rexbox | The Great Jack-Off of 2014

The Great Jack-Off of 2014

Maybe you took the wrong turn in Fort Frolic, and found yourself in 'Gallery of Narcissus' (which is of course a Hall of Mirrors). Or, maybe you're rich enough to have a huge walk-in-closet, and while you walked in looking for the light, you just kept going. Or maybe you lost track of where you were wandering in the haze of an ADAM high.

Or some other reason - it doesn't matter. Because now, Jack, you're wandering through a labyrinth of mirrors, and no matter where you turn, you see your face.

You're pretty sure that's your face. You're pretty sure that's you, but - is it moving the same way you are? Are you sure?

((ooc: SO THIS IS HOW IT'S GOING TO GO - first comment/tag wherever in a thread, you list your Jack's info in the thread title, NAME / AU / TIMELINE. Example: Jack Wynand - Good End - Post-Game, or Jack Ryan | Batya | Chapter Nine, or Jackie•FemJack Harvester•Neptune's bounty and so on and so forth. Pretty it up as much as you want but have that basic info in there for your first tag so we know what we're working with!

And after that...! Tag around. We don't have to cram up in one thread! Different Jacks could be meeting at different times, form adventuring parties, cross paths with another pack of Jacks, whatever.

For now we're in a standard multiverse meet up kind of thing, but I figure everyone's acquainted, we could start moving to other locations! :D))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Jack hasn't been paying attention to where the elevator was headed. Why would he? It's a fucking elevator, it goes up and it goes down, it's not like it could make a wrong turn! So it's completely reasonable for him to shut off for a second, to quit being so attentive about his surroundings, and focus on undoing as much of the last two hours as he could.

The suit's easy, the voicebox a little less so, but he carried extra first aid kits in. Some careful work with an ex-nurse's compact mirror and first aid serum later, and he can speak again (though his neck hurts too much to try, just yet). The smell - he has no idea where to start, but he doesn't give a shit. Hell, maybe it'll even distract Fontaine. And if Frank manages to kill him some how, then he's the one stuck dealing with the stench instead.

Except, by the time he's finished all of that, he notices the elevator's stopped moving, and the doors are open, but the hall beyond it is... It's not dark, he can see the walls just fine. He can also see that they're mirrored, which is a little over-the-top but not something completely out of place in Rapture, he's sure. He picks up his guns and stuff, and sets out cautiously into the hall. He was expecting some dramatic confrontation with Fontaine, not another bullshit diversion!

Someone's shouting outside the Prêt-à-Porter. O'Brian heads off to investigate; Jack only lets him out of her sight for a few seconds before she follows, sweater in one hand and revolver in the other.

Outside the doorway, she doesn't find O'Brian. She does find a lot of mirrors that weren't there before.

That's a new one.

She doesn't call out. Instead she stills, looking around with her eyes narrowed, figuring out which of the walkways is really a walkway, and which is just a reflection of a walkway. Looks for imperfections in the glass that'll give them away. Looks for obvious reflections that'll narrow down the actual routes. Wonders, with a bit of desperation that she's not used to, what the purpose of this new test is.

Then she sets out cautiously into the hall.

She's not looking at it right now, but one of her reflections -- it's not her.

She's not looking, but he is. He raises his pistol and slows his pace. But she's moving sort of smoothly, with less swinging and twitching than a splicer would. Also - she seems to be maskless, and not horribly mutilated.

... He squints. There's something off with her. He's not sure what.

One thing's for sure: She's not Fontaine. Maybe she knows where he is. Or maybe she doesn't - but either way.

He aims, and then he -- nnnope nope nope, nevermind, He can't talk, not yet - trying feels like he just swallowed a ball of razor blades, and he swears something moved that shouldn't--

Alright. Alright, fine. No interrogations for now. He'll just... Follow. See if she knows where she's going.

Edited 2014-02-23 22:27 (UTC)

Hahaha not even slightly.

She sees his movement out of the corner of her eye, but then, with the mirrors, she's seeing a lot of movement out of the corner of her eye right now. But then again, her torso is green (her shirt) rather than cream and oxblood (his sweater), and the weaponry makes his silhouette noticeably different, and -- okay, while the first time she catches a glimpse she doesn't realise right away, the second time she's had time to catch up and that momentary glimpse spells Someone Else There.

Jack stops moving, swings her revolver around, and looks at him full on.

She was half hoping it'd be O'Brian. But instead it's a stranger, standing behind glass. A stranger whose face is nonetheless ringing a bell. A stranger with a gun on her.

A frown and narrowed eyes are all the question she voices for now.

Well that wasn't as productive as he hoped. All it's ended is with her pointing a gun at him. He's still aiming at her though, so they've got something of a standoff going it seems, and no way for him to negotiate.

