[Jack, the great hero. It's kind of ironic, really, that most of the heavy lifting was done by Tim and the rest of the vault hunters. It was his plan, though; he was the one with the vision and the determination and the batshit crazy to see it to the end. Tim certainly wouldn't have been able to do what he did-- he can't lead people like Jack.]
[Jack has... something that makes people want to follow him. Charisma is probably the word for it, but it's more than just that, and Tim doesn't have the words to describe it properly. If nothing else, though, Jack seemed immortal, Lady Luck's favorite man. So hearing that he died is like trying to tell Tim that the ocean isn't wet. It's fundamentally wrong.]
What? What are you talking about? [He looks at her like she's grown another head.] Jack's not dead.
[ It's like deja vu but from the opposite side, all those months ago where Rhys had divulged the same information, thought dumbstruck for slightly different reasons.
She says it Matter-of-factly, casual, like they're talking about the weather simulations in Helios's Hall of Heroes. ]
Oh no, he is very dead. I told you, a lot has happened. Most of it involving Vaults.
[ That's what Angel was looking for. The reaction was guaranteed to be surprised, but it was what came after that that was important. Tim had gotten himself into a troubling position with Jack, but he wasn't a bad person from what she had seen of him, a better person than herself as far as she was concerned. But Jack was easy to believe in, and even the best men and women could likely be swayed by his charm and confidence, especially before the proverbial mask came off and the literal one went on.
Angel applies the final bandage, gently smoothing it down till it sticks effectively. ]
Vault hunters. Things...didn't end so well at the end of your Elpis mission with them.
[For a while, when their purpose on Elpis seemed clear-- beat the bad guys and save everyone-- Tim kind of thought that Jack might not be that bad of a guy. Obnoxious has hell, sure, and way too into himself, but he'd seemed to care about the right things. He had been outraged that Zarpedon was endangering the lives of everyone on the moon and Pandora. He would've let Huxter live, if the guy hadn't tried to kill him first. Jack had been like a Grecian hero, all swagger and hubris but aiming for noble goals.]
[Tim could've been okay with that. Eventually, though, Jack veered off the rails and everything came crashing down, and Tim was too deep in it to get out.]
That siren chick we were working with was a vault hunter. Lilith or whatever. Redhead? Hung around a big guy with a face like a brick wall?
[ Jack was good at that, building up a narrative where he was right and just, where what he was doing was for the good of the people, heroic. When in actuality it had been a gambit for power turned into long, drawn out revenge. A personal war at the expense of all the people on Pandora and then some. ]
Her and Roland, yes. Along with others [ she had ] Jack had recruited under false pretense. After Elpis Jack went on to- [ She sighs ] just imagine how bad things could have gone, and then increase that by a thousand.
[Tim didn't really think the others in his group of vault hunters-- except maybe Athena-- would have turned against Jack. Nisha seemed like his counterpart, vicious and bloodthirsty, and Wilhelm would be okay with almost anything so long as he got paid at the end of it. Claptrap... was fucking Claptrap.]
[The other vault hunters were wild cards. Tim didn't know them well enough to be able to judge them.]
I can imagine. [If Jack sets his mind on something, he'll steamroll over anything or anyone that opposes him without a thought. And if he has all of Hyperion's might at his beck and call, he's not just a dangerous man with a little team of misfits. He's a king.] God. But someone stops him. Someone finally stops him.
[No, not Tim. But not herself either, too little (way) too late.]
[She nods, taking a step or so back from him now that his wounds are all covered up by little smiling circles. Jack was stopped, yes, but that it has somehow and against all odds been only a temporary measure. That even death hadn't been the end. Luck favored him even beyond the grave.
She should tell him, save him from a nasty surprise down the line...but she's still scared, doesn't trust him or what he'd do with the knowledge that one day Jack may come.back for them. Tim had left, but he hadn't left yet.]
[Tim didn't know what he was going to do with his life even before he'd signed it off to Jack. Go back to vault hunting? Except that there may not even be any vaults around here. But it's all that he knows how to do that anyone's ever found any value in.]
[Maybe there are bounties? He could do that. Killing people for someone else is basically what he was doing on Elpis, right?]
Live, I guess. I don't know what that means yet, but I'll have to figure it out.
