Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hanna was working an extra shift when Jack's text arrived. She noticed it about 15 minutes later. "Interesting," she mused aloud, peeling off a disposable glove and tossing it in the trash. The extra work for the day had begun with some data processing, but ended in a less-than-desirable cleaning out of an old storage unit. With one hand brushing dust off her red shorts and black t-shirt, the other tapped out a quick response:



The last of the boxes were stacked, a quick sign out and wave goodbye to the supervising Hunter, and Hanna was hiking back to the dorms across the grass, tugging up the zipper on her gray hooded jacket with a Dia De Los Muertos skull emblazoned on the back. Like a lady. Excitement rippled through her, tugging a small smile onto her lips. It was stupid, she knew that. But Hanna seemed to be one of the only Hunters at Deus who managed not to get involved in a relationship -- for emotion or for sex -- and the tiny corner of herself that craved companionship welcomed this bizarre situation.

Jack was not the only Hunter she had been attracted to, sure, but he had been the one whom she had spent the most time with, aside from her female friends. Closeness breeds attraction, right? The logical side of her knew this. But her id wanted other things.

Since Jack got back from his mission, the two of them had not had time alone. The last conversation they had was about establishing this faux relationship to throw his people off the scent, and she hardly counted the zombie mission as time together. Just the idea of sitting in a room with him appealed. But from a logistical side, they had some things they had to iron out. Hanna was a mission-oriented kind of girl; she would not settle for failure.

The hallways of the first floor were familiar. She lived on the same floor, after all, and it took little time for her to find #163. Hanna gave one polite knock for warning, but then stepped into the room, pausing only to allow a few passerby to clearly see her entering Jack's room. "Hey, stranger," she said. "I briefly contemplated making a pizza delivery girl set up here, or maybe a plumber needing to lay some pipe bit, but I just got off a long shift and felt too tired for shtick. So, hi." Hanna smiled, taking in Jack's room for the first time.

Hanna unslung a messenger bag from her shoulder, resting it gently in a corner by the door. The sight of Jack with a guitar was a surprise to her, and in a very typical way, she felt more attracted to him in that moment than she probably would have if he was not holding it. It was perhaps more powerful because Hanna enjoyed the idea that there was much about Jack that she had left to uncover, a mystery she hoped to solve piece by piece. Here was just another.

Brushing off the 'sweetheart' comment, the Death trainee took another step into the room. She glanced down at his desk, taking in the calculations with a curious eye as she replied, "Pretty standard. Started better -- getting to do some actual data analysis and processing. Mostly pedestrian stuff that the Hunter I was helping out didn't want to bother with, but still. It was real. Even if it was baseline, I was doing something that required use of my brain." Cleanly trimmed nails reached out and flicked the edge of the dinosaur post-it. It didn't seem like Jack's style. So who left him the message? "And then, naturally, I was shoved off to reorganize some useless storage locker for the end of it. I feel like it is some kind of experiment in Death -- require trainees to repeatedly clean out and organize storage lockers, never knowing that they are actually just repeating a job someone else has already done. Collect data: how dedicated to pointless repetition are you? Apparently, judging by today, I'm earning high numbers there." Her eyes rolled, head shaking in a jaded side to side sway.

Hanna turned to face Jack then, leaning against his desk but careful not to disturb his papers. "You didn't strike me a yellow dinosaur post-it type," she said. "Then again, I didn't know you played either. Mysteries abound."

"Your friends and their jokes," Hanna said, raising her eyebrows for emphasis. She tugged the zipper of her hoodie up another inch and moved over to where the coffee was. The second drawer slid open, and she grabbed the first mug she saw. "Sorry, coffee wins over laps." Hanna poured her glass, left it black, and took a long sip, closing her eyes.

Drinking liquids while in bed didn't always end well for Hanna so she grabbed the chair from her desk and pulled it up beside Jack. "We do," she said, taking a seat. "How was your mission? You came back blond."

Her intention had been to catch up with Jack when he got back, but Hanna was busy, Jack was busy -- things happened. Before they could really dive into this cover relationship, she at least wanted to test the temperature on his mindset.

Hanna smiled behind the rim of her coffee, rolling her eyes. "Well, clearly our cover is blown now. Everyone knows about my legendary green hair fetish, goddamnit." She sat up. "In other news -- ex? This seems like something I should probably know." Most people at Deus were coupling, uncoupling, recoupling -- all kinds of coupling. So it didn't really matter to Hanna that Jack had gone on a mission with an ex. Why should it? Even if they had a real relationship, she wouldn't care.

That being said, this seemed like the sort of information that a girlfriend, fake or otherwise, would be privy to.

