injudicable: (ᴛʜᴇɴ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ sʜᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʀᴇᴇ)

idefk with this mess lmk if i need to edit??

[personal profile] injudicable 2017-01-03 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
[ it's something you learn after enough years as a private investigator: sometimes people just go missing.

of course, jessica's usually the one finding those missing people, no matter how gone they seem to be, but there's the occasional case that just leads to a dead-end — the wrong kind. it always comes up feeling awkward or somehow off, like a painting hung askew or a word with all the letters in the a different order: you look at it, at all the evidence, and something isn't the way it's supposed to be.

frustrating, is what it goddamn is, and those rare and inevitably futile cases keep her up sometimes.

but she's also come (grudgingly) to accept it.

when someone seems to just vanish into thin air, when she reaches the end of the metaphorical line, she has no choice. it's how inexplicable it all is that really unsettles her, but what the hell can she even do about it, other than write it off, let her client know that there's no trail to follow (none), and try to move on? she's seen the pattern in more than just her own cases, but—

eventually you just explain it away. try to come up with something logical, like the body just hasn't been found or maybe they've somehow managed to buy their way to antartica — whatever the fuck it is.

it's too weird, otherwise. almost unnatural.

but maybe that's just the way the universe works, right? things that can't always be explained or understood, because it comes and goes with the sort of convoluted complexities that will leave any normal person grasping at straws, scrabbling for comprehension when all they'll come away with is empty air.

jessica's reached that place with a few of the disappearances.

she just never expected to be one of them.



when she wakes, it's with the most killer headache of her life.

did i really drink that much? is about the first coherent thought she manages. because what the fuck?

also why is the floor so hard?

passed out in an alley? nope, doesn't smell like shit. passed out at the bar? nope, would have gotten kicked out. passed out in her apartment? still no, because she doesn't have steel goddamn floors.

she takes a second to process that, finally cracking open an eye as she comes to terms with the fact that her cheek is resting on something cold and metal, rather than wood or carpet (or, preferably, her bed). she slowly lifts her head, squinting at her surroundings.

crates. boxes. her first impulse is to think "warehouse," but no, too small for that. everything is enclosed, a little cramped, and definitely metal, with a low hum that fills the space (and does absolutely zero favors for her throbbing head). ]


Where in the fuck...?

[ grimacing, she presses a hand to her forehead, sitting up and looking around. she can hear voices overhead, and she's automatically on high alert.

...or she would be, if her head didn't feel like it was going to shatter into a million pieces if she didn't stay still.

shit.

with a royal fuckload of effort, she drags herself to her feet, biting back the groan of accompanying discomfort. a step forward, and she stumbles, catching herself on a nearby crate — only to knock it right the floor.

...double shit.

the voices above her cut off immediately, and all she can think is, "so much for the element of surprise, dumbass." ]
injudicable: (ᴛʜᴀᴛ's ᴡʜʏ ɪ'ᴍ ᴅʀᴜᴍᴍɪɴɢ ɪᴛ ᴏᴜᴛ)

[personal profile] injudicable 2017-01-03 03:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[ the sound of footsteps immediately draws jessica's attention to the ladder leading into— what even is this place? a basement?

(spaceship isn't exactly at the top of her list of guesses right now.)

she refocuses on the man coming down, and, well, he looks just about as surprised to see her as she is to be seen. taking a quick moment to size him up, she leans away from the boxes she'd braced herself against.

well, fortunately, her thought processes hover right around peter's as far as being just as baffled by her appearance in his(?) space, and the first thing she thinks to ask ends up being, ]


Who the hell are you?

[ jessica's oh-so eloquent social graces strike again. ]
injudicable: (ɪᴛ ᴛᴀᴋᴇs ᴀ ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴍᴇ)

[personal profile] injudicable 2017-01-04 02:04 am (UTC)(link)
[ jess immediately tenses as peter steps forward, adopting a slightly more defensive posture (though she has to aggressively bite back a grimace when it makes her head throb). she's not worried about the guy standing in front of her — mostly because she's pretty sure she can take him if he tries anything — but she's feeling all around tetchy. strange surroundings with an equally unfamiliar dude?

no thanks. ]


I woke up on your floor.

