Greet + Writing: Prompt Challenge // Trinity (pt. 1)

    Hey, hey, look who's keeping with a monthly goal of at least one blog post. I'm really proud of myself right now, to be honest. Sort of. The "part one" is the reason for the sort of.

    You know, when you cram in a lot of television, a horde of people visiting, and a transcontinental move into a couple of months, brain power really starts taking a nose-dive on you. 

    But. Two new followers to my blog in the last couple of weeks. I have no idea where you two came from, but welcome aboard and be prepared for an erratic schedule. ^_^

    To catch people up, last month (at least, I think it was last month...) I posted a prompt challenge here on my blog for my followers to get a little bit of dream world alternate 'verse reward and as a challenge to myself and lovely follower Trinity sent me the following prompt.

    "Okay, so Jandy and Dech play bodyguard to Sean and Lindsey, because Jaydn and Jasen are trying to kill them. Then use, "Where did it go?" she mumbled over and over again, sitting on the floor, back against the door, half empty bottle of wine in one hand and a handgun in the other." And I want to know who snores."

    I have been slowly (slowly) working on this prompt since then and am just now hitting four pages/2,912 words. Since I anticipate a continued slow productivity rate, I'm going to post what I've got every three pages. So today is the first three pages, then the next post will be pages four through six, and so on and so forth.

     Hopefully that makes sense, and if anyone has questions, leave a comment on any of my posts. I don't bite, will get an email heads-up, and get back to you as soon a I can. Which could either be hours or days, depending on when you catch me. Cough.

    Also, all characters within the following writing excerpt have been featured in previous posts. You can check the tags somewhere off to the right of your browser for the name of the character in question and read up on them. The world(s) this prompt is situated in has not been before featured. Brand new 'verse for alternate 'verse characters. But, just for a quick run down, J&J are Jasen and Jaydn. They're complicated. D&J are Dechlan and Jandy. They're mentally linked. S&L are Sean and Lindsey. Her parents are recently dead and he's a childhood friend. Check previous posts for further explanations. 

    With that said, forward ho!


// J&J //

    A face. A news report. A government file. A single word.
    Eliminate.
    Too young. Too relatable. Too close.
    She switched off the tablet and picked up her comm. to send a message with a meeting point. They had work to do. And the sooner it was done, the better.
    
// D&J //

    The rap was added into her odd mixture of a dream, featuring a mind-numbing club track playing through her old apartment but there was a wheat field growing in the middle of it that wasn’t in any portion of her own memories. There was another sharp knock and this one roused Jandy a bit, but she elected to ignore it in favor of a few extra seconds of sleep. 
    They’d been in high demand as of late and thus their work schedule was hectic, equating to less sleep than she preferred getting. And judging by the clarity and insistence coming across her link to Dechlan, they were in even more demand than they had been ten minutes ago. Perfect time to bury her head under her pillow.
    “Hey, no, we got a call,” her partner’s voice came from somewhere overhead. Another soundless approach. Gold star to him.
    There was amusement with her train of thought that she poked at and then ignored.
    “G’way, Dech. Sleeping.” She managed, bleary and disoriented as she tried to roll over and away from awareness.
    The bed dipped behind her and the air felt very close all of a sudden. Wrapping her arms tighter around her pillow and burying her face in it, Jandy squeezed her eyes shut tighter. “No. No charm. No cajoling. I’m tired.”
    “And we have work to do.” There was a firm, albeit gentle, tug on her pillow.
    Relinquishing it without much fight, Jandy flopped onto her back again, reaching up to push her hair out of her eyes and blink at Dechlan.
    He was dressed and ready to walk out the door, no doubt having shaved and maybe even cut his hair while she slept, on top of eating and the rest of his morning routine. His brows raised under her scrutiny and a hint of a smile formed on his features. “Morning.”
    “I look like crap, don’t I?” she croaked, blinking sleep from her gaze before going after it with one trimmed nail.
    “No comment,” Dechlan shrugged, retaining his place on the edge of her mattress, leaning back on one hand. 
    Jandy felt him searching their link and reached back out of habit, trying to ascertain what he was after, staring at a spot on the wall as her attention drifted inwards. A memory of long hours lying awake, not hers, watching dreams of her life with her sister back in Kaido was open to her perusal. A rueful smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
    Sorry, she offered, turning her head to look at her partner again, realizing his initial investigation had been an attempt to find out if he’d overlooked anything that would’ve caused the vivid imaginings of her subconscious. It happens when I’m tired. Like I sleep too deeply to keep up some barrier against them.
    It’s fine. I don’t mind. Tells me where your head’s at. One of Dechlan’s shoulders lifted in a half shrug. 
    She didn’t have to voice her mild amusement and acceptance with this, letting Dechlan feel them for himself over their link. Scoot over so I can sit up and tell me about this job.
    Her partner obliged, shifting further down the mattress without protest, mind already turning to the phone call he’d gotten earlier. Jandy followed his thoughts with her own, picking up details as they went, while she pushed herself upright. Pushing her fingers through her hair again, except in an attempt to tame it this time, Jandy pulled her knees up to her chest to get past Dechlan, resisting the urge to poke him, then let her legs drop over the edge to the rug on the floor.
    The cool air that inhabited the foot of space above the ground of her room caused gooseflesh to rise up along her arms and legs. Blowing out a long breath and trying to rub it away, she glanced over to find Dechlan already watching her.
    You’ve got that look again.
    Sorry.
    Jandy smiled, shaking her head a little. There was that grey area again, with that line they danced around, and that usual uncertainty about it. But she let it roll off her shoulders, straightening a bit and moving on. “Come on, you moved too fast through the call. What did Canton have for us?”
    “A couple in witness protection.” His focus was slower to follow hers, which was growing less unusual. She woke up sometimes with his residual thoughts from the prior night echoing through both their minds. It’d taken some getting used to but now, for the moment, she’d learned to just push past it. They couldn’t go there. Not yet. Even if it was on both of their minds and they both knew it. 
    “Doesn’t that make them the government’s responsibility?” She needed to move and so did, getting up to go rifle through her set of drawers, making sure the hem of her shirt was falling where it was supposed to. It was a curious case, though, and that made it easy to focus on.
    “Technically.” There was a muffled whoof and Jandy didn’t have to turn around to know that Dechlan had fallen backwards across her bed while they talked. “But they’ve already had two near misses and they want some extra hands on deck, so they reached out to Canton and he saw we had two free weeks.”
    “Two free weeks that were supposed to be just that—free.” Clothes, clothes. She needed clothes so they could go. Easier said than done. Being busy meant little time to do laundry. Or to get laundry done, more often. A lot of her stuff had to be dry-cleaned.  Company dress code policies be darned.
     Despite her train of thought, which tended to coax some amusement from her counterpart, Dechlan felt tired, though not with her. Pausing, she investigated. It was… their job, their schedule, their life.
     You know we’re almost done. Our contract is almost up and then we should be set financially to get out of here. Jandy dropped the button-up shirt and pinstripe pants—both of which she often entertained thoughts of burning--in her hands in a heap on the ground, going to crawl up the bed beside her partner again.
     He watched her progress, arms crossed behind his head, then leaned into her when she stretched out at his side, folding out one arm. Jandy settled into the dip between his forearm and bicep, cheek pressed against his skin as she sought eye contact. Those hazel green eyes that helped make up the person who embodied home for her now.
    What they shared allowed her to feel the gratitude in response to her thoughts, the reciprocation of the sentiment, the heavy weight of weariness they both carried, both their thoughts and emotions tangling and swirling together in an intangible and unexplainable mix. It was harder than ever to distinguish where her mind ended and his began with this proximity. Their connection worked over a distance, but the closer they were, the better the clarity. And here, inches from each other’s sides, with a large portion of their thoughts already in alignment, that clarity was crystal. Almost painful in its clearness, except not. 
    Jandy could feel his heartbeat echoing her own, beating near in sync with her own, and she drew in a quiet breath, unconsciously doing so in the same moment as Dechlan.
    Almost five years, they’d had this bridge between their minds. Five years, learning the inner workings of each other’s hearts and minds to the point of not being able to imagine anything else. Not being able to imagine anyone else. 
    She searched Dechlan’s face and he studied her in return, the arm that she’d rested her head on coming up so his fingertips could brush her hair. They were both so far past the human difficulty to hold eye contact by this point; those early days were fading memories now. No, it wasn’t perfect. They weren’t perfect. Sometimes their connection made her – both of them – feel as if their souls had been laid bare to each other. Which they had, but sometimes it hurt more than others.
    Her dark eyes stung with tears as she studied the thin, white scar leading down from his hairline to be just visible on his forehead. A mark that meant he could’ve been lost to her long before they’d ever crossed paths in Warren’s program. Jandy’s breath caught in her chest.
    The piercing ring of Dechlan’s communicator from the other room caused the pair to jerk, his head lifting in an instant to ascertain the situation and hers burying into his shoulder with a muffled grumble. 
    “That’s probably Canton telling us to get over there.” Dechlan commented, sounding far more at ease than he was actually feeling at that moment.
    Jandy stifled the urge to groan again, resigning herself to a sigh, and tilting her chin up so she could see his profile again, contemplating an attempt to plead for a day off. One brow rose as he glanced back in his peripherals.
    “No. We have to go.” He voiced his reply aloud instead of keeping it enclosed in their link, hoping to clear the weight in the air around them and get her moving.
    She didn’t want for it to work, but it was. Plus his comm. was still going off in the other room, which was doing nothing to keep the moment from slipping away, so Jandy resigned herself to another day of professional babysitting and sat up. Dechlan aided her effort with a hand on the small of her back as he got moving as well. 
    Following his silent request to clear off of the mattress, Jandy went to grab her dumped clothes—no doubt sporting a few wrinkles now that she could’ve cared less about—letting her partner shake out her comforter and leave it looking a bit more orderly before going to tend to his device.
    Jandy glanced a warning to Dechlan before going about getting ready for the day ahead, finding herself to be in the same place he’d been in just ten minutes earlier. Tired of this life and tired of having to put off shedding some light on their grey area. Very tired of it.
    As she sat down on her bed to zip into her short boots, they were both in silent agreement on that point.

