OPEN RP PART II: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

[avali]

OPEN RP POST

♔

-Deposit prompt and/ or character.         

-Receive some pretty bad RP in return??

-Threads leading to smut is fine, because hey, sometimes it happens. 




♔

Muselist

Open RP (smutty version)

 

Comments

[crouton]

[That does the job. He doesn't quiet leap into action as expected when being interrupted, but he does stride over to her after shutting the door and grab her arm in turn, pulling at her insistantly.]

Look, Aeryn. I don't know where the others are either -- probably back a few arns away where we left them. Maybe a little closer if they noticed both of us are gone.

[He won't let go until she relinquishes her hold on his things -- Stark's mask in particular.]

Why did you follow me here?

[febrile]

Thank you for your assumptions but I didn't. [She fights him on that front: earnestly trying to keep her hold on his belongings while her stare stays as sharp as her tone. Meaning he only has half his things back by the time Aeryn decides to snap back at him.

--or would have, if not for the way his words dig in and pull another brief set of images from her mind. Following him. Like keywords they echo, stuck in the back of her thoughts as she tries to place it-- why they're relevant. Why he's not wrong. ]

--no, you're right. [It's slower. Gentler. Indirect.] I was following you.

[crouton]

[He's almost happy to hear that she hadn't been following him. Happy and strangely sick. The illness gets worse when she corrects herself.

There's an incredible stretch of silence before he lets her go and strides toward the window to sit there.]

Wasn't lookin' to bring you back here. But if you give me a few arns, I can get us back to Moya after I'm done.

[febrile]

'Back'? [It's practically audible how odd a statement that is to her mind. But then again he might've meant this fekkik-infested hotel, rather than the planet itself. She's too unfocused to think this through properly, Aeryn realizes, watching him pace uneasily across the room.

He doesn't look like himself. He looks like--]

And what is it that you're doing with all of this? More wormholes, more attempts at Earth? [It tears him apart every time he tries, she knows that much.]

[crouton]

[That catches his attention. John's expression appears frustrated for a moment before her words really sink in.]

You...don't remember.

[A realization, not a question. John releases her and chuckles a bit in his usual unhinged manner when something doesn't line up logically in his head.]

Something like that. Not quite.

[febrile]

It's fine. Probably just had too much to drink...somewhere. [Are there even bars in a slum like this?

There's a long beat where she says nothing. Watches him and the line of his profile in evaluation long before she finally speaks up:] Is it Scorpius?

Inside your head. [It's the only time she's seen him this broken down.]

[crouton]

[Man. Talk about having some catching up to do.

But that wasn't really his call to make. Trying to explain what was going on with Scorpius, on top of everything she's seemed to have forgotten...too much work. Too much stress. Too much if a lot of things.

Plus, if she didn't remember being on this planet, then...]

Nah. Scorp's been a little preoccupied.

[febrile]

Good. [This time she's the one taking hold of him, fingers tight and tangled in the fabric of his sleeve.] We're leaving, then.

You don't need this.

[crouton]

Stop--Aeryn, stop.

[The pressure is too much, he hasn't had enough to take the edge of her nails in his sleeve in stride. John tries his best to untangle himself from her. She doesn't know better -- she doesn't have perspective, she doesn't know she's putting them both in danger.

And he's not ready to explain all of that right now. Not when he's come for his own answers.]

You have to trust me on this...OK? I just--I need to be here for a little while.

[febrile]

I trust you. That doesn't mean I'm crazy enough to leave you on your own in a place like this with half the galaxy after you. [Again, he fights her off, but this time Aeryn takes the opportunity of him focusing on her grip to close the gap between them, no more than a few inches away from the line of his profile, angled in towards his features.

She'd fought for him. Followed him.

Fought for him, fought...] Don't shut me out this time.

[crouton]

[He's not emotionally prepared for Aeryn being so close, not strong enough to handle the words that come out of her mouth. Visibly he stiffens and tries to turn his head away from her. The muscles in his neck lock up so badly that tears sting the corners of his eyes, forcing him to advert them and blink it away.

He was told not to push her. He was told to wait. She's run away from him, lied to him, was so innately incapable of trusting him--but here she was, trying to connect with and protect him.

Its backwards. So backwards it hurts.]

Please don't do this to me.

[Its a miracle his voice doesn't crack. His resolve sticks -- though barely.]

[febrile]

[Inevitably, it has the opposite effect. He's retreating, she won't tolerate it, won't abandon him to it. Her palm catches just beneath the edge of his jaw, pulling him back towards her till her forehead is against his-- just barely. Careful, grounding contact that blocks off the option of removing himself from this situation.

If he wants her to go, he'll have to say it directly.] Easy, John.

Easy.

[crouton]

No.

[He cuts her off by suddenly pulling the comm from her jacket and crushing it under his foot without a word. John is breathing a bit heavily -- the dose already feels as if its worn off, sweat sticking to his skin.

