Welcome to Gaia! ::

Domestic

You surprised me the night we got drunk, he almost said, but instead he hummed a little more. "A little surprise here and there is fun," Jack said. "A little mystery is better. That's the point of life isn't it? Discovery. I didn't know you knew about random Greek trivia, for instance."

He grinned a little more. "Plot twist: maybe you've been the nerd all along."

Domestic

"How watery the water—" His stifled laugh turned into a small hiss when her hand met his, and his hand immediately balled into a fist beneath hers. "Jesus, watch it." How long had they been on watch? Was it about time to turn in? Jack yawned shortly after Chel did, and it made him aware of just how cold his face was when even stretching it seemed to sting.

Deciding he had indulged enough, he (reluctantly) took her hand out of his hair and stuffed it back into the other pocket, shuddering at the momentary loss of heat. "Unfortunately I don't have a story like that," he told her. "Only ones I know don't really have heroes. I could bore you to sleep, though."

Domestic

He knew that wasn't the reason at all, but it didn't stop him from eventually sighing and unclenching his fists, turning them over to help run some warmth back into her fingers. Stopping the hair strokes had to be met with something more than just sitting there. With a roll of his eyes at her tone, Jack considered his memories of stories and spoke in an undertone, like it was supposed to be a secret just between them.

"A long time ago, back when plants and animals could still talk, a tiger on the search for food in the forest fell down a deep hole. It wasn't able to climb out because the walls were too sheer, nor could it jump out because the walls were too high. When it called for help, nobody answered. It kept calling, hungry and exhausted, for days.

"Just when it thought it was doomed to die, the tiger heard footsteps and cried out in a hoarse voice for help. A man peered over the side of the pit." He affected a growling voice. "'Please help me!' the tiger wailed. 'Help me and I will never forget you for as long as I live!'

"The man felt sorry for the tiger, but he was suspicious of being eaten. 'I want to help,' he told the tiger, 'but I'm afraid of what will happen once you're free. I can't risk it. Forgive me, but I must be on my way.'

"'Please don't think like that!' the tiger begged. 'I promise I won't hurt you if you help me out. I'll be grateful for as long as I live! Please!'

"Eventually the man was moved by the tiger's pleas, and he brought a long log out to help it climb out. Once it was out of the hole, the tiger began to growl and encircle the man with hungry eyes.

'Is this how you repay my kindness?' cried the man with indignation. 'Where is your honor, creature? You promised me!'

'What do promises matter?' growled the tiger. 'I haven't eaten in days!'

"The man held his hands up. 'Wait! Let me ask the pine tree if it's right for you to eat me.' And the tiger agreed. The man then explained the situation to the pine tree."

He took on a reedy voice. "'Men!' spat the pine tree. 'What do men know of gratefulness? You take our leaves and limbs to burn and feed yourselves without a second thought. It takes us years to grow and seconds for you to destroy it. Moreover, a man dug that hole. Eat him if you want, tiger, for he deserves nothing less.'

'Wait!' cried the man again as the tiger began to approach. 'Let's ask that ox if it's right for you to eat me!' And the tiger agreed once again. The man explained their predicament to the ox and asked for his opinion.

A deeper, grifter voice. "'There's no question as to what you should do,' said the ox. 'Eat him! We ox work diligently for man even at a young age: we plow their fields and carry their heavy burdens. But what do they do when we grow old? They kill us and use our hides for their own purpose. Satisfy your hunger, tiger, for man is an ungrateful beast.'

"'You see, everyone agrees,' said the tiger as it crouched. 'Now stand still and this will be over quickly.'

"The man swore he was about to die. But then he saw a rabbit moving through the field and cried out, 'Wait! Let me have one last chance, let us ask the rabbit what it thinks.'

'What does it matter?' asked the tiger. 'The answer will be the same.' But the man convinced it eventually, and so they went to the rabbit and explained everything that had happened.

"The rabbit listened carefully and stroked one of its long ears." Just as he was idly stroking her fingers. "After a while it looked at them and spoke slowly and deliberately. 'I understand the positions you both are in. But if I'm to make a wise judgement, I need to see it for myself. Lead me to the pit.'

"So the two of them brought the rabbit to the hole. 'It certainly is deep,' said the rabbit as he looked down, and then he turned to the tiger. 'You said you were down there?' And then to the man, 'And you were standing right here? Can you both get into position so that I may make a judgment?'

"The tiger leapt into the hole without a second thought. He was too hungry and impatient for this to be over so that he could eat the man.

"'So this is how it went,' summarized the rabbit. 'You, the tiger, fell into this hole and couldn't get out. You, the man, heard its cries for help and came to investigate. Now I can make a judgment. The problem began when this man tried to help that tiger out of the pit. Had he not shown the tiger any kindness, he would have been well on his way home. Therefore my solution is that the man should continue his journey and the tiger should remain in the pit. Good day to you both,' said the clever rabbit, and he hopped away."

Domestic

"I didn't say it would: all I said was I don't know ones about heroes. Not like every story has either." He licked his lips and wished he had thought to bring water along for their so-called watch; the story for sure had dried his throat thanks to the weather.

Puffing a breath of air to watch it float up, he looked down at how effortlessly she had accommodated herself and couldn't help but wryly smile. "Only thing I'm in danger of is getting stuck in this chair apparently. Shall I drop you off at your place?" he asked with a cavalier tone, wiggling their hands in their pockets so Chel didn't actually fall asleep on him.