// S&L //

    “We’ve been talking with Miss Angelo and we’re going to set up an apartment a couple of districts over for the two of you under an alias we’re building. ” Maximoff Canton explained to Sean, who sat with his hands clasped together as he took in the security firm’s director’s words. “Before then, we have you two  booked at a hotel downtown.”
    As he always was nowadays, Sean remained aware of where Lindsey was at as best he could. She stood by the window a handful of paces away, watching the outside through the cracks in the shades. It’d been a better morning for her. And he hated to have to think in those terms, but Lindsey tended to ricochet from catatonic to temperamental to just plain broken depending on the day. Today she’d just been quiet. Responsive, but only when asked pointed questions.
    “Wasn’t Miss Angelo supposed to be here?” Sean asked, resisting the urge to scratch the back of his head, tamping down his mild frustration. No need to give an even greater dead giveaway that he had no idea what he was doing in this situation. Television and a year of university life didn’t do much in the way of preparing one for witness protection. And wasn’t the lawyer supposed to be in touch with him about all this?
    “She said she had something to attend and would be running late,” Canton wasn’t put out, though he did glance at the clock on his desk. “My people are behind schedule as well, so it should be fine.”
    “You said they weren’t your standard fare team. How did you mean?” If they had to sit here until everyone decided to show up, he might as well get as much information he could.
    “First, most of my teams of two or three are all male, for effectiveness and professionalism’s sake. If I need a female and the few on my payroll are otherwise engaged, I usually contract with another firm. Scott and Sparks are one of my more successful teams, despite her lack of professional military training.”
    Sean was pretty sure he heard an unspoken “which I still don’t understand” hanging off the man’s sentence, but didn’t say anything about it. He leveled his stare at the older man instead and said, “We appreciate whatever help you can lend, sir. She—“ Sean glanced at Lindsey, who had turned to listen to the conversation and was staring off into space. “She’s been through a lot and I’m really hoping to get through the hearing without any more incidents. Having a team on board whose purpose is to stick close will be welcome.”
    Canton took in his statements and then nodded once. “We don’t hire people who don’t know how to do this job, Mr. Becket. You both will be in good hands.”
    A sharp knock interrupted the conversation and Sean rose when the sudden noise startled Lindsey out of her reverie with a quiet gasp. 
    “Come,” the CEO called, standing and allowing the young pair a moment while the door opened .
    Lindsey was quick to nod that she was okay when Sean reached her, managing an unsteady smile. He caught her elbow to keep her close, seeing the glassy shine of tears in her eyes, and shifted to see who had come. 
    “Nice of you two show up,” Canton remarked with a disapproving downturn to his mouth that was noticed by all present.
    They had to be Scott and Sparks, as Canton had called them, Sean surmised after a few moments. Which was which, he didn’t know, but the man had a definite military aura to him and stood almost a full head taller than the woman at his side. Her dark eyes and darker complexion suggested different origins than her partner, and although she bore none of the trained professionalism of her counterpart, they both had an ease at each other’s side that bespoke a strong bond. 
    “Sorry, sir, we got back in late from our last engagement. It was a bit slow going this morning.” The male said by way of greeting, casting a glance towards Sean and Lindsey’s direction but then refocusing on his boss.
    “Just be on time next time.” Canton took his seat again. “Scott, Sparks, I’d like you two to meet Sean Becket and Lindsey Donovan, your next clients. Mr. Becket, Miss Donovan, this is Dechlan Scott and Jandelyn Sparks.”
    Sean towed Lindsey over and shook the hands of the bodyguards. “It’s nice to meet you both.”
    “Call me Jandy.” The woman said with a slight smile and a calculating gaze that rested on both him and Lindsey for a few beats before she exchanged a quick look with her partner. 
    “Shall we get down to business?” Canton addressed the four of them and Sean let his attention turn to the man behind the desk once more.