Something she hadn't even considered until this conversation, that she had correlated with survive. But the two weren't actually the same, were they? What she had been doing wasn't living.
She hadn't believed in life after Jack, because there was never supposed to be one. But she could try.
For the first time since running into him, Angel smiles. ]
That sounds like an excellent idea. I am sure there is a life for you, and only you, here and on El Nysa.
[ He's wrong, she still shoulders so much blame, could have said no sooner but didn't. She knew there was a chance he'd blame her like she blamed herself, expected it since it was the truth. That much like Zer0, he doesn't resent her...she has no right to be forgiven so easily, but still appreciates the thought, the idea that there is a world where things weren't her fault.
She quirks her lip at that last part though, she'll never get tired of hearing about how Jack was thoroughly rekt, even if it didn't stick. She won't disappoint Krieg with that information for now, though. ]
So I have heard. [ Though not from Zer0 ] I...thank you is not a strong enough set of words.
[ She smiles a little more at that, both at Kriegs laughter and his promise. It makes her feel the tiniest bit safer, in an otherwise dour situation. With both Krieg and Zer0 awake, things bode poorly for Jack, even if the plan remains that she will be pulling the most weight when it comes to taking care of him. It's just good to have a backup plan. ]
[ It's by total coincidence that Jack manages to stumble into this simulation - he's just browsing at this point, really, looking for something to do that doesn't involve actually having to interact with... well, anyone. There's only so much normal people he can take. So he sees an empty seat and takes it, mindless of whoever he's sitting next to. It'll be a nice break, and if it sucks, he'll just find another one.
Instead, nostalgia hits him like a Mack turbotruck, because he knows this place. How could he forget? Hadn't had this place since the accident - it seems like it happened centuries ago, not a decade - when he'd relocated Angel to a safer, more enriching environment.
Angel.
Honestly, it steals his breath. She's dead. Those child-murdering sons of bitches killed her. She can't be-- ]
Angel?
[ He's too dazed to look around and spot her, so he just talks to the wall, voice quavering with a thread of uncertainty. It's not very Handsome of him, but--
It takes Angel a moment to lift her head, unsure if she's actually hearing things right, first frowning into the pillow, then looking up to frown in the direction of that very unwelcomed voice.
She must really have Jack on the brain, if the program is making predictive moves like this, and you know what? No. You've gotta draw a line somewhere, you've gotta make a statement. You've gotta look inside yourself and say "what am I willing to put up with today?" Not. This.
Without saying a word to him Angel waves her hand, bringing up a command window and keyboard and punching in DISABLE_HJ
The movement catches his eye, so he says it again, not doing the decent thing here by poofing into nothingness. Everything feels slow, his movements syrupy as he turns to face the bed, and she's right there. His Angel, alive and well, not cold, not burned out like a light bulb without Eridium pumping through her veins.
It's a simulation. He knows that. Knows she probably isn't real. That in all likeliness, she'll disappear as soon as this thing shuts off.
It doesn't keep him from rushing to her, setting a hand on whatever part of her is closest to convince himself she's solid.
"Angel? Sweetheart? Are you--" Handsome Jack is actually stumbling over his words, heart aching all over again with a wound that's never quite healed over. "Jesus Christ. Angel?"
[ Angel's brows furrow when the command doesn't take, maybe she phrased it wrong: DISABLE_HANDSOMEJACK but that doesn't work either. DISABLE_DA- but before she can finish typing what she hopes third time's the charm he's coming at her, long strides taking him accross the room in a matter of seconds, hand outstretched. Angels expression has gone from annoyed to incredulous as she crabwalks backwards and away from his touch across the bed.
What would be the fuc- frigging- no she means fucking. What would be the fucking chances?
One last desperate attempt to let this all be just a cruel computer error, she quickly waves forward the consol DISABLE_DAD ]
[ DISABLE_HJ he didn't get. DISABLE_HANDSOMEJACK he saw, but didn't process. But when she moves away from him, Jack finally stops, and the last command pops up.
DISABLE_DAD
That one he gets, but doesn't understand. She's trying to disable him? What, remove him from the simulation, like he's some unwanted part of it? A glitch? He doesn't - understand. She should be happy to see him. She'd always been happy back home, right up until those piece of shit Vault Hunters had brainwashed her into killing herself.
