[PRP] Who Knew (Joy and Jason)

[Huni Pi]

The intermediate trainee always dragged her feet when it came to POD duty on the best of days. Today, she was sorely tempted to skip out on it, take a hit for her insubordination, or try to bribe someone to take the duty from her (admittedly she'd been trying like mad but failed to swap out). She was left with no choice in the matter. She was going to have to do POD duty with a certain other Moon that she was not really looking forward to seeing.

Cautiously, Joy peeked into the room then tried (and failed) not to grimace when she saw the tall blond Moon. "Heeeeeey, Jason," she awkwardly greeted, biting the bullet and just getting it over with. Sure, she might have considered quietly slipping in and letting him learn she was there on his own time but, eh, Joy was the sort to burn the bridge once she got there.

poke mattix

 

[poke mattix]

The moon in question was currently sitting on a nearby chair, glumly looking at the sleeping occupants in the PODs and feeling sorry for himself when he heard a very familiar voice.

"JOY!" He squeaked, leaned back on his chair and, in a spectacular show on clumsiness, flailed and fell backwards

"Ugh..." Jason rubbed his head (it had hurt more too, dam the lack of fear shield), then he saw Joy again and was up in his feet.

"Oh my god - J-joy are y-you okay - of course you aren't I was so - did I hurt you badly -"

He continued to stammer on in broken sentences until he just sighed, flopped on the ground and looked like he would burst into tears.

" I'm so sorry Joy I'm the worst a*****e in the world.

Huni Pi

 

[Huni Pi]

Joy was witnessing one massive emotional whiplash in the form of Jason going from one reaction to another. The initial awkward smile she had froze into a grin of utter confusion. All she could do was stand there and stare as Jason flailed about like a certain green muppet.

When her fellow Moon settled down on the floor, Joy couldn't help but glance left and then right, half expecting some other hunters to pop out with runic'd cameras while singing some sort of jingle about being on a gag-show. But then it became apparent to even Joy that Jason was seriously upset, she didn't think twice about kneeling down to his level.

"Hey, hey, relax, calm down. I, uh, why are you apologizing?" she ended up asking, patting Jason in what she hoped was comfortingly on the shoulder.

poke mattix

 

[poke mattix]

Joy was not the first to be asking these questions, and Jason knew it. But he could not prevent himself from trying to show remorse for his actions. Even if they weren't his fault or even by his own doing.

"B-because I hurt you!" He sat up, meaning to go but decided perhaps he should clarify. "W-well, it wasn't 'me' who hurt you. It was someone in my body who looked like me. But it was me me, it w-was a, like, evil me. And he was a horrible person w-who beat you up while I just watched." Gods, he wanted to cry just thinking about it.

"Y-you were treated so horribly..a-and the things that were said!" He sniffled, trying his best not to make a emotional mess of himself. "I'm s-so sorry..."

Huni Pi

 

[Huni Pi]

"Wait, wait, tekaminute," Joy raised both hands in a visual attempt to ask Jason to calm down. "Breathe in, breathe out," she proceeded to talk to him about the intake of oxygen, "Okay, first thing muna, you were not beating me up. Please lang," she scoffed jokingly, "Second, yeah you were acting like someone else. I'm super bitchy and cranky when I'm hungry and I just woke up. Don't even when I'm on my period on top of those," the flippant reaction was a clear indication that Joy did not actually get what Jason was trying to tell her.

poke mattix

 

[poke mattix]

Jason stopped panicking for a few moments to do as instructed. Taking in a big gulp of air and breathing out. It did seem to calm him. At least a little.

"B-but..." He tried to protest from the floor. It seemed Joy either didn't realize what he was talking about, or she just didn't care. Which was...okay. At least she wasn't angry or upset. Still, he did have to do something about what he did.

"O-oh..." Well it was understandable for women to get upset about...those issues, he wasn't about to say much about it. "O-okay..."

A pause, then he recalled something. "You're language is great and it's amazing you know how to speak both your language and English!" He said this in a rush.