Clue me in: where exactly is "here?"
injudicable: (ᴛʜᴀᴛ's ᴡʜʏ ɪ'ᴍ ᴅʀᴜᴍᴍɪɴɢ ɪᴛ ᴏᴜᴛ)

[personal profile] injudicable 2017-01-05 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[ god, this is just not doing her pounding head any favors, and her glare only intensifies as he keeps talking. ]

Wow, once more for the people in the back, then: I woke up. On your goddamn. Floor.

That's all I know. One minute, I'm having a decent night in a bar, and the next, I'm here with the hangover from hell.

[ her tone is flat, edging into obvious aggravation, because she is just as frustrated and confused as he is. ]

So again, where the fuck am I?
injudicable: (ᴛʜᴇɴ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ sʜᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʀᴇᴇ)

[personal profile] injudicable 2017-01-06 12:46 am (UTC)(link)
[ at first, she's mostly caught on the "ship" part, because he clearly means a boat, right?

clearly.

except there's the whole "in flight" thing and the fact that planes aren't ships, and—

hold the fucking phone. ]


By "ship," you mean "plane," right?

[ she really needs some clarification here. ]
injudicable: (ɢᴏ ᴄʀᴏss ᴍᴇ ᴏꜰꜰ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʟɪsᴛ)

[personal profile] injudicable 2017-01-06 06:08 am (UTC)(link)
[ . . .

this is definitely jess, needing a moment to reboot her brain.

the genuine shock in her expression is quickly smoothed away in favor of one of her more familiar glowers, and she tries to look unimpressed. ]


Goddamn hilarious. Tell me where we actually are, asshole.

[ because space? that is sure not an option. ]
injudicable: (ʙᴜᴛ sᴏᴍᴇᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ's ᴀ ʟɪɢʜᴛ)

[personal profile] injudicable 2017-01-08 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
[ that hard look in her eyes makes it exceedingly clear that she still doesn't believe him. sure, the incident in new york brought the existence of aliens, of things bigger than earth to light, but—

how the hell could she go from a little too much booze in a seedy bar to the middle of wherever the hell the "viridian cluster" is in space?

she catches herself again as everything lurches forward, though she doesn't look away from peter for an instant.

...of course, this also kind of helps with the whole "in space" thing. or at least, in motion and not-on-solid-ground. (could still be a plane, though, right? oh god, please let it be a plane. please let it turn out that this dude is just trying to bullshit her and doing a really good job of it..) ]


No offense, but I'm having a little trouble with my suspension of disbelief here, so I'd appreciate some proof that isn't just because some random— [ she gestures vaguely at him. ] —space guy says so.

[ she's also not entirely convinced that he isn't responsible for her random appearance here, so that wariness is still edging into her tone — though it's definitely superseded by her aggravation at this point. ]
injudicable: (ɪᴛ ᴛᴀᴋᴇs ᴀ ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴍᴇ)

[personal profile] injudicable 2017-01-09 05:06 am (UTC)(link)
Probably the same way I'm supposed to trust that you didn't drug my ass and haul me onto your flying hunk of metal.

[ maybe she doesn't believe she's in space yet, but she does at least acknowledge that this big metal thing is moving. that's impossible to ignore. ]

Also seriously, don't have tentacles. Or if you do, keep them to yourself. That sounds really damn creepy.

[ how is she supposed to know that he doesn't, is the real question here. ]
injudicable: (ᴛʜᴀᴛ's ᴡʜʏ ɪ'ᴍ ᴅʀᴜᴍᴍɪɴɢ ɪᴛ ᴏᴜᴛ)

[personal profile] injudicable 2017-01-10 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
[ hey, her knowledge of tentacled aliens is pretty limited here — and not exactly the most pleasant of associations, given general human pop culture. it's not like she knows tentacled aliens out in reality are actually pretty okay.

the continued turbulence on the ship isn't reassuring by any means, and she grabs onto a crate again to keep herself vertical (because all this shaking around is not helping her headache).