Its only shortly afterwards that he reaches up to grab her wrists as if he means to pull her hands away...but he just can't do it.

The destruction of the comm helps sooth his worries, as well as the fact that they were alone in a hotel room. Nobody could watch them here. But if someone found out that Aeryn came after him--

She doesn't know. She doesn't remember.]

No, Aeryn.

[febrile]

What are-- [Her comm. He's shattered her comm. If not for a distinct lack of the telltale Peacekeeper tone in his voice she'd assume it was Scorpius and go for the pistol tucked away at his hip. Nearly does, as her hand twitches sharply in his grip before realizing it's still him. It's still John.

Mostly, anyway.

Which is why her voice drops. eyes flicking upwards to lock with his regardless of the noise outside or how she can still hear the crunch of broken comm pieces beneath his boot.]

You need to tell me what is going on so that I can help. [There's nothing pleading about it.]

[crouton]

[John forces himself to swallow down whatever illness is stirring in his throat. His expression is resolute, even if the rest of him doesn't feel it.]

There's nothing to help..

[But he does know that if he lets Aeryn wander around here like this, she's going to get herself and his child killed. If he couldn't get her back to Moya easily, then she would have to stay with him.]

Do you know where we are?

[febrile]

No, but you do. [It's almost bitter, how tense she is in his grip. There's no pulling away, no fighting him just-- some part of her resents it, how he's keeping her at arm's length in the dark. Logically some part of Aeryn acknowledges it's whatever's screwing with his mind: wormholes or fear or something else entirely.

Has to run that reasoning across the back of her mind like a mantra to keep from snapping.

She doesn't need his protection - he needs hers.]

[crouton]

Valdun.

[John releases her then (very carefully, very slowly) and awkwardly moves around her to the bed in order to pick up Stark's mask as testament.]

Its a planet of mystics. Hoaxes, voodoo, all that gobblygook. Lotta folks around here seem to think they can talk to the dead, and that the dead gather in the area.

[He rubs his thumbs over the malformed metal in his hands, smoothing over the curves, carefully remembering the cargo it had once carried.]

[febrile]

Which again makes me wonder what you're doing here. [He's not looking at her, busy fumbling with Stark's mask, the shadow of his profile against false light from outside the only thing she can make out.

Aeryn directs her stare at him regardless, brow furrowed expectantly.]

[crouton]

That's because you're missing some pieces to the puzzle.

[Once he's sure she's looking at him, he tosses the mask to her to examine. He knows the message won't come back -- he had tried to get it to replay a second time once to make sure he didn't miss any details. But maybe...it would make a connection.

He can't help but wonder if he's come out of the wrong end of the wormhole off Earth -- but that wouldn't make sense. He'd seen Aeryn. She was there. She would remember.

So why...]

Not gonna be long. We'll get back to Moya once I'm done.

[febrile]

[It does the job of distracting her, at least. She recognizes the mask: picks it up and inspects it looking for a reason as to why it's there.

He'd never have been without it voluntarily.

But there's something about its smooth, polished surface that makes her immediately uncomfortable. Has her abruptly dropping the thing down on the bed beside all his paperwork and scrawlings. Rubs her fingers against her palms as if attempting to scrub away the contact of it, visibly unnerved.]

[crouton]

[The idea of Aeryn being unsettled by something as simple as Stark's mask is almost amusing, but he knows the weight behind it. He knows exactly why it would make her uncomfortable -- should make her uncomfortable without him saying as much.

He doesn't return to it. Stark is part of the equation, but not until the end of it. Some of the voices are already becoming clearer in the silence of the room.

Crichton recognizes that he needs to diffuse the tension a little, so he forces a small smile and moves over to gather some of the papers.]

Hey. You're in a hotel. Relax a little.

[febrile]

I wasn't anywhere near a hotel before, John. [Despite his reassurances, this time it's Aeryn that steps back to give him room. Aeryn that doesn't know how to handle someone else closing in on her space.

She had been following him-- but she hadn't been following him here. And it's that realization that prompts her to move for the door while he's preoccupied, hopefully before he can stop her.]

[crouton]

[It almost works. John has to do a double take, but with a few swift strikes, he's grabbing her wrist and yanking her back away from the door, spinning to put himself in front of it before she can get a decent hold on him. He won't bother trying to hold onto her -- she's stronger than him, so he just holds his hands up in surrender.]

Wait--Aeryn.

[He almost asks where she had been following him but -- maybe that was too much, for right now.]

Where are you gonna go?

[febrile]

I don't know-- anywhere. Anywhere that isn't here. [She doesn't look at him: drops her gaze to look at his chest, his hands-- the doorframe, anything. This isn't right. She has to go.]

[crouton]

[The awkward pause lingers, enough that his hands eventually fall to his hips and his gaze also drops to the ground.]

Do you wanna talk?

[He can't just let her go, no matter how much he wants to.]