Ah. It's an easy enough excuse, so Jack's mind immediately latches onto it. She's still suffering from what they did to her. He's less dismayed now, regaining some measure of composure as he swats at the digital words. ]
I'm real, Angel. [ Jack's trying not to sound too terse, synthetic brows pulled together. ] Nysa? Orbiters? Any of that a-ringin' a bell? Angel, how are you - when did you--
[ Words are hard and emotions are stupid and he's having a lot of them right now, all conflicting. So he just says whatever comes to mind first, sounding just a little bit desperate. ]
[ Not only is she real, so is he. And that means- it means a lot of things. Months of preparing and planning for a calculated first encounter up in smoke, worst fears realized when she was finally making attempts to move on from them- It means she's in trouble.
She makes another quick motion with her hand, dismissing the console screen fast as she summoned it. She already knows the answer, but asks anyways ]
[ Jack resists the urge to scoff and roll his eyes; normally he'd take the time to condescend to her, but right now he's more interested in... well, her. Past the initial flush of shock, he supposes it makes sense - they brought in what's-his-face from five years ago, so why not Angel?
But he's... actually finding it hard to come up with what to say next. ]
[ God. This was really, finally happenong...and it could not have worse timing (that's not true there's always something worse when it comes to Jack.) Despite preparation, in here Angel was devoid of all resources she's spent the last few months building up. She had no weapons, she had no muscle. She was alone, trapped in a cage with the beast.
But at least their is a silver, though extremely thin lining: The two and a half close calls she'd had so far, while exhausting, had also given her an unusual opportunity to troubleshoot how this inevitable meeting would go, to QA her her words and reactions. Her current plan would have to be rerouted slightly given her unexpected position, but she could make this work. She could survive him this time.
There are two pieces of information that Jack could not know, not right now and never from her: That he had died, and that she knew she had died. ]
No, of course not. This simulation simply has had a bad habit of playing cruel tricks on me while I have been waiting for you to wake.
[ She sounds just like she always did (always will) - cool, logical, like the tech she's always handled with such ease. It makes him nervous on some level he doesn't fully understand, because she's normal, not the traitorous, defiant, downright hateful creature she'd been in the minutes before her death. He's blocked out a lot of the details with drugs and whatever calming effect he could get from torturing Lilith, but he remembers enough; Jack remembers how she'd coached the Vault Hunters through all of his carefully-constructed defenses, how she'd sabotaged her own safety, and most of all, he remembers all the things she'd said.
Don't listen to him.
He controls you with guilt.
Dad? You're an asshole.
When was the last time she'd called him dad instead of Jack? ]
I'm so sorry.
[ He croaks it out, half-offering a hand - reaching for her, but stopping short, uncertain. Does she even know? What had happened to her? What those child-killing monsters had made her do to herself?
[ Of all the things Jack could have said to her in this moment, she would have never expected that. Sure, his apology likely referrers to how things happened, not what he did, but she had been expecting anger, he had been expecting brutality, a hundred ton truck of guilt. Not...this. So excuse her look of naked surprise at the words, before she reminds herself that she can't be drawn in- not again- she has to stay focused. ]
[ Maybe he shouldn't tell her this, but he knows she can handle it. She should - she deserves to know.
(So she can do better next time.)
Angel doesn't reach back, but Jack almost doesn't seem to notice, slipping to his knees. Legs feel like jello, she's alive, his daughter is alive again and she doesn't know she was dead in the first place. He can hardly stand to breathe with the total relief that washes over him.
But he's still Handsome Jack, and he's still calculating enough to know that he doesn't know her allegiances yet. Doesn't know for sure that she doesn't remember her death, although it doesn't seem likely - doesn't know that she won't turn on him again, given the right circumstances. So though he's loath to do it, he needs to try to feel this situation out as carefully as possible. ]
It all went... shit, Angel. It went so wrong. I lost you.
[ Touch in the end had become such a rare occurrence back on Pandora, as she became more machine than girl, as Jack visited her less and less. He'd been the last person to hug her, right before giving the OK to begin administering a consistent flow of eridium into her veins. She doesn't initially know what to do with that hand...
This is all going way out of accordance with her plans. was Jack truly humbling himself or was this a manipulative pull? She knows what she suddenly wants it to be, and that it likely isn't that. This hurts more than she thought it would.