    Alright. So. I think that's all I have at the moment. I need to go help my mom find her brain, attempt to remember how to do a Spock-style mind meld, and act as a translator in general. Woot woot.

    As always, thank you for the patience, and all comments, thoughts, and critiques are welcome in the comments below.

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.

The Sunshine Award + Prompt Blurb

    Wow is this late. It's been a crazy two weeks playing pseudo-mom while real mom is out of town and blog posts just don't factor into running a house.

    So the various blog awards continue to go around and I got nominated for the Sunshine Award by Hannah from Sister Sketches.

    The Rules for the Sunshine Award:
    - Thank the person who nominated you
    - Answer the questions they asked you on your respective blog
    - Nominate another batch of bloggers (eleven being the standard)
    - Question them (evil chuckle)
    - Notify them that they have been nominated
    - And post the award image on your blog

    I highly doubt I will fulfill all the rules, as I don't intend to spend very long on this post so I can try and work on other stuff this evening. 

    Thank You to Hannah for nominating me for the Sunshine Award over at Sister Sketches. It really means a lot to me that you nominated me for this award!

1. Which number (1, 2, 3, etc.) is the best, based on it's personality and morals? (Example: 7 is best because of his wise and patient personality.) I honestly do not know what to do with this. Really don't. I like the number 62 but I've never tried assigning personalities to numbers.
2. Fruit-flavored candy or chocolate? Ehhh... perhaps dark chocolate. 
3. Under what circumstances would you jump on a shark's back? Very, very extreme circumstances involving either my siblings or small children.
4. Would you rather grab a handful of cow poop or drink milk straight from the cow? Grab the cow poo, because I have no idea what type of bacteria might be in fresh, fresh cow milk.
5. Batman or Iron Man? Iron Man, all the way. I don't really like anything related to DC.
6. Fantasy or sci-fi? Sci-fi, but I'm not adverse to fantasy.
7. Three years of famine, three months to be destroyed by your foes, or three days of the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of the land? Uh.... maybe the three months, but I don't quite understand what's being destroyed by my foes. So I'll go with that one.
8. Favorite season? Spring/early summer.
9. Is the Lochness Monster real? Not in my opinion, no, though it does make for really cool story ideas.
10. Death by fire or death by ice? Death by ice. 
11. Out of any animal, what would be your dream pet? Recently, it's been a German Shepherd, maybe even an MWD, because you can adopt retired MWD's and that sounds like a really special experience.

    And I think that's all I'm going to do of the Sunshine Award stuffs. Which I apologize for.

But I need to work on some other things tonight as well while I still have a brain.

    In the lines of those other things, Trinity, I am working on your prompt. And I even have a small blurb to prove it.

// J&J //

    A face. A news report. A government file. A single word.

    Eliminate.

    Too young. Too relatable. Too close.

    She switched off the tablet and picked up her comm. to send a message with a meeting point. They had work to do. And the sooner it was done, the better.

   

// D&J //

    The rap was added into her odd mixture of a dream, featuring a mind-numbing club track playing through her old apartment but there was a wheat field growing in the middle of it that wasn’t in any portion of her own memories. There was another sharp knock and this one roused Jandy a bit, but she elected to ignore it in favor of a few extra seconds of sleep.

    They’d been in high demand as of late and thus their work schedule was hectic, equating to less sleep than she preferred getting. And judging by the clarity and insistence coming across her link to Dechlan, they were in even more demand than they had been ten minutes ago. Perfect time to bury her head under her pillow.

    “Hey, no, we got a call,” her partner’s voice came from somewhere overhead. Another soundless approach. Gold star to him.

    I went with a whole new setting in order to get everyone in the same spot more or less in the same time stream. Futuristic, almost sci-fi, with some inter-planetary travel going on. At least, Jandy and Dech are saving up to go elsewhere, and Jase and Jaydn have been everywhere. 

    With that, I believe I shall close.

    Thank you again for the nomination, Hannah!

    Ad astra per aspera.

    To the stars, through difficulty.

0200 Hours and I am Interneting (Alt: Writing -- Jade + Jase)

    Contrary to popular belief, I am still alive. 

    And the hour is depriving me of my usual wit and humor (joke) so... life is life-ing as usual. I'm on a sort-of internet break, but I wrote a page and a half of a Microsoft Word document on my ipod while avoiding schoolwork the other day and figured it was better than the nothingness I've produced up until now.

    It's been one of those "I have so much in my head but everything I put on the page sucks" sort of phases, I'm afraid. But the scrawl I'm posting tonight (this morning...?) came rather easily after a couple days of computer break, so. We'll see if I can continue in this line and maybe find it in me to do something with Jandy and Dechlan.

    But, for some background. I was sitting and idly thinking about Deviant Storyline Jaydn and Jase and the ever present issue of her martyrdom for her family that's causing her to say no to a potential future with Jase. Do not ask how I got to this point, but I ended up with Jase getting pinged by Charles (contact/good friend of Jade's) to go rescue Jade, who'd gotten herself in a bit of a fix. 

    Through an unfortunate twist of events, I believe she fell down a flight of stairs and ended up getting caught by the local law enforcement who... were on her tail for reasons unknown. I didn't say this idea was hole-less, just FYI. Anyways, by the time he gets there, she's at the hospital and on a couple more painkillers/sedative-type-drugs than she's used to. Which, considering Jade stays away from all that stuff in general because it clouds her mind and she can't think, makes for an interesting Jade. Like, you hear about alcohol bringing out different sides of people? Well. Yeah. 

    After she commented on Jase's eyes making her imo (father) smile, because they were special like Ha'imo and Merri's, and commenting that she didn't like drugs because they made her mind all "woo-woo", Jase knew it'd be quite a tall order to get her away without attracting attention. 

    And there was another moment while she was still pretty out of it that was humorous but stemmed from a much more serious subject, which is referenced in my scrawl, but I haven't quite worked out what her comment was. 

    As for the timeline, I'm putting this ten or so months after Ruusan was rescued and brought home and also post another event that Penny and I never got to but considered, which had the space station attacked and a bunch of hunters (Jase included) captured by baddies and just... stuffs. My brain is so dead right now.

    If you're really confused over stuff, ask. Please. Because my explanations are really crummy at the moment.

    I may also have taken a small liberty founded in hopeful wishes for Ruu which you should be able to figure out as soon as she enters the scene. 

    Anyways, kicking off on the space station where the Vhanders live, in the infirmary, Jase having managed to get Jade there. (And Jase is familiar with Ruusan because she was one of the attending doctors after he and the other hunters were rescued following the proposed attack on the space station.)


