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[oorah]

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[oorah]

fair enough
think i should tell the troops i'm shippin out

[underachievement]

Keep my name out of it.

[oorah]

if i say i'm going alone we'll have hangers on
maybe i'll make this david's problem

[ he's a really great friend. ]

[underachievement]

Say you're going with one of the natives then.

[oorah]

i'm not in the business of lying to kids
though i could cheat and wait until we're a ways away

[underachievement]

[ bc he doesn't get paid for it? however he lives with himself. ]

Do what you gotta do.

[oorah]

i always do.
i'll see you soon.

[underachievement]

Yeah.

[oorah]

[ frank is as obnoxiously on time as always, carrying a light rucksack over one shoulder with his beanie and hood on up over his head equally typically. though the usable parts of the prison are soundproofed, he's careful to ensure his footsteps fall silently as he seeks her out. ]

[underachievement]

[ she would be late but she ran out of reasons to be an hour before he was due to show up. Jess isn't the only one working, so she hands the keys off and goes to her place to get some shit together. whiskey, mostly. underwear and socks, rolled up. two extra shirts, one warm and one not. and then with the remaining room, more whiskey. the clothes are mostly there to pad the bottles. Jess heads back to the prison but tucks herself into a decrepit storefront off the sanded path, and announces herself by stepping into the dim light illuminating the particles below sparsely scattered, bare bulbs. ]

[oorah]

[ it's impossible to completely temper his smile when his gaze lights on her, taking a halting step forward. she doesn't know morse code or the sign language, so he doesn't bother with either, just nodding towards the exit. if she's ready, they should probably get a move on before he loses his nerve. ]

[underachievement]

[ she's all nerves. he can have some of hers. part of Jess expected him not to show and now she doesn't know how much of her might have been hoping for it. she leads them off, a large breath streaming from her nose. she can hardly believe they're really leaving, shoulders tense as she expects him to come up with a last minute effort to talk or sign her into her senses. ]

[oorah]

[ he wasn't kidding, he's tired too. he slots in next to her closely, their shoulders brushing against each other. this feels right, somehow, even though it should feel cowardly. everyone needs to get away sometimes, right, like he told karen all that time ago? he's in this, he'll help her disappear. at least for a little while. ]

[underachievement]

[ That's closer than she thought he'd feel like getting. even if things weren't exactly going badly when Bev cockblocked them (her), Jess knows Frank would have put up a protest before things got too good. could be that she's more his vacation than getting the Dodge out of hell, and, honestly, that would be great. it'd be his first time using her back.

Jess pulls her hands out of her pockets, but not her device. she puts them in front of her like she's watched more and more people do, the longer they stay here. she gleaned the basics from context clues and people watching but has been infrequently filling in the gaps with research, when she's sick of building or the other people who are in her building. ]

Learned little [ some ]

[oorah]

[ the sign surprises him, startling him out of his reverie. he would never use her, as much as she might want that. though she gives him the strength to do things he wouldn't be able to otherwise. like admit that he needs a break. he turns towards her as they walk, picking up the sandpath outside. ]

Look at you. [ he signs back, smiling at her efforts. ]

[underachievement]

[ guh-od, if she knew it'd make him so happy, she would have taped her fingers together, she tells herself and seals the sentiment with a roll of her eyes ]

Ass [ thank god for all these trashmouth kids or she'd be unable to express herself properly ]

[oorah]

[ soRRY jess his grin only grows to nearly shit-eating levels. ]

You like it. [ maybe a flirt, maybe not, as ever. he tips his head. ] I'm impressed.

[underachievement]

[ Jess over-expresses how little that matters to her, scraping her tongue distastefully. ]

Wait til we're gone to screw it. [ she doesn't know the word for "ruin" ]

[oorah]

[ that gets a silent laugh, a jump of his shoulders as he looks down at his feet a moment. he has a habit of ruining a lot of things, he's sure she could list them even better than him. ]

Your idea to be stuck with me. [ he shrugs. he thinks if she really were on the fence she would have gone alone anyway. ]

[underachievement]

[ Jess shrugs, like it isn't a big deal. if she'd gone on her own, he probably would have come after her anyway. he would have found out before long that she didn't tell anybody where or that she was going and he might take it as the suicide note by omission that it is. she would hate to finally divorce herself from this place and the monsters that live there, only to slip and crack her head open and find herself in the Reset Room, back where she started. and if she doesn't wake up again, Jess can't tell from where she's at if she really wants to die. she plans to figure that out once they get far enough, regardless of if she's going to do anything about it. ]

Your mistake to come.

[oorah]

[ yeah he guesses it is his mistake. it's one he'll keep making though and if she hasn't figured that out she's the dumb one. he nods, allowing the conversation to lapse for the moment as they step off the path and into deeper woods. after a while he can't stand it anymore, her low opinion of herself. the way she constantly fights back against any kindness. of course, that pushback is 2000% hypocrisy, but that's the frank castle way in the end. he ends up pulling out his device in frustration, he'll never get out what he needs to with sign. ]

i've never regertted following you. not from day 2

[underachievement]

[ she thought her senses are already keyed up, until she starts keenly listening to the silence they besmirch with the soles of their shoes. she isn't afraid of what's out there, she's afraid of going back to what she does know. but she doesn't regret leaving the knife behind: anything out here, she should be able to handle with her bare hands, or she would have read about it on the network. a callous on his skin scrapes his pocket when he pulls out his device, calling her attention to it before the screen lights up. she anticipates stopping for a piss or something, not... whatever that is. Her lips purse and she looks away, attention now split between thinking and listening.

he isn't telling her anything she doesn't know and it's not his faith in her that's frustrating, it's that it doesn't gel with everything else. the family man bullshit that's so important to him. telling him that would be a confrontation, not a conversation, and she doesn't have the energy to care about winning or losing. ]

I know [ she signs tersely, staring ahead. she knows like he feels: a whole hell of a lot and way too much. ]

[oorah]

[ she knows. she knows everything about him, this place. she's a fucking private eye. he meets her eyes with a narrowed gaze, shaking his head. he doesn't think she does know. she knows the facts, maybe, but not the rest. those are the details he deals in, after all.

but if she wants silence, that he can do. maybe it's preferable after everything they've been through. he drops his phone back into his jumpsuit pocket, moving his gaze to watch their surroundings instead. it's all familiar, but different because of the company mainly. this trip has a feeling of finality he doesn't like. ]

Where are we going?

[underachievement]

I thought you knew

[ now her gestures are lazy, noncommittal. she doesn't particularly care to go to Paris -- city of love and all that tripe, and it's the first place they'd run into someone outside of Reims. probably from Reims, which is the worst part of the whole thing. she wouldn't mind seeing the ocean again but god knows how far that is or if she'd be able to stop herself from wading into it, the way she used to fantasize about as a teenager. she's not even that into the idea anymore. having died once fairly painlessly, drowning sounds the opposite of relaxing. ]

[oorah]

You know everything. Remember?

[ he shrugs, but moves into the lead anyway. he knows better than to take her to paris or anywhere else people frequent. maybe they don't eve have to go that far, just enough to forget about the city. somewhere that's just theirs. he turns towards her, expression clearing. ]

You follow this time?