But things have always hurt with Jack, always will, and though it's unwelcomed it's as familiar as this virtual room.
For now she has to stay on guard while also appealing to him, turn back the clock to when they were on the same side, when he believed she still trusted and believed in him (once upon a time she did.)
So she takes a cautious few steps forward, (Handsome Jack on his knees, a sight she didn't believe was possible) and with the lightest of touch places a hand on his shoulder. Giving him the kind of quizzical look, you'd expect from someone just being informed about their own demise, as if she truly is having trouble comprehending the situation. ]
[ When he'd been screaming at his screen, watching her float down and crumple in on herself like tissue paper - she probably had more eridium in her veins than blood by then, and when they'd cut the supply, she'd just... burned out. Gone. When Lilith had sent the Vault Hunters away and was on her way to the eridium injectors herself, and he had been sitting with Angel's body, he'd wondered if it was painless. Was it better than being shot? Did she suffer?
Sure, she deserved to. Anyone who betrayed him deserved the most painful, unbearable death possible. But he couldn't muster up the venom to wish it on her. ]
Don't ever do that to me again. [ He feels rather than sees her hand on his shoulder, head hanging, and his eyes are prickling behind his mask - it's stupid, emotional, Handsome Jack doesn't cry. But the mask feels cloying all of a sudden, and he has to take it off, pinching at the corners of his eyes. ] You're all I have left, Angel.
[ Some of it is real, probably. But when it comes to Jack, separating genuine emotion from emotional manipulation is impossible.
[ Did it hurt? No. Hurt did not begin to describe the agony that the eridium injectors caused her, and the only thing that hurt more than being disconnected from her supply was the first time it was administered, white-hot fire in her veins.
Angel lets her touch linger, when was the last time she saw Jack this distraught genuine or no? Her mother's death maybe. There's an urge to comfort, to placate, one that isn't entirely part of her act and she shoves it down. She knows her and Jack are playing a game of emotionally manipulative chess right now, and she cannot afford to lose. ]
I'm...not entirely sure how this is all possible. Six months ago I woke in this place and have lived on this space station since, waiting for you.
[ Which is actually the truth, just not the entirety of it. Angel lets the implications of it be positive and in Jack's favor, hoping Jack will come to the conclusion that she missed and needed him rather than waiting anxiously to get the jump on him (because that's what this is, right?)
She crouches down a little, closer to his eye level (it doesn't take much.) ]
[ She hesitates, but after looking around at their fellow dancers, some elegant in ways she doubts she could even aspire to be like, some drunk off their asses already and simply swinging to whatever the band plays she decides screw it.
It is a beautiful night, and if Tim has taught her anything so far it's to care about control of the situation a little less. Let the freedom she's been blessedly granted take hold a little more.
She takes a purposeful step forward, looking behind to make sure Tim is following and gives him a small smile. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Tim - test drive 3 cont
Date: 2017-11-18 07:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-11-18 07:19 am (UTC)[Jack has... something that makes people want to follow him. Charisma is probably the word for it, but it's more than just that, and Tim doesn't have the words to describe it properly. If nothing else, though, Jack seemed immortal, Lady Luck's favorite man. So hearing that he died is like trying to tell Tim that the ocean isn't wet. It's fundamentally wrong.]
What? What are you talking about? [He looks at her like she's grown another head.] Jack's not dead.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-18 07:53 am (UTC)She says it Matter-of-factly, casual, like they're talking about the weather simulations in Helios's Hall of Heroes. ]
Oh no, he is very dead. I told you, a lot has happened. Most of it involving Vaults.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-18 08:10 am (UTC)[If there's one thing that Tim would like to live to see, it's Jack's grave. And then he'd want to piss on it or something, because fuck you, Jack.]
Did someone kill him? Did he get eaten by some horrible monster? Did a pit open up from the depths of hell and drag his ass back where it came from?
[...Okay, he probably shouldn't have said that last one.]
no subject
Date: 2017-11-18 08:28 am (UTC)Angel applies the final bandage, gently smoothing it down till it sticks effectively. ]
Vault hunters. Things...didn't end so well at the end of your Elpis mission with them.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-18 08:43 am (UTC)[Tim could've been okay with that. Eventually, though, Jack veered off the rails and everything came crashing down, and Tim was too deep in it to get out.]
