[PRP] Adventure (Jack/Chel/???) [FIN]

[chiickadee]

"I- I have a lot to tell you dude I- well it can wait," Chel said, equal parts nervous and excited. She was caught between wanting to spill everything and containing everything until they were there. So much she wanted to share, but so much she was conditioned to contain; to the point where her eyes went down to her wrist instinctively.

What resulted was a painfully silent walk to the reaper dorms, which she stopped in front of for a moment or two to let Jack soak in with an affectionate arm around his shoulder before moving him to the side of the dorm.

It was unlike any garden the human world had ever created, but then, that was what made it perfect. Dead vines that curled around broken marble statues of old reaping historical figures, plants that moved and hissed at one's approach, jack-o-lanterns whose candles ignited themselves with flames as they walked past. Shun hadn't been lying when he'd said they were empty, too. Class must have been in session or something because not a soul (pun not intended) was present save for the two golem'd hunters.

She found a particularly large tombstone (appropriately crooked and dilapidated of course) that seemed to be what formed a bench, or something similar. "You can look around a bit. I need a second to breathe and s**t." Which was saying something because Chel was always the one moving at break neck speed.  

[medigel]

He didn't understand the friction she experienced and yet was acquainted with similar feelings, so he didn't push her to just spill. Noting that they were alone, he merely slid an arm around her waist and let her lead the way as far as she could, drinking everything in.

"Sure," he said a little distractedly, aware there was something off but unable to take his eyes off their surroundings. The space was probably best anyway. Jack crouched by the garden and watched with childish glee as the unnatural happened around him without a care. A little smile crept on him, secret pleasures indulged. A dead garden was a beautiful thing. A monstrously active dead garden even more so. Standing back up, he began to meander around in a slow circle, investigating the unique features only a school in Halloween would have: ghastly decor that put everything he'd ever seen in holiday parties to shame, cobweb-shaped flowers that didn't bloom but snapped shut like venus fly traps when insects fell prey to its sweet scent, a poster about Fearleading and scheduled sports events, and more. He never wandered far from Chel, but he was very much a believer in giving people the space they desired until otherwise notified.
 

[chiickadee]

Chel ran her hand over the tombstone rock while he wandered, something in his expression lightening her own. She didn't find any of this to be some wondrous arc of beauty, but she did drink in Halloween's freedoms to be something worthy of his excitement. In this way, she exonerated herself of restraints.

"I forgot to bring pictures of batman..." was how Chel opened up the conversation.  

[medigel]

He made a small confused face over his shoulder. "I'm already here," Jack said, referencing how she had called him Batman before. "Better than a photo."
 

[chiickadee]

Chel put a hand to her chin, wondering if Jack realized he was saying this as a vampire with tiny bat buttons all over him.

She opened her legs and arms in a "come here" sort of way, grabbing at the air with painted claws. "I wanna tell you so many things now," she said excitedly. "I never told nobody 'fore. About horsemen and Shun and- ********, everything."  

[medigel]

"You were holding out on me?" he complained as he strode over, as if there wasn't an eagerness in his steps to learn more. What files he had access to could only tell him so much.

There was some awkwardness in settling in her lap; he'd never really had the practice to, not the other way around at least, not even speaking of their disparate golems. "I'll forgive you if you tell me everything."
 

[chiickadee]

Chel stifled a laugh as Jack tried to navigate her legs, first sitting sideways and when he didn't find that pleasing, facing away from her. She let him find his own comfortable spot, then wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him back until her chest touched his tinier body. He seemed to be perfect height for putting her chin on his shoulder too.

While it may have been odd for Jack, Chel had been with plenty of girls shorter than her. She was comfortable being in either place.

She began a short introduction with how she had learned all of this information. The golems she'd taken and how she'd infiltrated the school, posing fake interviews to test the waters for an alliance. She spilled to Jack all of her ideas about a temporary truce for horsemen eradication (it was shortsighted, she admitted, in hindsight). She told him about meeting Penumbra, how they'd given her information too- particularly from Uttam, an actual horseman.

"He lost his eye fighting hunters," Chel said, partway through a story about Shun. "And his fiancee- she got captured by hunters 'n tortured." By this point Jack had moved to something more comfortable for looking at her, which she didn't mind but she somewhat missed his shoulder. "Remember how I told you a fairy slashed my face? Dragon was there too?" she prodded, habitually putting her forehead into the side of his head. "Shun was there too." That was the key detail that she always failed to retell when she told the story. "He got right in between them, fightin' them both off. I think he knew 'em too 'cause they started talking 'bout things I never heard of." She shuddered slightly, remembering the blood dripping from her face uncomfortably. "The dragon- he knocked my pendant out of reach. The fairy- her name's Astra- she was yellin' at Shun 'bout things they did to Mitsu, 'bout how they took his eye- and you know what he does? He ********' kicks the pendant my way. He says-" There's a momentary impersonation of Shun, "There's bigger things out there than hunters, and this one gets that."

There was a slight pause as Chel seemed to bask in honor of Shun's words, letting Jack take them in too. "I just- name one ********' hunter that'd do that for Halloween, you know? I don't know nobody that would. We're so ********' selfish all the time."  

[medigel]

He was quiet if a bit fidgety as Chel spilled, listening even when he wasn't looking at her. Jack hadn't been aware of just how much Chel had been keeping close to the vest, and it surprised him how she had carried it on her own all this time. How much more she might still be holding in general, an Atlas with her own personal world over her shoulders she embraced rather than felt burdened by. The reintroduction of Shun to the story struck him, though; a minor detail to some, but a flawless cover up nevertheless. She treated him with the same respect she gave Jack, or the best she could given their normal surroundings.