... There's something familiar in her eyes, and at the bridge of her nose, he thinks. Maybe elsewhere on her face, but he's not sure what, and that really bothers him. But - but he's got to focus. Her face isn't the problem, here.

His own eyes are narrowed, not just with suspicion (and an attempt to uncover where he's seen her), but determination. He's after something, and she might be in his way.

Yeah, as Lutwidge might say it's a real chess stalemate between chess players, playing chess, with chess pieces. In the Deep Blue, haha, see what he did there? Chess.

Jack hasn't even met Lutwidge yet, so she's unbothered by such thoughts.

She keeps her gun pointed at the man. But -- he already had her in his sights when she turned around, and yet he hadn't fired. He's watched her without shooting. Everything she's woken up understanding tells her that strangers tend to shoot before they ask questions, and should be treated accordingly -- but first there was O'Brian, and now there's this man.

Maybe he's the right kind of person too? He does seem familiar, though she's sure she hasn't seen anyone like him around the labs.

Her frown deepens. But it's in thought as much as challenge.

She's... she's gonna go with a hunch. Actually, less a hunch than a theme she's noticed. A theme among the people she's met today who seemed Right.

"Are you Irish too?"

She hopes he can hear her through the glass.

He can hear it, even if it's slightly muffled. And instantly that suspicious, determined look switches to straight, eyebrow-raising 'is she serious' confusion.

He shakes his head, but doesn't take his eyes off her since she still has that gun.

But hey, she can talk, she can ask questions, maybe that means she can answer them too.

He edges closer, trying to hammer out the last details of how he's going to do this, exactly. Well... He keeps his gun pointed in her direction, more or less, even as he gets close enough to touch the glass in between them. And then, he hesitates... He doesn't want to lower his weapon, but in fairness he sort of drew on her first. So, for a moment, it's not pointed as strongly as it could be at her, and he moves his face close to the glass. He takes a deep breath, and fogs the glass up.

In the seconds he has, he writes: WHO?, and then he stands back, his gun is raised again, and he jerks his head towards her, to indicate that she's the one he's asking about. As if there's anyone else around.

Well, that was a weird reaction. And probably one that means 'no'?

Or 'yes and how did you know'.

Or... something. It's hard to decipher incredulous looks sometimes. O'Brian seems to use them for all sorts of situations.

What she does understand, though, is that the man can't talk. Between the throat scars and the writing, that one's pretty easy. She almost feels bad for the guy. But not bad enough to lower her weapon.

"Really?" she says, because that's the second time today someone hasn't recognised her. It makes a bit more sense now, she's figured out that maybe meeting strangers is a part of the scenario, but it's still pretty weird. Hopefully she's doing the right thing by answering truthfully. They've never encouraged her towards any particular deception.

"Jack."

Jack's expression doesn't change at the 'really'. Though, come on, you can't expect someone you've never met to not ask that, right?

But then, she answers, and Jack's looking confused again. Not completely incredulous, mind, because he's seen some serious shit by now, but one of his eyebrows makes a break for his hairline, and his mouth slants like he's not sure whether to laugh or frown.

He shakes his head again, but not as much as the first time, because really, this was ridiculous. There's no way that this woman's name is also Jack. Besides, wasn't that a guy's name, anyway? That couldn't be right.

He risks breathing on the glass again, to freshen up his first question, and then jabs his finger towards her, in case she misinterpreted that nod as him asking her if she knew who he was? Or something??

She frowns again. Did he... not like that answer? It was true, so she doesn't see why he would disbelieve her.

Maybe he wants her full name?? But almost nobody uses her full name. To papa Suchong she's "you", to papa Fontaine she's "kid" or "Jack", to other scientists she's various numbers and designations. Only mama Tenenbaum calls her by her full name, and it's usually when she's being scolded.

Still, she gives it, grudgingly.

"Jacklyn?"

There, is that better?

Both eyebrows go up this time, but not as far at least. Oh, so uh. He guesses it could be a girl name. Still, it's a hell of a coincidence. But, he nods this time. Just once, to show that he got it that time.

He gets close to the glass again - and he's getting a little less slow and cautious with each approach.

He writes another small word on the glass.

JACK

Then he jerks his thumb at himself.

So you can see why he was confused.

Yeah, she's taken her finger off the trigger by now, though she still has the gun in hand and slightly raised. More and more, the situation seems -- confusing, rather than dangerous.

She moves a little closer to the glass, just a step or two, still a comfortable distance away.

Without a lot of life experience, it's hard to know what to make of coincidences. But that's a pretty neat coincidence. And overwhelmingly, she's used to things like that being engineered.

Dudejack might be confused, but this Jack gets a look of understanding. She nods.

It must be a deliberate part of the test.

The only question is what she's supposed to do with it.

Well, uh, good for her for not looking as confused. It puts just a little bit of suspicion back on Jack's face that she takes it so plainly, but... Either she knows something, or she's just better at this than him somehow.

