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PIC PROMPTS / TFLN / RANDOM SCENARIO
HAN SOLO velocities	BETTY MCRAE bombsheller	RIVER TAM subsulcus	RIVER TAM (AU) comprehender
SIMON TAM vest	BRIA THAREN exulted	NADINE CROSS bridaled	GU JUN-PYO toddler
available on special request: veronica sawyer, benjamin linus, imani, maria deluca, mushu, poseidon, niccolò machiavelli, malik al-sayf, chloe

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[ shit. shit shit shit shit shit. jess actually looks around for a second, checks out the window for blue and red. hopefully he isn't there, because the physical reaction does not match what she texts back. ]

I did a lot today
Gotta be more specific

[ no, he's still at home; he's in his room, with the door open. at home with his aunt in light of the news, both where he most and least wants to be right now. ]

William Baker?
Ring any bells?

[ jessica makes a point, most of the time, to not drink in front of the kid. they see each other in person rarely enough that it usually isn't an issue. texting is different, though, and there is no other reason for her not to take a swig right now. ]

Yeah
Stole something from a client they wanted back

[ for a second, he considers the possibility that she's telling the truth. he really does. ]

No
There's no way this is a coincidence

Why does it matter?
He's in jail

[ there are a lot of things she almost sends after that, but none of them make it past being animated dots on his end of the message. they're all either flippant ("Criminal + jail = good") or too heartfelt ("Go hug your aunt") for her to do anything but erase them.

the dots stop after a couple minutes. ]

Why does it matter???
Are you serious
Of course it matters
I looked

[ and now it's his turn to have the endless "..." as he types and backspaces ]

I looked for a long time
I didn't ask you for anything

[ it's a while before she responds. she's busy finishing off the last bottle of whiskey and opening another, among other things. this right here is one of the many reasons she stays away from people. ]

I had a case and I closed it
Be pissed if you want
I don't give a shit

[ there's no real anger to it. just resignation, and the familiar instinct to push away. ]

[ jessica takes her time, and peter's -- had enough. he makes sure the door to his room closes with the softest of clicks, so he can put on the suit and go

anywhere.

swinging around the city, feeling the bite of cold wind even through the suit, helping people, it all helps him blow off steam. even just not having to pretend, for ten minutes, that he's a normal kid. pretending that he can't climb up the side of a building with his bare hands, or jump a fence taller than he is in a single bound, or catch a careening car full of people. being spider-man feels more like being himself than being peter parker does a lot of days. and it's always helped with those hot, messy feelings of guilt and regret. he can't go back and save his uncle or even stop his killer, apparently, but he can stop it from happening again to some other family. to someone else's uncle ben, or someone else's aunt may.

that's the point of spider-man.

his phone buzzes while he's helping a little girl get back to her mom -- crowds, man, it's so easy to lose people -- so he doesn't see it till later, sitting with his legs dangling off the top of a building. ]

YOU DIDN'T HAVE A CASE
I never asked you for anything
I didn't even TELL you about it because
Because I didn't want to and it wasn't any of your business!
Fine forget it
I don't know why I asked

[ peter hides behind his mask, behind being better than a pissed off teenager. behind saving people.

jessica hides in her apartment. the bullet holes are spackled over and the door sits properly on its hinges again, but there's still a gaping hole in the wall to her bedroom. it's not unusual for her to piss people off when trying to do something right, but... she hides behind alcohol and isolation and with the rolling nausea of fuzzy memories about a little boy whose last words to her had been angry, of a gameboy smashed against the rear passenger door.

she hides behind main street. birch street. higgins drive. cobalt lane.

and she doesn't text him back for two whole days. it takes finally telling trish about it and getting what she assumes was trish's version of a come to jesus talk to realize she probably shouldn't leave it at that. ]

Believe me or don't
But I know what it's like
To have someone out there that did something to you that you can't fix
I wanted to help

[ here's what jessica doesn't know. or, maybe she does, or maybe she'll figure it out. anyway, jessica isn't the only person trish talked to. she didn't give him a lot of details about jessica's past or anything, but she did ask him to try understanding.

and looking back on things, he does kind of feel like a jerk. ]

I'm sorry I yelled at you
Um
Capslocked at you???
Same thing I guess

[ that is a much quicker turn around than she was expecting. it's a little disconcerting, and she'd continue being disconcerted if she wasn't so relieved. which is another thing that's disconcerting, because she shouldn't give a shit if some teenager is mad at her or not. ]

It's fine
I've had worse

[ probably not the most reassuring thing to say but it's what she's got. ]

That sucks
I didn't mean to get mad at you
I mean
I wasn't really mad AT YOU

[ well, maybe a little. but shhh. ]

You did a good thing
That guy shouldn't be on the streets

[ "you did a good thing." it's such a small sentence and it should not make her feel a single goddamn thing, and yet... ]

He shouldn't
And you shouldn't have had to do it
That's all it was
Unless you want me to break him out so you can catch him again

[ aaaaand back to being flippant. ]

Uh, no
That's okay
Thanks
Definitely don't want to do that

[ so are they good now? is this them being good? she's pretty sure it is, but it's weird. ]

Okay then
Good
Gotta tell you tho I did get a good punch in before he fainted like a baby and I turned him in

[ they're okay. he still doesn't love what she did, but he'll get over it, he thinks. ]

You didn't have to do that

[ he does almost smile at the image, and then he feels bad about it. besides, maybe this william baker guy tried to hurt her? then yeah, she would've had to protect herself ]

Or maybe you did idk
I couldn't have caught him

I know I didn't
But he did deserve it

[ she isn't touching whether or not he could've. that's his assessment and his alone. one thing jess knows for sure is that if anyone else could've taken care of kilgrave, she would've let them. ]

[ he used to look, at first. he used to look a lot. but the trail got colder, and time went on, and he had to ask himself what he'd even do if he caught this guy. how much of his life was he going to waste on trying to find this one guy? he wouldn't have any proof or anything to turn him in.

peter doesn't think he would've hurt william baker. that's not what he does. that's not what he uses his powers for. but, also, it's scary to think about, isn't it? what if, because he's grieving, because he's mad, what if he slipped? what kind of person would that make him? someone who uses super powers to hurt regular people?

in other words: a bad guy. ]

Yeah, no kidding
Did he
Say anything?

"Who the fuck are you"
And
"Ow"

[ when jessica confronted her own demon in the end, she'd snapped his neck, and if that makes her a bad guy she accepts it with open arms. when she confronted peter's she'd reminded him of what he'd done. and he had denied it, and then he'd gotten defensive and angry. and then she'd punched him in the gut at about a quarter strength, because it wasn't her fight. because she'd wanted it to hurt. and if that makes her a bad guy too, she can't find it in her to care too much about it.

peter doesn't need to know what that bastard had said when he'd gotten defensive. ]

Oh
Yeah I guess he would've

[ kilgrave wasn't an ordinary person, though. he was one of those super powered people hurting and killing ordinary people. which kinda -- goes back to his point. ]

You okay?

[ a dumb question that she hates asking, but she has to know. ]

Yeah
Yeah it's just
You know
Weird
Especially with my aunt
It's been a lot for her to deal with

Makes sense
I've heard it'll get better after a while
Once it's done

Yeah that's what everyone says

Trish would know better than me kid

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this is gonna be a lot

y e p

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