   Her head turned on the white pillow, the rustle drawing Jase's attention and he watched as her eyes blinked open, disorientation clear to be seen there.
    For a long moment, Jade watched him, pieces clicking together in her gaze before she looked past him, then to the machine that was displaying her vitals. He'd muted it a half hour earlier, having no desire to listen to it blip in pace with Jaydn's heartbeat.
    "Charles called you?" The woman asked at last, her voice rough from the effect of the drugs that were still making their way from her system.
    Reclining back in the seat Ruusan had found for him and trying to ignore what seeing her like this was doing to him, Jase nodded once. "Sooner would've been better, but I got you out before they called in anyone higher than bootlicker."
    Jade braced her usable hand on the mattress and shifted herself upwards so she was sitting up, but the crease between her brows spoke of the pain she had to be in.
    "I don't remember a lot," she murmured after she'd resettled, glancing at him with something akin to apology in her gaze. "Just... a lot of different drugs. And later."
    He didn't need a translation for 'later'. When she'd started coming back around. The things she'd said that still echoed in his thoughts.
    Deciding to spare both her and himself until a later time when they would both be prepared for that conversation, Jase offered, "Your sister-in-law, Ruusan, said it'd be a while until she'd get everything flushed out of your system. They gave you quite the cocktail. Must've known who they were up against." He allowed a brief, faint smirk to pull at the corner of his mouth.
    The woman shrugged her free shoulder before looking down to observe the status of her arm, discontent showing through to her features. Jase leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees.
    "The medical read-out in the hospital said you fell down a flight of stairs and Ruusan concurred with that prognosis." He didn't know whether the fall had been a miscalculation or an honest stumble, and thus wouldn't try to reassure her, but he would've put money on the former. Dark environment, possibly being pursued, assumed that a distance was farther than it turned out to be...
    A ghost of a smile appeared on Jade's face, as if she had already guessed the direction of his thoughts, even with her fogged mind. In response, he raised a brow at her, daring her to contradict him.
    She didn't, but that may have been because there was a scuff of feet on the smooth infirmary floor, drawing both hunters back to the present as they made sure there was no imminent threat.
    Wrapped up in a sweater and with her hair braided back out of the way, small curls escaping, Ruusan brought warmth to the room with her presence alone, blue eyes bright with cautious interest. A blanket was in her hand, held out of the way of her growing baby bump.
    Jase was still surprised at the change between this Ruusan and the one who's been there to greet him and the other rescued hunters upon their delivery to Loophole's infirmary five months prior. But he hid it well, sitting back in his seat to allow the doctor access to her sister.
    "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," Ruu said, glancing between the two. "They just keep the infirmary cooler than is normal so I wasn't sure if either of you wanted this." She indicated the blanket in her grasp.
    "I wouldn't mind," Jade replied, honesty in her voice and Jasen could see her mind processing all the different signs in Ruusan's movements and expressions that would tell of her physical and emotional welfare. "Their cocktail is proving hard on my system."
    Professional disapproval drew a frown to Ruu's features as she approached, hesitation falling away, and she moved to unfold the blanket, tucking it around Jade. "I don't know what they were thinking. Mixing some of those things can easily be toxic to anybody's system, let alone someone like you, who isn't accustomed drugs of that potency."
    "I don't doubt that whatever law enforcement dragged me in gave them strict orders to make sure that there would be no way I'd be going anywhere without help," Jaydn shrugged again, too tired to work up any great amount of frustration over the spot of trouble she'd gotten herself into.
    One of Ruusan's slim hands drifted over her extended abdomen, while the other settled at the small of her back, neither action going unnoticed by the two hunters in the small, curtained off room. "Still. Our oath is to do no harm and whatever doctor or nurse administered your dosages got darn near committing malpractice."
    Jase was content to let the conversation flow around him, the adrenaline high he'd been running on for hours finally beginning to slow enough that he could relax. Plus it was... nice. Being there. There was still a lot that would need to be talked about, but Jade wasn't pushing him away and that was enough of a start in his book.
    "You should go home," Jaydn said and for a moment, he thought she was addressing him until stormy-blue glanced up and saw that she was talking to Ruusan still.
    That woman was not enthused by the idea. "I'm okay, Jade, really and I would really rather be here, making sure there's no adverse effects from that cocktail then twiddling my thumbs and pretending to sleep."
    From the sound of it, this was a conversation that had been had more than one time and Jase knew it had everything to do with what had occurred less than a year ago and the life currently sheltered within Ruusan. His priority was currently Jade, but he did agree with where the other hunter's thoughts undoubtedly were at. Get Ruusan to rest so she doesn't wear herself out and cause complications to her pregnancy.
    He stood, the movement drawing the attention of both females. Jade's gaze was calculating, deciphering his intentions, while Ruusan's was curious.
    "I'll walk you to your apartment and then I'll come back and stay with Jaydn," Jase said, informing more than anything else. "If anything changes, I'll find someone to send and get you. And the rest of your guys' family will be here before too long."
    Protest again rose in Ruusan's blue eyes. "That's very sweet of you, but I really don't need to be--"
    "Ruu." Her sister's voice was gentle but not allowing for further argument. "I'm fine. And whether you like it or not, you need to be off your feet. Go and someone will come get you when the others arrive, alright?"
    When the doctor finally came to terms with that fact that she wasn't going to be able to talk herself out of this one, she sighed. "Alright, fine. But I want to be notified the moment anything changes."
    Jase stepped around the bed to take Ruusan's elbow in hand and guide her towards the exit, noting the gratitude in Jade's eyes as she watched the proceedings. The pregnant woman's instructions died out rather quickly after he ushered her from the room. The rest of the infirmary was vacant besides a man whose appearance suggested that he was on the night shift. All the same, Jase did a quick assessment as they passed to determine if he was armed and decided he wasn't an immediate threat. If he did turn out to be one, he was certain Jade would be able to hold her own until his return.

    And... yeah. It's something. I kind of like it. Might fill in the blank spots before and after at some point, but I really (really, really) have to get some schoolwork done one of these days, so we'll see.

    I haven't forgotten Jandy and Dechlan, either, Trinity. Really, truly. It's just again with that "I know what I want to do, but it won't come in a way that I'm satisfied with" sort of thing. Which is getting rather frustrating, so I might need to change something in the idea I've been chewing over for the last while to make it different and see if that kick starts anything....

    Anyways. I should go read about transcendentalism and all that fun stuff before it gets to be too insane of an hour. 

    Many thanks for hanging around (and did you just follow me, Nate? If so, awesomeness, muchas gracias, and welcome. :D) and again, don't be afraid to leave comments or questions. I will get back to you pretty quickly. 

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties. 

Writing: Deviant -- Jaydn's Resolve and Jase Drouais

    As I promised, I am back after writing my email. I'm going to attempt to jam this all into one long post, but it might end up as two, and if it does, make sure to read part one (I'll edit the title if need be) then part two, or you'll be really discombobulated.

    There isn't really a lot of explanation for these bits as they explain themselves pretty well. But for age reference, Jaydn is nineteen in the first bit, twenty-four in the second and third, twenty-five in the fourth, and twenty-eight in the fifth. Jase is within a year of her age, maybe a wee bit older, if you were curious.