(Maybe Chel just had great taste in shitty people.)

The silence stretched on as he considered everything she had brought up, idly fixing the buttons on her coat. It was something else to maneuver with such pointed nails. "I...hmm." He couldn't help it and gave another look around just in case before turning back to her. "I never really had an issue making an alliance with them," he said in an undertone. "Assuming they were civil about it. Logically speaking, we need what help we can get, especially against a common enemy. What I worry about is that the current mood would cause a witch hunt--" Maybe not the best phrase here. Jack stopped and sighed. "You've done a good job keeping it under wraps, for what it's worth. I don't think anyone else is aware beyond us."

chiickadee

 

[chiickadee]

The silence was both familiar and killer at the same time. She trusted Jack not to leave and sell her out (he had listened far too long for that to be fair) but not knowing his thoughts about all of it made her anxious enough to bury her head in his neck and watch him do up his cute little bat buttons.

"Thank you." The words were a formality, but they came from her mouth like a sigh of relief that couldn't be translated properly. They came the same way someone said I love you, but it was somehow less, somehow holding herself back from such admittance. "S'not like I got a choice," she added with a hollow laugh, wiggling the wrist around his waist before remembering it wasn't there on this body.

"I'd be dead without him," she said assuredly. It wasn't the first time either. There were plenty of times Shun had risked his a** for her in wonderland too. Maybe those times didn't count since it had been an intricate dream, but Chel certainly counted them. "S'why I don't care about this stupid ******** war. Not when they ain't feedin' people the whole truth." She played with Jack's hair absently, leaning herself back against the tombstone and detached once more. "You know he said somethin' to me once. He said they get passports to go into the human world to scare people. I asked him why- if they just scarin' people- do so many hunters got stories about people killed by shadows. He asked me if I'd ever considered that Halloween got just as many sad stories from hunters killin' too." There was a slightly vindictive look on her face. "And you know what else? When Halloween s**t kills people, they locked up in jails and s**t. They got laws against it over here." She let out a long sigh and said, "We get rewarded."  

[medigel]

He made a thoughtful noise. "Passports...At least they regulate it." That was a pleasant surprise. "******** Deus recruits whoever says yes." A point he had made several times to her while expressing frustration with who was on the island.

"The organization could have been much better," Jack continued, wishing he could feel the way she played with his hair just a little more. "I don't know if you were in this shared alt-world dream, but a couple of years back I was part of one where Deus had never suffered 1999's fiasco. There were regulations, the town was in working capacity...people got sent there like it was a summer camp, and if they were interested they could enroll in school in the island if not live there. At 18, you could start hunter training, find internships with mentors...Nothing was forced, even if it was still a dangerous job." The more he spoke, the more wistful he got. While he wasn't a fan of the Jack who had grown up there, the layout of Deus was a hell of a lot better.  

[chiickadee]

"Sounds like hell," Chel still insisted. "Better, but ******** if I want my other options to be school or work. There was a distinct joke in her voice when she said, "One of these days I'll off myself so I can float around as a ghost here forever."

It was certainly strange to hear about a different timeline. It seemed there were so many.

"You okay to hear about horsemen?" she asked, not wanting to trigger any new exciting meltdowns. She had taken his advice earlier and was giving him a warning.  

[medigel]

Distinct joke or not, she was leveled a long look. "Go ahead," he said after a moment.  

[chiickadee]

Chel put soft lips on Jack's cheek to ask for forgiveness for the joke. It felt strange to have her teeth bump against skin with the action, and even stranger still for her to open her eyes and find pale skin greeting her. Not Nevada. Breathe.

She was somewhat more detached after that, letting her hands touch the tombstone by her side. She did like the wider posture that this body gave her.

Chel regaled Jack what very little she knew of horsemen. The fact that there had been a genocide (hunter caused, that was all she knew) and that horsemen had once been living with Halloween on a reserve of some sort. That at some point they'd grown too violent. That they'd disappeared one day.

"What's weird to me is that like ... these students lived ********' next door to these shits and don't got a single clue about 'em. Like their reactions are all mixed. One chick even said they were harmless."  

[medigel]

It was strange to him just to sit there and passively accept everything without giving something in return; even so, laying a hand on her shoulder still felt off. Jack still vastly preferred being in her position, at ease and with some control. Golems were a literal and metaphorical out of body experience to be sure.

He withdrew mentally and considered it all, letting his eyes fall over the bronze and brown dead vines across from them. "Worse," he murmured, "some of them think they're right. I saw one or two in the Sahara. What do you think they found in that tower?" That mission felt like forever ago now, and that was frightening to consider. All that time to hide and plot...  

[chiickadee]

"I don't know," Chel admitted. "It's what me and Shun keep in contact for. S'why I wanted to tell him about ... your thing. Now's not the time for any more secrets." She smiled, despite the sentiment. "I'm glad I got to tell mine. S'been a ********' nightmare." Her voice was quiet, soft and somewhere else.

She returned. "But if whatever it is can take out death itself..." Her fingers twitched into a fist. "I'll do my best to stand in front when the sword comes down on ya." She was somewhat proud of her ability to designate herself as protectorate, even if her eyes were on the dark Halloween sky.