Open Post 001

[2020mod]

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musebox • rules • character list

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[out_of_time]

"Jaime." Jack smiled, and it was genuine, the first genuine one he'd had in a while. "You grew a beard. You look good." And he could guess who that girl was.

"How's Abby?"

[scarabsuited]

"Doing alright," he replied, nodding his head. His smile was a bit of a smirk. "For the most part. But she won't sit still for a second, even if she should."

A hand withdrew from his pocket, dragging through his hair and resting on the back of his neck. His expression softened, taking a second to readjust his glasses.

"She's due in three months, so...y'know, it's kind of a good idea to kick back, but." Heh. His eyebrows lift as he sighs, smiling fondly. "But that's not been going as planned."

He was quiet a moment, reflective. Then, looking up, he spoke again.

"Think you'll be around long enough to drop by?"

[out_of_time]

"You're having a kid?" God damn did he feel old now. But it was still heartwarming, to picture those two together, starting a family despite everything in the world against them.

Jack kept his face as neutral as possible at the question. "I don't think that would be a good idea, Jaime. If I'm missed, if they track me-" It was a lame excuse and he knew it. Jaime was obviously good enough at what he did these days to arrange something like this in safety.

[scarabsuited]

"––Then they wind up tracking a stray dog that somehow got your energy signature," Jaime supplied, giving Jack a look, starting to split a grin despite it. "Police tech just isn't as reliable as it should be nowadays. Never know who's going to be scrambling your signals around here."

At that point, he began to shrug his shoulder, grabbing hold of the laptop case and unzipping a pocket.

"But I'm not going to drag you kicking and screaming. I get it, seriously." He lifted his eyes back to Jack to emphasize the remark; there was no spite or disappointment there. Jaime knew how things had to work, how some people had to adapt.

Even so, he was going to impose a little, whether Jack liked it or not.

"Either way, you're leaving with this."

Jaime lifted his hand out of the bag and extended it toward Jack, offering the small hand-held. Thin, black, a little glossy on the screen...it was like one of those iPads in miniature.

"This is version two. Everyone who needs it is getting it. Any time you need something, need to get a hold of someone...It'll ping me and the Scarab immediately. We'll open up a channel, lock it up to outside tracing. Any time you need a place to crash and you're not sure, just call. I got a lock on some safehouses and unmonitored zones – you'll get directions. Maybe even transport, if the right people happen to be where you are.

"It's also a damn good reminder that you've never been alone in this," Jaime added, peering up at Jack with his head tilted low. "Just in case you were maybe thinking that's how it's going to go nowadays."

[out_of_time]

Jack took the device and stared at it. "A communicator." He chuckled softly and shook his head. "I haven't seen one of these things in years." He looked back up at Jaime.

"You're telling me there's a Network again? A community?"

[scarabsuited]

"There's always been a community," Jaime said. "Just...Not always the right means to reach out like we need to. It's been a little rough, trying to find the right loopholes." He shook his head. "They've gotten smarter about that kind of thing, obviously."

[out_of_time]

He turned the comm over in his hands. It was slick, high-tech, professional. It reminded him of the kind of tech he used to work with. "It looks like you've done a great job keeping ahead of them."

Jack thought about the comm and Jaime and Abby, about what they represented.

"...How much of a trip is it to where you're staying?"

[scarabsuited]

That put a slow smile on Jaime's face.

"Ten minutes from here. A little subway ride and a pitstop.

"You in?"

[out_of_time]

Jack held back for a moment, but he'd been hesitating too damn much for too long. He smiled back, and nodded decisively.

"I'm in. It'll be good to see her again."

It was just a visit to old friends. He wasn't committing to anything. That's what he told himself.

[scarabsuited]

After making a roundabout exit from the alleys, Jaime led Jack to the subway. It was a quiet, uneventful ride (most all of them were lately), if not a little slow by the typical kinds of delays. They exited at a fairly uninteresting stop, heading not toward the surface but over toward one of the restroom halls. Jaime's finger darkened and molded to fit the lock of the janitor's closet just beyond, gesturing for Jack to slide in first.