    Also, a non-serious warning that the notorious, stop-in-the-middle-of-a-tense-moment part of me struck in the fourth bit, and a serious WARNING for the mentioning of sensitive themes in the third bit in a bit more detail than my last Deviant Jade scrawl that I posted. So if you're skittish around that stuff, you might want to skip the third segment of this series of scrawls.

    I think you all have figured out Gogamian fairly well by not, and if you haven't, well, I'm going to make you do the legwork. The most recent language reference is located in the last Deviant Jade scrawl I posted.


    Jaydn leaned back against the couch, rubbing Merri's back absently while the two year old snoozed against her chest, as she’d been doing for the past half hour. A couple of feet away, Jhidek sat tinkering with her comlink that had been damaged which she and Imo had been on a mission two days prior.
    She didn't hold out too much hope that he'd be able to fix it, but was willing to let him give it a shot before she just grabbed another one from their cache of replacement gear.
    Stretched out on the couch behind her, Raina was absorbed with a book, the only thing truly capable of keeping her still for more than five minutes. The relative quiet was soothing to the nineteen-year-old.
    Imo and Ha'imo had gone out to meet with one of Ha'imo's old hunter friends about a possible Gogamian threat an hour earlier. Jade had been more than glad to stay at home with her siblings, still low on energy and motivation to do much in the wake of the longer job she and Imo had been gone on up until the prior day.
    Brown eyes were distant as she drifted through her thoughts even while she made sure to keep an eye on Jhidek so he wouldn't zap himself or cause the comm. to overload by accident. Merri shifted and Jade glanced down to see if she was awakening, but she resettled and the young woman smiled faintly.
    There had been an ultimatum weighing on her mind for some time, since the pirates had found them and she'd been stabbed, but now Jade made up her mind.
    No one else but them.
    Jade didn’t delude herself. Imo and Ha’imo wouldn’t live forever. Time was a bitter foe mankind had fought for a millennia and lost to for just as long. If nothing happened to them sooner, it would take them both and she and her siblings would have to rely solely on each other. They’d watch out for and protect each other.
     No one else but them.
     She would never leave her siblings, not unless Death was the one who came and then she would fight against it with everything she had left to stay with them a little longer.
     And Jade knows this means she will never have a family of her own. A new family means her priorities will have to shift. Her children would have to be protected as well, because this life is not one she will ever be able to leave behind and they would have to be shielded from that danger.
     The hollowness at this thought is something she’s aware of. Her baby sister’s quiet breaths as she slumbers remind her of what this choice will mean for her, but she closes her heart off from it.
     Jade knows that her parents will have a hard time accepting her decision and while she’s always wanted to do what makes them happy, her mind has been made up.
    This is my decision, my choice, my resolve.
    She watches Jay work, is aware of Raina behind her, and brushes her fingers over Merri’s soft cheek. Maybe one day she’ll be able to keep an eye on their children.
    Auntie. Jade tests the word inwardly, and nods to herself.

    ~~*~~

    Maybe it was because she was so tired, worked into the dirt and ready to be home again. Maybe it was the low lights, pounding music, and dancing people reminding her that she was still only twenty-four.
    He didn’t belong there, in that setting, any more than she did.
    The strobe lights that flashed across the bar area of the club brought out the stormy blue of his eyes, illuminated his midnight black hair.
    Jade moved her gaze onwards before he noticed, watching the rest of the room while she waited for Imo to return from upstairs. He sat down two stools away and ordered something she didn’t hear the name of.
    The glance was seen in her peripherals, lingering a beat too long to be cursory, not long enough to be interest, but the correct amount of time to make deductions, before his eyes moved on as well.
    She wondered if he was as aware of her as she was of him, but it didn’t matter either way.
    No one else but them. Her decision from five years earlier.
    Another man approached on the other side of the stormy-eyed stranger. She caught the name uttered in greeting.
    Jase.
    Even if Jade hadn’t wanted it to, her acute mind committed it to memory, sealing away the storm blue, the raven black, the name Jase.
    The newcomer sat down next to him and their voices were covered up by the bass that made the very air shiver as if alive. Her drink was cold in her hand. Non-alcoholic but high in caffeine.
    It set her nerves on edge and that was fine.
    The second man stayed for only a few minutes. Imo would be back soon. Jade didn’t look forward to the rain they’d had to trek through to get here. Istilanda was beautiful in the summer, but the winters brought constant downpours, although the temperature didn’t drop below fifty.
    That much was a relief, at the very least. All the same, she’d just starting to dry out.
    I miss Ha’imo… It’d been a long three days constantly on the move.
    The beverage helps to calm her again.
    He hasn’t moved. Jade doesn’t think it’s right to call him by his name without permission even in the privacy of her mind. That’s when she decides she’ll need to sleep at the first available opportunity. If Imo’s conversation pans out as they hope it will, they can go home.
    Her eyes slipped shut as she leaned her arms against the bar.
    “Jade.” Imo’s voice.
    Did it carry?
    The young woman straightened and rose, already having settled her bill with the bar-tender. Imo started walking and she followed, ready to be out of the club, away from the music, the people.
    Whether he glanced after her she doesn’t know. Jade knew she wouldn’t see the man with the stormy blue eyes who didn’t belong again, and that was okay.
    No one else but them.
    And Imo probably wouldn’t have liked him anyways.

