Iceberg that went late. Family folks were meeting, and things were busy, and Clem just sat folks and smiled and didn't ask after a thing. She didn't really care who won or lost in this Family war brewing in Gotham. She only cared about being on a side that was safe, and word was she'd picked one of the winning two. So, she wasn't worried a lick as she sat on the couch in pink lounge pants and white cashmere.

There was tea on the coffee table, chamomile, and blankets strewn all over. The cleaning woman came Fridays, and things were already a mess come Monday; Clem was used to cleaning folks that lived in quarters somewhere downstairs without the sun shining in. She wasn't used to waiting for folks to pick up things she left all over.

There was a magazine open on her lap, and she was reading some article about how to make her hair look real shiny in winter, and something voice played quiet from her iPhone, so as not to wake Jake if he was still sleeping in his nest of turpentine.]

Once more with feeling.

So how the fuck this work?

[Locked: Clem M]

[In substantially messy pencil scrawl]

If you don't come out I'm going to call the fire department to break down the door.

Where's the best place to go on and find sweet tea? The kind that's made, not canned.

[Locked to Jake R]
[After this.]

Jake, sweetheart. Hear tell you're here.

[Graham hadn't been real sure if he was seeing Jake's name in the journal for real, at first. For every lapse of sanity there was always some lucidity that stuck around. But no, it was his son, his son who didn't call him Dad and hadn't in years, the boy who hadn't been so angry once upon a time. Wished he could go back, like he always did. Except he couldn't, Jake wasn't seven anymore, he was grown and even Lore told him as much; it was hard for her, too, always was for mothers. Their babies would always be their babies. What mattered right now, she said, was finding their boy, and he agreed. He pushed aside thoughts of the baby girl out there, and Clem, who was out there too. Didn't matter a lick what Shane said; he'd only made things worse with her, and best that he keep his distance from here on out. He could see his daughter without making a mess of things again, he was real sure he could.

But that was later. This was now. Graham retraced his steps from the farmhouse to the road best he could, and he read over Jake's list to work out just where he was. He was on foot, no car, and it was just damn luck that he found one on the highway that wasn't all broken up or out of gas. Thing wouldn't take him far, but he didn't need it to. Just to his son. Lore fretted in the front seat as he drove, and when he passed a gas station he hoped real hard it was the right one.

Further he got, more dead folk there were. He went as fast as he could and up ahead, there, he was real sure he saw a truck.]

[After a significant period of leafing through back-pages and disbelief. In neat, albeit cramped handwriting:]

How can you tell which world it is?

[Clementine M.]
Your side of the world still godawful?

[Graham R.]
Dad?

[Public]

Starbucks everywhere I see. Yup, it's New York.


[filtered to Avengers]

So! Go team go? Anyone up for some training?

[Public]

Vices are all the same, behind a door or out in Vegas.

[Anais/Marta/Jake]

Petite, we have a new addition. Jake Ross.

Mouse, are you here?

[Locked to Jude M]
Next time you feel inclined to dream about me, I'll make sure it's somewhere with a real nice couch for sitting and talking. Maybe someplace with mint juleps and a real cool breeze off the bay.

[Locked to Jake R]
You settled in good? Reconsidered talking to your daddy?

So. Those of us who aren't here of our own decision... where was home for y'all before you ended up in these crazy ass doors?

Who: Lyra V and Jake R
What: Jobs and double-dealings
When: Recently!
Where: the Vega

( Jake was sufficiently accomplished in everything that he pursued, well every venue but one really, but he put less of an emphasis of importance on relationships than he did with baseball or books. Besides, the truth stretched like boardwalk taffy for professional liars, people wholly invested in the makebelieve of art and reaffirming self-importance.  )