With the door closed and locked behind them, Jaime moved over to the shelves of cleaners, giving it a bit of a pull to expose the metal paneling behind it. The sound of an unseen keyboard preceded the panel and shelf shifting aside and exposing a long, dark hall.

Jaime shot a look over his shoulder at Jack, gesturing to follow.

The hall filled with a dim track of lighting once the panel and shelf slid closed behind them, showing the trail to a series of metal stairs.

"Sorry," Jaime said as they started down. "The elevator's at the other entrance."

Six flights down and another key-coded hallway later, the place was well-lit, if not a little...sterile-looking. Stores of crates labelled this or that lining the walls, leading down to another series of doors. Their footsteps echoed loudly, and were suddenly accompanied by rustling off to a side. Jaime stopped, leaning his weight that way for a moment, making a soft sound before going to the crate in question.

He was met with a loud, hissing SHHH.

"Don't tell!"

"Right," Jaime murmured, shaking his head. "You didn't open any other ones, did you?"

"No."

"Good. Don't open any of them, okay?"

"Okay, but shh!"

[out_of_time]

"This is amazing," Jack said as he followed Jaime down. "How did you maange to set all this up?"

Then he heard the other voice and the question left his head. Jack suddenly found himself wishing for his gun. His hand closed around a screwdriver in his pocket instead.

"Jaime, who are you talking to?" Out of training or not, he was still fully prepared to shank someone if he had to

[scarabsuited]

Jaime chuckled, holding up a hand and giving Jack a calming gesture. No worries. Briefly turning his attention to the crate, he gave that, too, a reassuring gesture, backing away and signaling Jack to keep following him toward the array of doors.

"That's Nick," he said quietly, kind of keeping his word to the voice-in-the-box. "He'll be four this year. Teddy'll be five. He's probably doing the seeking right now..."

The door slid open automatically as their bodies drew close, and Jaime passed through, lifting his voice out of hush-hush mode once cleared. The door closed behind them, and he scratched at the bridge of his nose, unable to not smile.

"They're everything to me. And Abby, too, of course. But...yeah."

[out_of_time]

"You already have kids? Two kids?" With a third on the way. Jack shook his head, then actually laughed. "God, when I met you two you were still almost teenagers. Now..."

He followed Jaime further into the hideout.

"Well, that was a long time ago now."

[scarabsuited]

"Man, you're not that old," Jaime prodded, smirking. "But keep talking like that and I'm gonna start calling you grandpa."

The room they finally stopped at had a fairly long, metal table lined with chairs. Jaime gestured to Jack as he himself sat, rubbing the back of his neck and sighing.

"We'll have to wait a couple minutes. Practice is almost done, and it's better to wait than interrupt." He gave a door at the far end of the room a glance. "She helps train some of the people who pass through here. Makes sure they know how to protect themselves, aim a little better when under stress. It might not amount to much for some, but..." He shrugged. "It helps, I think."

[out_of_time]

"She's a trainer now. I'm impressed." When Jack had met Abby she'd still very much been the trainee. But he could see the parts in her character that would have made her a good teacher herself.

He took a seat and looked around again. "It must be hard work for her, with a baby on the way."

[scarabsuited]

"You don't want to see the running tally of how many times I've tried to get her to take it easy," Jaime replied, a little dry. "She's agreed to just an hour or so a day now, though, so I guess I'll have to settle for that."

He scratched idly at scruff on his cheek, letting out a slow exhale and taking that time to really look at Jack. Sans the scanners, all the ticking information...

"You been doing okay, Jack? Out...wherever you've been roaming?"

[out_of_time]

"Yeah, I've been fine." LIES. He gave a little shrug, but couldn't hide how different he looked from the cop who had once plunged fearlessly into crisis after crisis. It wasn't just the age. He looked less himself.

"Keeping busy, staying ahead of things. Trying to keep quiet, not sticking around too long. You know how it is." He didn't know how much running Jaime had done, but he knew he'd done it. Everyone ran, these days. "Haven't had much chance to catch up on the news though. I don't have much idea what's been going on with us besides what's public." To be honest, he'd almost avoided it, and the temptations it brought.