That siren chick we were working with was a vault hunter. Lilith or whatever. Redhead? Hung around a big guy with a face like a brick wall?
no subject
Date: 2017-11-18 09:05 am (UTC)Her and Roland, yes. Along with others [ she had ] Jack had recruited under false pretense. After Elpis Jack went on to- [ She sighs ] just imagine how bad things could have gone, and then increase that by a thousand.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-18 06:30 pm (UTC)[The other vault hunters were wild cards. Tim didn't know them well enough to be able to judge them.]
I can imagine. [If Jack sets his mind on something, he'll steamroll over anything or anyone that opposes him without a thought. And if he has all of Hyperion's might at his beck and call, he's not just a dangerous man with a little team of misfits. He's a king.] God. But someone stops him. Someone finally stops him.
[But it's not Tim.]
no subject
Date: 2017-11-18 07:17 pm (UTC)[She nods, taking a step or so back from him now that his wounds are all covered up by little smiling circles.
Jack was stopped, yes, but that it has somehow and against all odds been only a temporary measure. That even death hadn't been the end. Luck favored him even beyond the grave.
She should tell him, save him from a nasty surprise down the line...but she's still scared, doesn't trust him or what he'd do with the knowledge that one day Jack may come.back for them. Tim had left, but he hadn't left yet.]
What are you going to do now?
no subject
Date: 2017-11-19 12:52 am (UTC)[Tim didn't know what he was going to do with his life even before he'd signed it off to Jack. Go back to vault hunting? Except that there may not even be any vaults around here. But it's all that he knows how to do that anyone's ever found any value in.]
[Maybe there are bounties? He could do that. Killing people for someone else is basically what he was doing on Elpis, right?]
Live, I guess. I don't know what that means yet, but I'll have to figure it out.
[Do you believe in life after Jack?]
no subject
Date: 2017-11-19 06:09 am (UTC)Live.
Something she hadn't even considered until this conversation, that she had correlated with survive. But the two weren't actually the same, were they? What she had been doing wasn't living.
She hadn't believed in life after Jack, because there was never supposed to be one. But she could try.
For the first time since running into him, Angel smiles. ]
That sounds like an excellent idea. I am sure there is a life for you, and only you, here and on El Nysa.
Krieg - test drive 3 cont
Date: 2017-11-18 07:24 am (UTC)[ He's wrong, she still shoulders so much blame, could have said no sooner but didn't. She knew there was a chance he'd blame her like she blamed herself, expected it since it was the truth. That much like Zer0, he doesn't resent her...she has no right to be forgiven so easily, but still appreciates the thought, the idea that there is a world where things weren't her fault.
She quirks her lip at that last part though, she'll never get tired of hearing about how Jack was thoroughly rekt, even if it didn't stick. She won't disappoint Krieg with that information for now, though. ]
So I have heard. [ Though not from Zer0 ] I...thank you is not a strong enough set of words.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-19 07:11 am (UTC)Mnuhuhuhu...I'd do it again for nothing!
[He means "you're welcome".
Can he just say that?
The answer, apparently, is "no".]
no subject
Date: 2017-11-19 08:15 am (UTC)I will hold you to that.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-23 07:20 am (UTC)You know someone who needs an axe to the skull?
Jack - test drive 3 cont
Date: 2017-11-18 08:33 am (UTC)KICKS DOOR DOWN
Date: 2017-11-19 07:24 am (UTC)Instead, nostalgia hits him like a Mack turbotruck, because he knows this place. How could he forget? Hadn't had this place since the accident - it seems like it happened centuries ago, not a decade - when he'd relocated Angel to a safer, more enriching environment.
Angel.
Honestly, it steals his breath. She's dead. Those child-murdering sons of bitches killed her. She can't be-- ]
Angel?
[ He's too dazed to look around and spot her, so he just talks to the wall, voice quavering with a thread of uncertainty. It's not very Handsome of him, but--
She's supposed to be dead. ]
DONT DAMAGE THE DOORS they're not insured
Date: 2017-11-19 07:56 am (UTC)She must really have Jack on the brain, if the program is making predictive moves like this, and you know what? No. You've gotta draw a line somewhere, you've gotta make a statement. You've gotta look inside yourself and say "what am I willing to put up with today?" Not. This.