Hanna's expression remained impassive when he shared the name of the girl, though a spark of revelation did pop in her mind. She knew Stormy. She had, if she remembered correctly, actually met Stormy first, hadn't she? The Mist hunter had also been on that first mission where Hanna met Jack. She was pretty, feisty, kind -- at least had been that time. If anything, it sort of pleased Hanna. Stormy reflected some degree of good taste.

So it probably should have concerned Hanna that Stormy immediately turned and pushed Jack away.

"A lover scorned," she said mock dramatically, taking one last sip from her coffee and then setting it down beside Jack's. The chair squeaked as she leaned forward to check out the scars he offered. Her nail brushed the smooth skin around the scar. "So, Stormy -- check. Anything else I should know? At least history things that a girlfriend would know."

Hanna meant what she said, but she was also just curious. Her hand slipped away from Jack's arm and moved back to the coffee.

The coffee was a distracting perk, and Hanna missed the emotion that flashed through Jack's eyes. She was still working her way up the ranks and had not been able to secure the percolation station of her dreams. Perhaps this was another perk of hypothetically shacking up with Jack. Even if it was all for his sake, to get his friends off of his back.

Another girl he'd slept with on accident, when drunk. Hanna could relate to that before Deus. But on the island? She might as well have on a habit and marry herself to God for eternity. Her sex life was a Sahara of its own. A bit of drunken indulgence was fine by her in Maryland -- but here? There was so much more at stake. Her ambitious self grappled with her impulsive side endlessly. Until this point, ambition had won, but looking at Jack... well, Hanna was feeling her defenses slip like sand through her fingers.

Jesus Christ, this was a dangerous thing she was doing, for her.

A smile crossed her lips. Jack could be such an asshat, but it always was in a way she enjoyed for the most part. The intelligence he possessed was a no brainer, but there was something else, some darkness that appealed to her in the worst way. Staring at him was like seeing a glimpse of her future mistakes. Hanna just couldn't find a single ******** to give about it.

"I understand," she said, regarding him sleeping with a friend while drunk. "Though in the interest of full disclosure, I have remained... remarkably chaste here. I haven't had the slightest romantic interaction. No sleeping with anyone, not even..." Her words trailed off. "This is slightly embarrassing for me. But, I want this to be real for your tormentors so you have to know: I avoided getting involved with anyone because I thought it was compromise my ambition. Being put back in the pod for so long certainly helped. This is relevant, of course, because people who know me will find this thing between us unique, but understandable. I avoided getting connected to anyone for so long. I am going to need to sell the emotion and loneliness to my friends."

Hanna was being honest. Hanna was typically honest. But this particularly bit of it made her feel slightly exposed. She wanted to do this for Jack, but for herself too. Even a fake relationship could scratch the itch she had, maybe even satisfy it enough that she wouldn't have to ever cross the line into reality during her pursuit for an elevated position within Death.

"Who was the girl?" she added, hoping to cast the spotlight from herself.

"Chel," Hanna repeated dumbly. She knew the girl, most recently, from the insanity of the zombie mission. "Yes, I remember her. She's cute. Saved my a** on that last mission." It was a compliment, to Chel and by association to Jack. The girl had seemed a little simple to Hanna, which was more of her cause for concern. But perhaps there was more to her than that -- not like having drunk sex required anything more.

Words escaped her so Hanna relied once again on her coffee to fill the gaps. She drank it slowly, eyes flickering up to Jack when he spoke of limiting their interactions to the public. Truth be told, Hanna didn't expect him to be open to more, though she certainly was. If Jack wanted her right then, she would probably say yes. Probably.

But that didn't make it a smart thing to do. It sounded like danger, like giving up some ground. Hanna knew she liked Jack, and she was pretty sure her attraction ran deeper than his. There was her pride at stake here.

Slowly, she set her mug down, letting her eyes linger on it for an extra beat before glancing over to Jack. "Well," she said, letting the word fade out. A beat of silence lapsed. Then a laugh rolled out of her. Why did she feel so awkward about this? In Maryland, she would have been the aggressor. She would be on top of him already if the idea struck her. But at Deus? Everything was different.

"I don't want to be another useless Hunter," she said, "but I'm also not perfect. Let's focus on one thing at a time." The confidence of her smile returned. "I know we need to be convincing -- but who are the main players we need to convince? I take it Finn, based on our last mission. He seemed to be paying particular attention to you, to me near you. Have you voiced our relationship to anyone? I haven't yet, though sitting with you at Miss Deus did gain the attention of my friends. Easy to build off that."

It was easier when Hanna forced herself to be mission-oriented about this.