Hopefully it's the former.

There's only one other question he really wants to know the answer to, and unfortunately it might take more than four letters to ask.

He looks at the glass between them, thinks about it, and takes a huge breath.

As quick as he can, he writes: FONTAINE?

And there's another thing she has trouble interpreting. Is he asking where Fontaine is? Is he asking if she knows Fontaine? (Actually, scratch that -- it can't be that, everyone knows Fontaine.) Is he asking... something else entirely? Scrawled one-word questions are tricky. It's a bit obnoxious of him to be mute, really.

Jack glances up at the ceiling, and across, wondering if she'll spot a security camera, reminded that she must be being surveyed. Maybe the man is asking if Fontaine's watching them right now. Well, she has no way of knowing that. Sometimes he graces the tests with his presence, sometimes he doesn't.

"He might be there?"

''Might''. He'd better be here. He nods, looking grim.

He writes again: WHERE

This seems like a good point to place a reminder that Jack has a lot of blood on his sweater, and not all of it is from his DIY throat surgeries.

Hey, if he does a test badly enough to get blood all over him, that's not Jacklyn's problem.

...Is he doing tests? It's possible. There are other girls here having lessons and tests as well, although she only sees them rarely. On the other hand, she's never seen a person her apparent age running tests. Or a man, for that matter. And theirs have never overlapped with hers.

But if he's not running his own test, he must be a part of hers, just like O'Brian. She narrows her eyes and wishes they'd give her more of a clue about what to do here.

They've put a dangerous-looking man here, looking for Papa Fontaine. And they've put together a scenario that seems pretty nonlinear, which maybe means they want her making decisions as well as just solving problems; unusual, but not unheard-of.

Do they want her to... not help him?

She's not sure. But it's worth mentioning that she's been standing here puzzling over this, instead of answering, for a lot of seconds.

He waits.

She's taking a conspicuously long time to answer. So whats her angle then? Is she working for him? Or is she weighing the risks of betraying him? Or does she honestly not know?

Jack's shoulders get more tense. He can feel his hand tingle with the need to slap it against the glass, as if that'd remind her to answer (or startle it out of her), but he's at least together enough to realize she still has her gun, and startling her might not be the best idea. Even if he's pretty sure he can handle getting shot once.

His head tilts a little, so he's glaring at her with a little more intensity, waiting for the answer.

She's not sure. She's not sure. So she chooses an answer at random and runs with it, because there's nothing more useless than staying still.

Jack opens her mouth, and carefully asks a question that she doesn't ask very often:

"Why?"

Ha. He's not sure he has the breath to sufficiently get across the why. He rolls his eyes, a little. Because, really, this is what's holding him up?

This is useless, he decides. He steps back, shaking his head, and then waves his hand, motioning her to move aside.

She moves, ever obliging, sideways and back several paces.

But she keeps a tight hold of her gun, because she has an idea of what he might be about to do.

If her idea was 'shoot the glass' then she is completely correct!

When she's out of the way, Jack's gun is raised again and he shoots the glass. It shatters impressively easy, actually, compared to the panes in the rest of Rapture. In fact, there's enough room for him to step through, if he's willing to tap a few pieces here or there for a clearer route.

It's probably a good thing that that WAS her idea, because otherwise she might be startled into shooting at him. As it is, she trains the gun on him firmly again. She's very aware of the barrier between them being removed.

Go ahead with stepping through if you're going to step through, man.

Don't mind if he does, thanks!

She still has the gun on him. So hey, he's got his pointed back at her too, but it's more insurance. 'Yeah, yeah, I have a gun too. What are you going to do about it?'

Actually, that's a good question. He raises his eyebrow. If he wanted to shoot her, he'd have shot her already, right? Still, he kind of wants to head in the direction she's blocking. So other than that eyebrow, he wiggles the gun as another silent request for her to step aside.

This time, she doesn't move.

They wouldn't put someone so clearly important in her path if she was supposed to be letting him go, right? She's been trained in a lot of things, fighting and killing prominent among them. Her training has had a conspicuous lack of letting people go.

Of course, a harder question is: what is she supposed to do?

"...where's O'Brian?"

It's natural for someone raised in a tiny environment to operate on the assumption that everybody knows everybody.

Jack blinks, squints, and tilts his head. Who? Name doesn't ring a bell.

... But it sounds suspiciously Irish.

The Great Jack-Off of 2014

Jack Wynand | Good End | Literally just before confronting Fontaine

Jack Wynand | Girl End | chapter 4 of a fic i didn't even start publishing yet

Re: Jack Wynand | Girl End | chapter 4 of a fic i didn't even start publishing yet

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i'm not going to apologise for this question

honestly i'm staring harder at 'right kind of person'

jackcest is on the horizon already

now neither of us will be virgins!

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