Without saying a word to him Angel waves her hand, bringing up a command window and keyboard and punching in DISABLE_HJ
no subject
Date: 2017-11-19 08:30 am (UTC)The movement catches his eye, so he says it again, not doing the decent thing here by poofing into nothingness. Everything feels slow, his movements syrupy as he turns to face the bed, and she's right there. His Angel, alive and well, not cold, not burned out like a light bulb without Eridium pumping through her veins.
It's a simulation. He knows that. Knows she probably isn't real. That in all likeliness, she'll disappear as soon as this thing shuts off.
It doesn't keep him from rushing to her, setting a hand on whatever part of her is closest to convince himself she's solid.
"Angel? Sweetheart? Are you--" Handsome Jack is actually stumbling over his words, heart aching all over again with a wound that's never quite healed over. "Jesus Christ. Angel?"
no subject
Date: 2017-11-19 08:49 am (UTC)What would be the fuc- frigging- no she means fucking. What would be the fucking chances?
One last desperate attempt to let this all be just a cruel computer error, she quickly waves forward the consol DISABLE_DAD ]
no subject
Date: 2017-11-19 09:05 am (UTC)DISABLE_DAD
That one he gets, but doesn't understand. She's trying to disable him? What, remove him from the simulation, like he's some unwanted part of it? A glitch? He doesn't - understand. She should be happy to see him. She'd always been happy back home, right up until those piece of shit Vault Hunters had brainwashed her into killing herself.
Ah. It's an easy enough excuse, so Jack's mind immediately latches onto it. She's still suffering from what they did to her. He's less dismayed now, regaining some measure of composure as he swats at the digital words. ]
I'm real, Angel. [ Jack's trying not to sound too terse, synthetic brows pulled together. ] Nysa? Orbiters? Any of that a-ringin' a bell? Angel, how are you - when did you--
[ Words are hard and emotions are stupid and he's having a lot of them right now, all conflicting. So he just says whatever comes to mind first, sounding just a little bit desperate. ]
Are you real?
no subject
Date: 2017-11-19 09:17 am (UTC)She makes another quick motion with her hand, dismissing the console screen fast as she summoned it. She already knows the answer, but asks anyways ]
Are you?
no subject
Date: 2017-11-19 01:15 pm (UTC)[ Jack resists the urge to scoff and roll his eyes; normally he'd take the time to condescend to her, but right now he's more interested in... well, her. Past the initial flush of shock, he supposes it makes sense - they brought in what's-his-face from five years ago, so why not Angel?
But he's... actually finding it hard to come up with what to say next. ]
Angel.
Aaaa sorry I just realized I sleepily misread some of your tag last night
Date: 2017-11-19 05:57 pm (UTC)But at least their is a silver, though extremely thin lining: The two and a half close calls she'd had so far, while exhausting, had also given her an unusual opportunity to troubleshoot how this inevitable meeting would go, to QA her her words and reactions. Her current plan would have to be rerouted slightly given her unexpected position, but she could make this work. She could survive him this time.
There are two pieces of information that Jack could not know, not right now and never from her: That he had died, and that she knew she had died. ]
No, of course not. This simulation simply has had a bad habit of playing cruel tricks on me while I have been waiting for you to wake.
np!!!
Date: 2017-11-21 03:08 pm (UTC)[ She sounds just like she always did (always will) - cool, logical, like the tech she's always handled with such ease. It makes him nervous on some level he doesn't fully understand, because she's normal, not the traitorous, defiant, downright hateful creature she'd been in the minutes before her death. He's blocked out a lot of the details with drugs and whatever calming effect he could get from torturing Lilith, but he remembers enough; Jack remembers how she'd coached the Vault Hunters through all of his carefully-constructed defenses, how she'd sabotaged her own safety, and most of all, he remembers all the things she'd said.
Don't listen to him.
He controls you with guilt.
Dad? You're an asshole.
When was the last time she'd called him dad instead of Jack? ]
I'm so sorry.
[ He croaks it out, half-offering a hand - reaching for her, but stopping short, uncertain. Does she even know? What had happened to her? What those child-killing monsters had made her do to herself?