~~*~~

     Jade lounged in her starfighter, finishing up with her calls to the various contacts and information hoarders she knew and could trust to keep their mouths shut.
    That way, there was a low chance of either Imo or Ha’imo hearing about her researching, at least from them. They were already aware that something was up, but hadn’t asked yet and Jade wasn’t sure what she would say if they did ask.
    There hadn’t been many search results in the public records for the name Jase, blue-grey eyes, and black hair; even less when she initially searched through solely Istilanda’s records.
    Drouais, Jasen. Twenty-five years old. Parents deceased. Three siblings.
    Istilanda’s ‘secure’ files listed him as an active bounty hunter. But Kahn’s secure profile on him was far more interesting.
    Bounty hunter, yes, but also former assassin.
    The calls Jade had put out to her contacts were to learn more about that time of his life.
    They hadn’t known much. Vesper had said he was a loner, though mostly because K-Sec had him on a tight leash and there weren’t many hunters that wanted to work too closely with K-Sec. He’d done hard time for a few years, only for K-Sec to offer him a deal that would never have flown if put through the proper channels.
    The scandal of it all was the gossip of the contacts who did know about Drouais, and even those who didn’t. They’d let him out of jail decades early and cleaned up his public profile in exchange for him doing some dirty work.
    Even Jaydn, used to the sometimes illicit activities of governments, was a bit surprised by that turn of events.
    She watched out of the hangar bay’s entrance at the stars, mind turning over the data she had collected.
    It wasn’t matching up.
    People would say assassin and she saw someone who pulled the trigger for money, who had a cold, feeling-less edge to everything they did, and there had been none of that in the man she’d seen at the club.
    He’d had two kills, both on Istilanda, both in the city where he’d lived. One had been a high-profile crime syndicate boss and the other had been a senator whose corruption had run deeper than his pockets.
    And those two targets had been too close while being too far away to be part of a paid job. So Jade looked into the possibility of personal motive.
    It wasn’t because of his parents; his father had been Istilandan Police and had been killed during a raid on a completely different syndicate. From the sound of it, his mother hadn’t ever recovered from his loss and had succumbed to illness the year following.
    Both the brothers were businessmen for an upright and reputable real estate company, with nothing fishy to be found within a hundred miles of either them or their bosses.
    Which left the sister.
    She’d looked over everything public records had on his family, though, and besides Jase’s activities, there was nothing to be concerned about.
    Jade drummed her nails on the arm rest. I’m missing something. She reopened the file on the sister on the datapad in her lap, dark gaze narrowed in thought.
    Drouais, Danica. Twenty years old. Her picture revealed a woman who could’ve been Jase’s twin.
    Even if she hadn’t borne eyes that made Jaydn want to sit and just memorize the way they looked, she would’ve said Danica was stunning.
    Her natural, breathtaking beauty brought a thought back to the forefront of Jade’s mind. That senator—
    Scrolling back through the news report she’d found ten minutes prior, her suspicions were confirmed by the long list of crimes he’d committed that had only been discovered in the wake of his assassination.
    Apparently, the dirt-bag had kept girls on his private estate for his sick pleasures and if Danica Drouais had fit his profile…
    Jade had to shake her head as the pieces began to fall into place in the mental picture she had been constructing.
    Raina leaned into their small hangar space at that moment, saying that Aunt Sarris and Uncle Novarr had arrived with Ruusan and Ha’imo wanted them to join them.
    She acknowledged her sister’s call and swung from the cockpit of her starfighter.
    Thoughts swirled through her, continuing to put the puzzle together, but she was fairly certain of one thing as she locked up the bay behind herself.
    He’d been willing to give up his future with his family to protect his sister and probably his brothers as well by killing two men; Jade was still fitting the crime syndicate boss into the series of events, but was positive that he played an important part in everything that had occurred.
    It might’ve been horrifying to other people, normal people, but Jaydn had killed her first man at six years old to protect her mother, and countless others in the seventeen years since in defense of her family. His actions, though extreme, were ones that she could relate to.

~~*~~

    Her heart was pounding in her throat as she darted through the closing doors of the underground metro, making it with a moment to spare. A couple of people glanced up as the doors sealed shut and she leaned against them, taking in controlled breaths to bring her racing pulse back under control.
    Jade wasn’t a fan of Kahn’s countless subterranean metro lines – affectionately called “the tube” by long-term residents of the planet – the enclosed space a bad one to be caught in.
    The choice had been taken from her today though as she’d had to outmatch several pursuers. Speaking of which…
    Retrieving her comlink from the inner pocket of her coat, Jade keyed a message to Imo, telling him they needed to rendezvous at an alternate location. He had Jhidek and Raina with him and while she wasn’t sure their meeting spot hadn’t been compromised, they couldn’t take that risk.
    The comm. vibrated once to indicate her message had been sent and Jade went to study the map of the stations that was displayed on the wall, keeping an eye on the other occupants of the transit car.
    It took a few moments to calculate a path to the second rendezvous point as she plotted a winding, backtracking trail through an upcoming hub of activity that would be bursting with people right now. Jade determined the station where she would switch lines then settled with her back to the rest of the car’s inhabitants to wait.
    The tube itself was almost soundless, with only a faint whistling from outside to indicate the rapid speed at which they traveled. Inside, though, was alive with the quiet voices of the travelers, talking with each other and on their comms. The latter was practically unheard of on Uhric, with the majority of the planet’s inhabitants following an unspoken rule of politeness to refrain from conversations over comlink.
    That was just one of several reasons why Jade preferred Uhric to Sinjaro Kahn, despite Kahn’s tolerance of bounty hunters coming and going.
    A man entered the compartment through the connecting passages located at the ends of the cars, and Jaydn watched him in the reflection of the doors which she stood before. The tension in her shoulders loosened when he gave no sign of searching the faces of the other passengers.
    There had been no way for her to ascertain whether her pursuers had made it onto the metro as well, and she wills the train to hurry and reach her destination.
    Minutes seemed to crawl pass. Jade received confirmation from Imo about the change along with a bidding to be careful. That drew a brief smile from her.
    Two stops came and went, and she was beginning to think that she’d managed to lose them at the station where she’d gotten on when a commotion at the other end of the car drew her attention.
    The third one was nowhere to be seen, but the two older men were making their way through the compartment, their experienced gazes going over the inhabitants. Jade made sure her back was towards them, eyes flicking to the door, which had closed moments prior, sealing her into the tube until the next stop. But now there were several other passengers standing in the car, getting themselves settled.
    She used them as a cover, making sure to keep her movements easy and sure. Nothing brought attention like slinking around. There was a call.
    “Stop right there!”
    Shak.
    Jade kept moving, jamming her elbow into the locking mechanism for the door as she got to the other side. It wouldn’t keep them for long, but it would buy her enough time to pass through this car and get to the next.
    Focus from years of similar situation kept her calm, her pace easy despite its length. Her pursuers had security uniforms on; if the rest of the passengers caught wind that she was their target, they would aid the false officers, and not herself.
    Seven strides away from the next car. Jade would keep walking, slowing them with locked doors until the train stopped again and she could escape into the station.
    I hate traveling on the tube.
    This car had more people, with quite a few standing and holding onto the hanging handholds. She was almost to the next connecting door when a hand caught her arm and jerked her to a sudden halt.
    Instinct burst through her that Jaydn had to quell to a simple, but tight, grip on the wrist of her assaulter – male, her mind informed –, her brown eyes flicking to where he stood near the wall on the left.
    Stormy grey-blue met her gaze and her initial surprise gave him the edge he needed. Jade found herself towed out of the middle of the car, moved between Drouais and the curving wall of the train as there was an impatient banging against the transparasteel window in the access point she’d passed through moments earlier.
    She had half a minute, tops, and her mind was blanking on what to do. She had yet to let go of his wrist, but he twisted out of her hold with a simple movement and caged her in with his arms.
    Jade stopped breathing at his proximity, the sharp, clean, distinctly male smell that filled her senses. She flattened herself back against the wall. What are you trying to do? She wanted to ask, staring up at him, but she couldn’t trust her voice right now.
    Drouais’ gaze narrowed, then he bent his head so his words came next to her ear, quiet but intense. “Play along if you don’t want to be caught, Vhander.”
    Imo, what do I do?
    Jade longed to be able to turn to one of her parents for help at that moment and instead had only herself to rely on to make the decision.
    It was either him or her pursuers and right now, the ex-assassin that she’d seen once in a club was the better option. She glanced to the side at him, only seeing his ear and part of his jaw, and nodded once. Her forehead bumped into his shoulder with the short motion.
    Jase Drouais slid his arm around her waist and pulled her against him. Jade felt fear rise up in her throat, tensing to attack him if she needed to. He pinched her and the message was clear. Relax.
    While the young woman had never participated in this style of detection avoidance, she was aware of the theory behind it. Sometimes the best way to hide was in plain sight and Jase was offering – forcing? – her to take that route.
    There was a hiss as the door slid open, almost undetectable, then the angry murmurs of the two men registered in her hearing and Jade knew she had moments.
    Turning her head the other direction so they wouldn’t glance over and see her face, Jade leaned hesitatingly into the taller hunter whose frame seemed to envelop her. Arms. What did one do with their arms at this point?
    Jase’ free hand moved down her shoulder to her elbow, pulling it up so one of her arms went around his waist. She mirrored that position with her other limb, clasping her fingers together at the small of his back and wondered if he could feel the faint tremble in them.
    She was aware of how he pulled his unzipped coat forward to hide her away within it as well. The collar of it brushed her nose and Jade resisted the urge to wrinkle her features in response.
    This is not what I had in mind when I wanted to learn more about him.
    And Drouais had apparently done his research on her and Imo in return. Jaydn supposed whether that was a good thing or not would be determined in the next few minutes.
    The young woman could hear them approaching, their boots falling heavily on the train’s patterned floor. The voice overhead began to announce the next station. And it was all overlaid with the steady beating of Jase’s heart beneath her ear.
    He was shorter than Imo, and slimmer. Hugging him was strange and Jade didn’t know how she would ever explain this to the rest of her family if they found out.
    Hopefully they wouldn’t though, because this didn’t matter. It couldn’t. Her jaw tightened a fraction. No one else but them.
    The two men were closer. Jade squeezed her eyes shut, pressing her face closer to Jase, mentally planning a counter-offense if they discovered her. All it would take was one question to one of the other passengers who would’ve seen her coming through here. Unless they were particularly unobservant, they could blow the whistle on this deception in a moment.
    The overhead called the name of the station again, approximating half a minute until arrival.
    The heavy tread came nearer.