Domestic

Chel might have imagined the slight resistance she met with her second and successful action to peel away.

"Will do," he replied with a tiny salute, entertained by the attempt to keep warm even as he was forced to zip up and jam his hands on his pockets again to try and seal in the escaping warmth. It didn't seem to matter after the friendly kiss on the cheek, though: not with the second's delay, the meeting of the eyes, the ensuing chill that came anyway (watching her head towards a tent that wasn't hers, because of course he had made a point to know who was where for the same of labels and spacial memory) and said ah that's right this is how it is.

"Night," he said some time after.

Jack forced himself up with a full-body shiver, grabbed his pad, and made his way to Aly's tent, where she was awakened with a few nudges of his foot and some muttered orders. Her reaction didn't matter much; once she was up, he quickly made his way to his tent where he promptly collapsed into his sleeping bag and bunkered down for a hard night of sleeping.

Once

Done with her, he says. Finn says a lot of bullshit in his time, but this is by far the most important.

Now she's in the doorway of the life labs- time seemed to pass so quickly? How did she get here? All she can feel is her chest heaving, so she must have run. This is the logical conclusion.

Jack's over his papers- he's always writing something down isn't he?- and doesn't look up when she screeches to a hault, slamming into the desk (shouldn't that have hurt more?). She's breathing so hard (why so hard?) but there's a smile on her face- she can't help it because Jack ******** Hawthorn broke up with Hanna.

There's a heavy silence only filled with Jack's pen scratching on paper and the heavy air that's coming from her lungs. The clock slows and the moment goes on for one

second

too ...

long .....

"Well?"

"Mmm?"

"... I mean ... well!"

He looks at her with bored eyes.

"Y- I mean- you broke up- so I- are we?"

"No."

"No what?"

"When did I imply I was available?"

She blinked a few times, and she feels her heart drop to her stomach. She knows exactly what he means, but she questions it. "I- I just thought-"

"Exactly, you just thought. I'm not available."

She feels rage at the man who won't even look her in the eyes to stay it, but she can't move, she can't breathe. "Well ... s**t. You mean you need time to get over it? I ... yeah okay, I guess that's fair." Owain and Jack appear to be having a conversation, from the look in his eyes, but she can't tell because she can never tell. "I ... I guess I'll just. I don't know, I'm still ******** here." She can feel tears, but she's breathing hard and she won't let them happen. "I'm always going to be here." Is she talking to Jack or herself. "You know, whenever you're <******** ready." She's angry, it's growing, it's building.

"Then you should be elsewhere."

Her underlying fear- the one she dreads most and whispers in the dead of night- is one that only Jack has the key to unlock. The reason Chel doesn't, and has never resented Hanna is because she knows that Hanna is not an obstacle. If Chel is a storm then Jack is a typhoon- he is a thundering maelstrom and no singular girlfriend would ever stand in his way of getting what he wanted. He is his only restriction, and even if he broke up with Hanna, even if had never been with Hanna, Chel's underlying fear is that he will not want her regardless. Chel's utmost fear is that she has thrown all of herself at Jack and none of it has mattered at all. That it would never matter. That there would never be a chance for her. The fear she dreads most, that keeps her up at night is that she is broken beyond repair, she is a defective model of a human being.

But dyslexia doesn't have to keep a kid down. With some help and a lot of hard work, a kid who has dyslexia can learn to read and spell.

She's in the hallway now and she's walking away. (How did she get here? Why did she leave? It's strange, she can't remember the transition, only where she was and where she is). There's a dark figure in the hallway and he reaches his hand out to her. "I've found another student. Are you willing?"

"Can you ******** not right-"

"Are you willing?" The figure removes it's hood (he never had a hood- or did he? She can't remember now) and it's Nevada, she's smiling so beautifully even though her body saps every part of light from the room, and it's pulling on Chel, Chel's taking a step towards her- "Okay," she says, "Okay, okay" and now she's burying her face into the shadowy shoulder of a girl she once loved who is dead-

And then there are teeth. They fill up the room and crunch and they snap every bone in her body.

She wakes up, and Dawson is there, he's breathing evenly. She sits and recognizes, as she does most nights, that it's getting worse. Merlin is mixing with Jack and Dawson is crawling from the floorboards. It's not healing with time, it's festering and it's growing into a hideous cacophany of waking up screaming, crying, bleeding, vommitting, feeling dead.

She went to the bathroom to wash off her makeup, and she brought her phone with her.

Morning Gossip

Wren laughed a silvery laugh but her eyes were dark glints. "Just checking," she said conversationally, as if Chel's apparent overreaction was expected. "You never know while on the job, of course. A friend of mine told me a gruesome story once—"

Jack sighed as the Lifer launched into her story which, if it was to be believed, was about how her friend had to fend off several people who had absconded for some time alone and come back infected with red eye. He tried to catch Chel's gaze before rolling his eyes using slightly more force than necessary to stab at his food: kill me now.

"—which is why I suggest we stay in groups of three today, now that I'm on the subject," Wren was telling the group. "Investigating the portal shouldn't be difficult with those barriers you put up, but it's no doubt attracted if not created a few nuisances we should be wary of."