To him? ]
no subject
Date: 2017-11-21 05:03 pm (UTC)So excuse her look of naked surprise at the words, before she reminds herself that she can't be drawn in- not again- she has to stay focused. ]
Sorry for what?
no subject
Date: 2017-11-21 05:36 pm (UTC)[ Maybe he shouldn't tell her this, but he knows she can handle it. She should - she deserves to know.
(So she can do better next time.)
Angel doesn't reach back, but Jack almost doesn't seem to notice, slipping to his knees. Legs feel like jello, she's alive, his daughter is alive again and she doesn't know she was dead in the first place. He can hardly stand to breathe with the total relief that washes over him.
But he's still Handsome Jack, and he's still calculating enough to know that he doesn't know her allegiances yet. Doesn't know for sure that she doesn't remember her death, although it doesn't seem likely - doesn't know that she won't turn on him again, given the right circumstances. So though he's loath to do it, he needs to try to feel this situation out as carefully as possible. ]
It all went... shit, Angel. It went so wrong. I lost you.
I DID IT AGain sorry hope this fixes that fff...
Date: 2017-11-21 09:43 pm (UTC)This is all going way out of accordance with her plans. was Jack truly humbling himself or was this a manipulative pull? She knows what she suddenly wants it to be, and that it likely isn't that. This hurts more than she thought it would.
But things have always hurt with Jack, always will, and though it's unwelcomed it's as familiar as this virtual room.
For now she has to stay on guard while also appealing to him, turn back the clock to when they were on the same side, when he believed she still trusted and believed in him (once upon a time she did.)
So she takes a cautious few steps forward, (Handsome Jack on his knees, a sight she didn't believe was possible) and with the lightest of touch places a hand on his shoulder. Giving him the kind of quizzical look, you'd expect from someone just being informed about their own demise, as if she truly is having trouble comprehending the situation. ]
Si-
[ No, more familial. ]
Dad? I'm right here.
NO PROB
Date: 2017-11-24 10:30 am (UTC)[ When he'd been screaming at his screen, watching her float down and crumple in on herself like tissue paper - she probably had more eridium in her veins than blood by then, and when they'd cut the supply, she'd just... burned out. Gone. When Lilith had sent the Vault Hunters away and was on her way to the eridium injectors herself, and he had been sitting with Angel's body, he'd wondered if it was painless. Was it better than being shot? Did she suffer?
Sure, she deserved to. Anyone who betrayed him deserved the most painful, unbearable death possible. But he couldn't muster up the venom to wish it on her. ]
Don't ever do that to me again. [ He feels rather than sees her hand on his shoulder, head hanging, and his eyes are prickling behind his mask - it's stupid, emotional, Handsome Jack doesn't cry. But the mask feels cloying all of a sudden, and he has to take it off, pinching at the corners of his eyes. ] You're all I have left, Angel.
[ Some of it is real, probably. But when it comes to Jack, separating genuine emotion from emotional manipulation is impossible.
(He hopes the show is good.) ]
IM JUST EXCITED ;w;
Date: 2017-11-24 10:55 pm (UTC)Angel lets her touch linger, when was the last time she saw Jack this distraught genuine or no? Her mother's death maybe. There's an urge to comfort, to placate, one that isn't entirely part of her act and she shoves it down. She knows her and Jack are playing a game of emotionally manipulative chess right now, and she cannot afford to lose. ]
I'm...not entirely sure how this is all possible. Six months ago I woke in this place and have lived on this space station since, waiting for you.
[ Which is actually the truth, just not the entirety of it. Angel lets the implications of it be positive and in Jack's favor, hoping Jack will come to the conclusion that she missed and needed him rather than waiting anxiously to get the jump on him (because that's what this is, right?)
She crouches down a little, closer to his eye level (it doesn't take much.) ]
I won't, Dad. I'm here now, I promise.
[ Which is actually a lie. ]
Tim - winter gala
Date: 2018-01-10 02:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-10 02:15 am (UTC)It is a beautiful night, and if Tim has taught her anything so far it's to care about control of the situation a little less. Let the freedom she's been blessedly granted take hold a little more.
She takes a purposeful step forward, looking behind to make sure Tim is following and gives him a small smile. ]
We will see about that.