~~*~~

    Jade sat on the beach, running her fingers through the sand as the salty breeze sifted through her loose hair.
    The overcast skies allowed the choppy waves a gray hint to their blue depths, bringing similarly shaded eyes to her thoughts.
    It had been years since their last encounter on Kahn in the metro, and she had heard little about him or his activity in the hunter world since.
    Jaydn had told herself numerous times in that time that she didn’t want their paths to cross again, that she didn’t notice that shivering, tentative connection between the two of them, even though her subconscious had told her otherwise in many vivid ways.
    A small family registered in her peripherals, strolling along the beach, nearer to where the ocean licked at the shore. The two children raced ahead, their bare feet kicking up sand and their laughter carrying on the wind.
    Her brown gaze followed their progress, lost in thought, before she closed her eyes and just breathed in sea air, so different from anywhere else she had been.
    All the planets that she’d seen after leaving Gogam eighteen years earlier were captivating, each in their own way, but some of them were more entrancing then others.
    Istalanda was one of them, with its endless oceans and smooth sands that were so unlike the coarse grit found everywhere on Gogam’s rough surface.
    The children’s excited calls drifted to meet her ears again, despite their having almost disappeared around a bend in the coast a few hundred feet to her left. Jade contemplated how much time she had until she needed to get moving. Her errand was successfully completed and Ha’imo wanted her back to accompany her on another job.
    All in a day’s work…
    A soft swish of a footfall in the sand caused her eyes to open again, going to the side to see who was approaching.
    Somehow, Jaydn wasn’t surprised to see him standing there, stormy blue eyes considering her for a long moment.
    Jase looked older than he had three years ago in the tube, and maybe a bit taller, but Jade supposed the time had worn a bit on her as well.
    After a bit, she glanced to the empty space beside her. A silent invitation, and then she looked back out to the sea to try and calm the way her heart had sped its pace.
    The other Hunter accepted wordlessly, dropping easily to sit at her side and he leaned back on his hands, seeming perfectly at ease where he was. Jade envied him that calm.
    In the corner of her eye, she saw the wind toy with his hair like it did hers and the quiet reigned for several minutes longer. She was the one to break it, her arms looped loosely around her knees.
    “Visiting your siblings?” It was a gamble, beginning with this, one that depended on just how clueless he believed she was.
    There was a pause from the man before he replied. “…Just checking up on them.”
    Jade was glad that he hadn’t severely underestimated how much she’d discovered. It would’ve been just about insulting, had she been one to take offense over such things, and anyways, didn’t they know each other better than that by now?
    “Job?” Jase returned after a beat.
    “Contact,” she corrected easily, taking in a quiet breath and wishing that this didn’t hurt quite so much.
    “Aa…”
    Jade had questions, and while she would’ve liked to ask them, she was very aware of the internal battle that was being fought over his very presence right now. She knew the effect Drouais had on her, but she also knew of her decision, made almost ten years prior that had never been threatened before she’d met him.
    She had to know, though. The answer had been taunting her, remaining just out of reach due to a lack of insight. “The senator wanted her and that’s why you killed him. What part did the crime lord play?”
    At first, Jaydn didn’t think Jase would answer, judging by the way he stilled.
    But the Hunter spoke, slowly and with a subtle edge that Jade was mostly certain wasn’t directed at her.
    “The senator hired him to kill my brothers and deliver Danica to his estate.” Short, succinct, but telling much.     Kill only one, and there would’ve been the other to contend with later. Kill both and solve the problem. She nodded once. One of her theories had included this, but she hadn’t been able to find connections between the politician and the criminal to prove anything.
    “I’ve heard about you and your family. For people relatively hard to find, you tend to stir up a lot of chatter.” Jase commented and Jaydn couldn’t decide if he was fishing for something or just saying it for the sake of saying it.
    “Does that mean you’ve been looking?” Jade countered, her voice quiet as she turned her head so she could look at him and found that gaze that had haunted her for years already watching.
    “Would it matter?”
    Jade paused. Would it?
    The reply that came to her immediately was a resounding ji. It wouldn’t because it couldn’t.
    I won’t leave them alone in the years to come. Merri especially.
    But the other part of herself that would take these brief respites on Istilanda and that could’ve sat and just stared at Jase’s eyes, trying to memorize the way they looked, wanted to say ey, yes, it would.
    The struggle must’ve shown on her face because he sat up, slowly, carefully, with another faint swish of sand so that their gazes were level, the expression on his own features one of patience.
    “…I can’t leave them alone, Jasen.” Jade said at last, addressing him by name for the first time and looking away in the same moment, back towards the waves that broke upon the beach. “My siblings. Merri is only eleven and with the life we lead, something could happen any day, to any of us. If something happens to—to our parents, I can’t have any other priorities but to protect them.”
    Whatever his reaction was, she didn’t see it.
    But she did hear his reply, the sincerity in his voice. “I understand.”
    Jade frowned as he stood, but instead of leaving, held out a hand to help her up. After a hesitation, she took the offer and let him hoist her to her feet. His gaze was steady, looking into hers, as he released her and put his hands in his pockets.
    “I would ask something, though,” Jase continued, watching her, now with a hint of guardedness.
    Jade brushed the sand off her clothes and nodded for him to go on, even while she tried to guess what was going through his mind.
    “That if these crop up,” he glanced around at their surroundings, the empty beach and the looming clouds, then back to her. “We keep them.”
    Understanding dawned in her mind and Jaydn studied him, thinking through what the request might have to offer, what it would mean, and what that might end up doing to her.
    Ji.
    I can’t lead him on.
    And so Jade shook her head once, choosing not to speak and letting the action speak for her.
    His eyes – was she going to see them again after this? – were unreadable. Jade wondered if her decision had hurt him, because she could feel the hollowness in her chest growing.
    Then Jase nodded and he was gone a moment later, pacing along the beach away from her.
    She left as well, because Ha’imo was waiting for her and emotion was rising in her throat, choking and suffocating and she’d never felt this way before.