...it's the other voices in the very weird tones that really throw her for a loop, though, because she absolutely did not pick up a single word of whatever those squeaks were.

(oh god, maybe there actually are aliens here. great.)

she focuses on peter when he drops onto the deck again, frowning right back at him. she stares silently for a moment, and then, without a word, reaches over for one of the heavy crates that she'd managed to topple. with one hand (and obviously zero effort, she lifts the crate, and sets it back with the others like it weighs just as much as a bag of feathers. ]


There's a few things.

[ —is about the best answer she has for him.

(she also likes to hope it doubles as a "don't try anything funny" demonstration.) ]


Also, why the hell are you speaking English, and all of— that up there was definitely not?
Edited (lily read the tag better before u reply mmk) 2017-01-10 06:07 (UTC)
injudicable: (ɪ'ᴍ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ɢᴇᴛᴛɪɴɢ ᴘᴀɪᴅ)

[personal profile] injudicable 2017-01-10 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[ translator implant. well, that's nice and sci-fi-y. cool.

but also a little inconvenient for her. ]


Yeah? You were expecting French or...?

[ because she's got a little of that from high school. spoiler: it's terrible. ]
injudicable: (ᴛʜᴀᴛ's ᴡʜʏ ɪ'ᴍ ᴅʀᴜᴍᴍɪɴɢ ɪᴛ ᴏᴜᴛ)

[personal profile] injudicable 2017-01-11 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
...yeah, I have no idea what those last four are.

[ gramo-whatsian?

space is weird. ]


Either way, I can understand you, so maybe you wanna explain why you're speaking English. Are you human?

[ that's the real question here.

and if yes, how the hell did he get here? ]
injudicable: (ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʙʀᴏᴋᴇ ᴍᴇ ᴛʜɪs ᴛɪᴍᴇ)

[personal profile] injudicable 2017-01-11 04:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[ should have asked first, obviously. first come, first serve on the questions. ]

Just as human as you.

[ she gives a dismissive shrug. ]

Unless you can lift a car, but you know.

[ can you lift a car, quill. can you. ]

Are you from Earth originally?
injudicable: (ᴛʜᴇɴ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ sʜᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʀᴇᴇ)

[personal profile] injudicable 2017-01-11 08:41 pm (UTC)(link)
[ it doesn't help that it's literally her job to dig things up, so asking questions is kind of the natural progression for her here — she's just also pretty pushy about finding shit out sometimes, unfortunately. ]

Sorry I wanna know about the random dude whose ship I'm suddenly on. In space. Definitely not on earth.

My bad.

[ sarcasm drips from every word, with just a hint of aggravation.

her head decides to give a particularly nasty throb at that moment, and she braces herself again, pressing a hand over her eyes. she grimaces, biting the response back and looking out at peter. ]


You gonna answer or not?

(no subject)

[personal profile] injudicable - 2017-01-12 18:43 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] injudicable - 2017-01-14 01:23 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] injudicable - 2017-01-14 18:14 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] injudicable - 2017-01-15 04:42 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] injudicable - 2017-01-16 00:26 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] injudicable - 2017-01-16 16:54 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] injudicable - 2017-01-17 02:07 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] injudicable - 2017-01-18 01:07 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] injudicable - 2017-01-18 16:27 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] injudicable - 2017-01-18 20:47 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] injudicable - 2017-01-19 18:37 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] injudicable - 2017-01-20 17:01 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] injudicable - 2017-01-20 23:51 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] injudicable - 2017-01-23 06:11 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] injudicable - 2017-01-24 05:20 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] injudicable - 2017-01-26 04:17 (UTC) - Expand