maskormenacelogs | While everyone's lost

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While everyone's lost

WHO: Jacob Taylor and Utena Tenjou
WHERE: Heropa
WHEN: After the clone plot
WHAT: Utena got briefly arrested by Jacob and RISE for stuff her clone did. It's awkward.
WARNINGS: Should be none

[Post-clone Heropa is looking a little worse for wear, what with the storms, flooding, and assorted chaos wrought in the last couple weeks. Once again, as he has so many times before, Jacob is walking the streets trying to help out with recovery and boost the image of imPorts where he can. He stops as he's when passing by a certain set of damaged rose bushes, spotting a familiar shock of pink hair.]

Utena? Is that you?

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[Yep, it's her. The damaged branches have already been pruned away, and unfortunately there's not much else she can do to help the roses. She wipes the sweat off her brow, ready to move onto other chores, when she hears somebody call her name]

Yeah, it's-

[She turns around as she speaks, and her face falls as soon as she sees who it is.]

...me.

...Hi.

[This is awkward. Jacob pauses a moment, shuffling his feet.]

You doing okay? Looks like you're helping out with some of the damage.

[She shrugs and yanks one of the gardening gloves back on her hand]

This place got off pretty easy. It's not much, but it's a start, I guess.

[Please forgive the lack of enthusiasm in her voice, Jacob.]

Every bit helps.

[He rubs the back of his head.]

How are you doing? After everything that's happened.

I'm fine, but... no offense, but I've still got a lot of stuff around here to finish up.

[She's not trying to blow you off, bud, but she can't really have a heart to heart and mow the lawn at the same time.]

Right, sure. I'll leave you to it.

[Jacob turns to leave. Then he halts, and turns back.]

I'm sorry about what happened. You know that, right?

...I know.

[She sighs, and shakes her head]

I don't hold it against you, either. I mean, that whole week was pretty crazy. But now's really not a good time to talk.

[A pause]

...well, not unless you want to help out.

[She smirks a little bit and her voice takes on a more teasing tone. Utena's not seriously expecting Jacob to stick around. She's just trying to lighten up the mood.]

[Jacob looks at her, then at the lawn. Then he shakes his head.]

I've got other places to be. But listen- I'm going to be doing some work at [Address] in a bit. Why don't you come by once you're done here? We can talk while cleaning the place up.

[He hopes Utena likes scrubbing out mould. Because that's going to be a thing.]

[She's not a fan, but it beats doing nothing.]

It'll be an hour or two, but yeah, I can make it. I'll message you when I'm on my way, alright?

[She waves him off for now, but true to her word, she shows up to the house after her yard work is complete (with a bit of a break in between). And she remembers the message, too! Her gardening tools have been swapped out for cleaning gloves and a face mask, but Jacob will have to provide the rest.]

Hey, Jacob? Are you around?

In here.

[Jacob appears in the open front door of the house, wearing a tank top, stained jeans, and long gloves to go with his goggles and face mask. He offers Utena a scrubbing brush - his own is in his other hand, dark with gunk.]

Good. You've already got your own gear. I'm almost done the living room- you can help me finish up in there.

[With that, he turns and leads her inside. All furniture, appliances and mementoes have been cleared out of the living room, all baseboards pried away to help clean out the post-flood mould. It's a bare, desolate sight, but it's getting close to being fit for someone's home again.]

[Her eyes go wide when she sees Jacob's brush, but it doesn't stop her from taking her own. It's not like she expected an easy job here.]

Aye aye.

[She does a mock salute with her scrub brush before she follows him into the room. It's not as big of a mess as she had feared, but there's something lonely about seeing a house so empty. She glances down for a brief moment before she reaches for some cleaner. It's time to get to work.]

How many houses have you guys done so far, anyway?

[Jacob sighs as he gets on his hands and knees for the work.]

This is the second one. It's slow going. You don't know anybody with magic mould powers, do you?

[It's a little joke, but Jacob wouldn't be surprised if there were people out there who could just fix this place up with a snap of their fingers.]