    And thus ends Jase and Jaydn (sorry for the proximity of name spellings; not sure what possessed me when I named him that) for the next seven years. She's searching him out for all the kidnapping stuff though, for his expertise and experience in dealing with slave-traders and the such. Which is, of course, seven some years down the road.

    At this point, I don't know if they're going to work out. They could, but they could just as easily not work out. This whole business with Ruu could either push her closer to him or cause her to draw even farther away. We'll have to see.

    At any rate, I hope you found these interesting, and isn't baby Merri just so adorable? I'm ready to just steal her and cuddle her, myself.

    Please feel free to leave a comment with feedback or if you need anything explained. I enjoy helping clear up the confusion I cause. Thank you for reading!

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.

    P.S. This is my fiftieth post already. Two landmarks in one day! You all are amazing for sticking around this long, honestly. Have an amazingly good day, everybody. *twinkle*

Writing: Deviant -- Jaydn on Ruu's Kidnapping

    As the title suggests, I have kidnapped Ruusan by a band of slave-traders and this is a small glimpse into Jade's thoughts on it all a couple of months after she disappears.

    I don't have a lot of lead-up to tell about it aside from that, when Ruu was kidnapped, she and Jhidek had been married maybe five months, six at the max. As one might expect, he is not taking her absence well, and that shows up in this bit with Jade.

    Also, please take WARNING that there are some sensitive themes mentioned in this scrawl, and while they're nothing explicit, they're enough that it might make someone uncomfortable. So please be aware before you head on into this scribble of mine.

  Gogamian Language Review:
    Imo = father
    Ha'imo = mother, or, literally, sub-father
    Shak = a curse (don't try this at home, kids.)
    Ji = no

    With that, please enjoy and I will have more news down below.


    Jade collapses onto the couch, exhaustion causing her head to ache and her limbs to feel weighted. She can’t recall the last time she’s had more than a couple hours of solid sleep. They’ve been on the go since two and a half months ago, constantly on the move, searching, questioning, following up leads, and breaking down the proverbial doors on more slave-trading rings than she cares to remember.
    It’d taken them just a few weeks to run down any enemies in either their pasts or Aunt Sar and Uncle Novarr’s pasts that might still be alive and holding a grudge and because there had been no ransom demand, they can only assume that it means she’d been taken by a slave-trading operation.
    Ordinarily, she might feel a quiet sense of pride over what they’ve accomplished in such a short time, how many syndicates and crime gangs they’ve brought down, but their goal was never the human trafficking.
    Despite her weariness, Jaydn is aware of the helpless frustration churning inside her. There is nothing. No whispers. No crumbs. Nothing to lead them to Ruu.
    Jay looks worse and gets quieter by the day and Jade wishes that they would just find something, anything at this point that will give him, and the rest of them, hope.
    There’s been too much time to consider what may have befallen her, because although Ruusan is strong, she’s not strong in a way that will protect her from the malevolent side of this galaxy, and that’s what Jade’s truly afraid of.
    Not that Ruu will be found dead, although that is her second greatest fear, but that she will be dead inside, a shell of her former self, broken down with her good heart crushed into dust.
    She’s seen it before in the past, and countless times in these recent months. Women who have had everything taken from them. Bruised, beaten, abused, destroyed until there’s nothing left of who they were before.
    Jade shifts onto her back, letting her arm fall over her eyes to block out the faint light from the rest of the room. Her mind is full of images she wishes she could erase and she makes her tensing form relax once more, although her fingers remain clenched into a fist.
    That can’t happen to her; not to Ruu.
    We just need one sign, one bread crumb to show us where to go. Everyone is looking, talking to their people. Aunt Sar is edging the line of abusing her authority as a grandmaster searching for Ruu and Uncle Nov disappears for days at a time to search.
    We’re doing everything we can.
    And it’s not. enough.    She swallows back the emotion that tightens her throat, feeling hot water flood her eyes. What do we do, Imo? Ha’imo? I can’t bear seeing Jay like this. I can’t bear seeing any of us like this, but Jhidek especially.
    Her brother’s pain drives her to the point of distraction sometimes, unable to fathom what it is he feels every time they come out with nothing again. Raina’s being affected by it as well. Shak, everyone is.
Jade sits up without warning and hastily sheds herself of her gear, dropping her weapons on the coffee table before she gets up to go to her room.
    Shower. She needs a shower because otherwise she’s going to break down.
    Ji. I can’t.
    The door slides shut behind her and Jaydn goes about divesting herself of her clothes, stepping out of her boots, throwing her jacket on her bed, and she tries to ignore the fine tremble that’s setting into her hands.
    The cold water is a shock to her system. Jade forces herself to remain under the icy rain from the showerhead, leaning her forehead against the wall.
    Dear God… help us…


    So that's pretty much the situation with Ruusan in the deviant storyline currently. I'd had one idea how things go down with Ruu while Jay and everyone else is looking for her, but my sisters got to me and I decided to take another path, one that will have far more serious repercussions on Ruusan.

    It's all deliciously dramatic and just a wee bit angsty.

    Just a little awkward, "Is she alright?", sadistic!writer moment there for you all.

    News, news. Well, I hope to sit here on the computer and post several more various scribbles from different points in both the Deviant and Original storylines this evening while I am avoiding math and Latin.

    Beyond that, I don't have any plans, but I do have a good-sized stack of randomness that I'd like to share with you, including deviant stuff including Jaydn and this hunter with stormy blue eyes who goes by the name Jase Drouais.

    Unfortunately, the course of love (true love?) never did run smooth, as I am very fond of proving in my characters' love lives.

    Ah well. They shall survive.

    With that, I shall cease talking your ear off and go put together a few more posts for your perusal.

    As always, thank you ever so much for reading! (And I hit 1000 views today, which is incredibly exciting, and I thank you all for that as well!)

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.