Open Post 001

[2020mod]

• Step one: start a thread in this post!
• Step two: specify who the thread is for (or open) in this post!
• Step three: make people reply to this post!
• AND THAT'S THE WAY YOU DO IT.


And don't forget, there's still the ooc discussion post! And nothing needs to be contained to this post! Create new logs to your heart's content! This AU is yours, so have at it!


musebox • rules • character list

Comments

[motherofnemesis]

"Why wouldn't they send me?" she said, a slight lift of her shoulders like a muted shrug. "Courier work is my specialty. I carry messages."

Concern for his cover was natural, and it was likely she wouldn't be able to get much further if she didn't deal with that first.

"Resistance fighters do a lot of travelling. Some of us have long memories, especially for faces. One of them saw you and got a name. It was passed back to us." She lifted one hand in a 'that simple' gesture before tucking it back in.

[out_of_time]

"That simple, huh." He sighed and shook his head. "Knew I should have gone for the plastic surgery." But that had been a step too far for him. Besides, he couldn't pay for that level of work in his current career.

Jack turned away for a moment to look at the broken pipe, think about the setup. "So that's what you're here for. They want my help." He turned back. "There was a time when people thought I went too far, doing what I did."

[motherofnemesis]

"Plastic surgery hurts, I hear," she said casually, and leaned back against the wall. With that out of the way, they could get to the real business here.

He was an asset she wanted. "Was." It was firm, almost curt. She'd thought that he went too far, back then. "This is a different fight, though. Don't blow up civilian buildings and no one's likely to judge you."

[out_of_time]

"Yeah, I noticed." Jack frowned a little. "I heard about Bellatrix Lestrange. It sounds like she's been a real asset." The witch's career as a resistance leader had more or less been the opposite of low-key. Jack remembered when she was on the wanted list, with torture among the first and least of her charges.

"It's funny. It's like we've come a hundred and eighty degrees." He spread his hands. "I don't know what you think about me, but there are some lines I've never crossed. Lines I can't cross. Joining you, I think I'd have to cross them. And I'm not willing to go that far." There was still a tiny little sliver of things Jack hadn't resorted to, things named 'never killed a cop' or 'never assassinated elected officials.' That sliver was a hard thing to let go of, no matter how bad it got.

[motherofnemesis]

"Bellatrix Lestrange does a job," Max said, flat, the sort of tone that indicated a subject best left entirely alone. Out of reach.

For a long moment she was silent, and then she spoke. Weighing every word, a certain weight and gravitas to it. "I think you're a man who's willing to do what it takes. To stand up for people whose rights must be protected. To be that thin blue line, even if you have to operate outside the law to do it." She let that linger a moment before adding to it. "As for lines - we all have them. We ask only that people do what they consider themselves capable of."

[out_of_time]

"Well that's the problem, Max," Jack said. "I'm capable of a lot of things. My whole life, I've done what it takes, and then had to deal with the consequences." He broke eye contact for a moment, stared into his past, then resumed meeting Max's eyes.

"Whenever I'm faced with a situation, with an outcome that is unacceptable, my limits tend to go out the window in a hurry. It doesn't matter what I promise to myself or other people, I always end up in the same place, doing the same things." His voice was matter-of-fact, but his face and eyes were full of conflict, doubt, regret.

"If you bring me in on this, I guarantee you a lot of people will end up dying. Ours as well as theirs. Because that's what happens when I get brought into a situation. Lines get crossed, and there's always a cost."

[motherofnemesis]

"I don't think you understand something very important here," she said, and took a step forward, uncrossing her arms. Her tone remained neutral, no heat to it, but there was a tenseness under it. "We are all dying. And I don't mean that in the 'oh everybody dies' sense. I mean that us specifically, as a community - we are dying. "

A moment of silence, and she shook her head. "If you think there's a line we haven't crossed - Jack, we know how consequences work. Whatever you may think of yourself, I can guarantee you we know how to live with it."

[out_of_time]

Jack looked at her for a moment. Then he looked for a spot to sit down. He slowly crouched down onto an overturned washbucket, then looked back at Max.

"Is it really that bad out there?" He grimaced at his own ignorance. "I've been out of the loop for a long time." Most of his information came from the news, and everyone knew that couldn't be trusted. When he had quit, he had quit- cut every thread, pinched off all contacts and sources. Jack was regretting that now.