Huni Pi

 

[Huni Pi]

The earlier amusement on Joy's face dwindled down to nothing when Jason brought up her dual languages. Her brows knitted together less out of confusion and more from suspicion. With narrowed eyes, Joy scrutinized him, "Are you trying to make fun of me? Or do you need something from me?"

It wasn't that she was angry or hostile but getting praise like this when there seemed to be no conversational lead up was not something the trainee was accustomed to.

poke mattix

 

[poke mattix]

Her sudden suspicion had Jason freaking out even more. "N-n-no! Nothing like that. I-it's just the other me, the fake me, had said your language was bad and I thought that was incredible mean so I just wanted to say h-how great it was. Honest!"

He shrunk from her scrutinizing gaze, hunched over and fretting over her judgment.

Huni Pi

 

[Huni Pi]

Joy was just blinking mostly at Jason as he continued to babble and then it finally clicked. "Fake you." she repeated, "Fake you. This uh doesn't have anything to do with like the Legacy thingies you and Sammy were talking about, does it?"

poke mattix

 

[poke mattix]

With a dramatic sigh Jason relaxed. For someone that was supposed to be her senior he sure didn't feel like he was. "Yes. Yes it d-does."

He finally stood up then, dusting himself off and looking tired. "I believe I was possessed by the violet legacy...I wasn't in c-control of my body, a-and I could only watch as I...a-as I..."

It was clear the moon was distressed, by the way he focused his attention on the pods instead of Joy, holding one arm with a tight grip to keep his hands from shaking.

Huni Pi

 

[Huni Pi]

Joy initially crouched down beside Jason, in fact she ended up seated cross-legged on the floor. "Well. s**t." What else could she have said?

When he stood up, she mirrored him. She didn't touch him, much as she wanted to give him a reassuring hug. But she could see the anxiety in the mien of his stance and she didn't think it a good idea to come into contact without his go-ahead.

"Are you back in control? Like, fully back?"

poke mattix

 

[poke mattix]

"Y-yes. I am..." He trailed off. He was in control, but for how long?

He glanced at Joy, noticing how guarded she looked. Perhaps she was worried he might lose it again. He relaxed his grip the other arm, but didn't fully relax . It was hard to be causal at the moment when he was so tensed up.

"I-i'm fully back...I j-just need to find out what happened, see what c-caused it." And make sure 'he' could never come back.

He grew quiet, glancing her over. Making sure there were no injures. "...Are you sure you're okay? That you're not hurt" Yes, he was still worried about joy. "N-not that I'm saying you can't defend yourself or anything, c-cause you definitely got some good blows on me!!"

Huni Pi

 

[Huni Pi]

Joy cocked her head to the side as she thought, "Yeah, I'm okay. But, gotta say I'm sorry that I didn't realize it wasn't you you sooner. Or, like, at all." She rubbed the back of her neck, "I guess that makes me a shitty friend. I shoulda figured stuff out sooner. And after that crazy thing turning us into kids, I oughta have it in the front of my mind."

So she held out her hand to him. "Hi, I'm Ligaya delos Santos, I'm from the Philippines. Nice to meet you, let's be friends!"

poke mattix

 

[poke mattix]

Now Jason just looked confused. "W-what? W-why are you apologizing? N-no it doesn't! He wasn't me but he still looked like me. It's not the easiest thin to detect legacy related things, after all."

Then he went to confused to completely dumbfounded. Was that her name she just said? It must of been. Slowly he just raised his own hand and took hers. "I'm...Jason Kenneth...Nice to meet you...y-yes of course!"

Huni Pi

 

[Huni Pi]

"Okie den!" Joy said, vigorously shaking Jason's hand before letting go to sit down on the chairs. "I think we've officially restarted our friendship like you do with Windows 95." The Moon trainee was podded before the later versions of the OS would come out.

She patted the seat beside hers, "C'mon, sit down and let's get this chore done with. We can learn more stuff about each other and heck, even our weapons too!"

poke mattix