I wish. I know a guy who makes plants act kinda weird, but he's not exactly helpful.

[Could powers like Saionji's work on mold? She doesn't know, and she's not about to ask. She'll just scrub the mess away herself.]

A bad guy? Or just not willing to help?

[Jacob doesn't have a lot of respect for the second category, but at least he doesn't have to try to arrest them like the first.]

More like a stubborn, stuck up his own-

[She catches herself before she can say what she's really thinking, and takes out her aggression on the baseboard]

...issues kind of guy. Even if he wanted to help, I think he's too busy moping out in the woods to know what's even going on right now.

[Jacob nods knowingly, frowning a bit behind his filter mask.]

I know the type. Doesn't matter how big the problem is: some people just don't give a damn. Not until it affects them.

Or worse, sometimes they're part of the problem. They aren't going to help out because they think they'll get something out of making everyone else miserable.

[A more bitter, aggressive tone accompanies more bitter, aggressive scrubbing. Frustrated, much?]

Yeah. There aren't that many of those out there, but it only takes a few to ruin things for the rest of us.

[Jacob looks sidelong at Utena as he scrubs. It sounds like she's talking about something else now, something she feels intensely about.]

[There's something she wants to say, but she doesn't know the words for it. So she pauses for a moment, before she takes a different direction]

Hey, Jacob? You've been here for a while, right?

[Jacob nods, wondering where she's heading with this.]

Yeah. More than three years by now, with just one trip back home. I showed up pretty close to the beginning, actually: same year the Porter turned back on.

So I guess this sort of thing isn't really new to you, huh?

[It's a rhetorical question. Utena doesn't bother pausing before she moves on to her real question is]

Why do you think people do stuff like this?

Nope. Wish it was, sometimes.

[He pauses to think before answering.]

It's always because they want something. Money, power, revenge. They think wrecking people's lives will get it for them, somehow.

That's the one thing that every asshole I've fought has had in common. They don't care what they have to do to get what they want. Some of them even enjoy it.

But how do you even stop them all? Even if you beat one guy down, it feels like there's ten others lining up to take his place.

You don't.

[Jacob sighs.]

You can't control what people are going to do. You can try, but it's never going to be enough. All you can do is your best, until you can't anymore.

[He shakes his head.]

Sorry. Wish I had something more inspirational to say. But it is what it is. You're right- they'll always keep coming.

...actually, I'm kind of glad you don't. At least you're being honest, right? I just wish that there was something more we could do than just react or clean up other people's messes.

[And suddenly, she remembers where they are and what they're doing]

-uh, no offense.

[Jacob snorts. At least Utena gets it- that it's better to say an ugly truth than dress things up with bullshit and excuses.]

None taken, trust me. I have the same feeling all the time.

So what do you do about it? Besides volunteer work, I mean.

[No hate on volunteer work. She just hopes that there's an answer besides "nothing".]

I keep looking for ways to do better. I don't have to be perfect, but I can at least push myself to do more. I take on new missions, more training. I give RISE everything I've got.

[He pauses, looks around at the ruined home they're in.]

Usually that's enough to keep me going. Whether it's enough for other people... that's up to them.

[Ah, RISE. Those guys. Her first encounter with them hadn't been positive, but...]

So what do you RISE guys do, anyway? Do you just go out and punch super-villains in the face?

[Not that that's easy work, mind.]

[Jacob chuckles again behind his mask.]

That's a big part of it, but it's not the whole job. We investigate ongoing cases, and help out against the big threats that ordinary cops can't handle. We're also supposed to be doing PR work for the imPort community... but the guy in charge of that got Ported out a while ago. So did General Armstrong, the person who started this thing.

[He allows himself a sigh.]

Honestly, we've been pretty understaffed. Hard to do our job without the right specialists on-side.

Hmn... maybe you need to make your job smaller, then. You know, focus on the really important stuff. Or you can go on a recruitment drive. I mean, we have all sorts of weird swear-ins and events, right? Why not some kind of.... I don't know. ImPort job fair.

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While everyone's lost

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