APRIL CATCH-ALL; Mostly the view is beautiful

[burger_king]

WHO: Jughead Jones and YOU
WHERE: Mostly Maurtia Falls, but also other places
WHEN: Throughout April
WHAT: A lot of stuff, mostly mundane!
WARNINGS: Riverdale nonsense, teens being teens. See individual threads for individual warnings.

Prompts under the cut, hit me up at reveillez if you want me to write up a starter


01 - So in this room separated from the world

[ Annabeth hooking him up with a job at the library probably ranks as the third best thing to happen since he arrived. It's quiet, solitary work and between the shelving and cataloguing he has more time to work on his own projects than he knows what to do with. So what if he has to answer a question every now and then, or dig out some forgotten text book from storage if it means spending hours browsing the psychology section, digging out every book he can find on serial killers and then taking ample notes during whatever downtime he finds himself with. Research for a fun project, sure, but also a way to dull down the homesickness a touch — this is basically what he did back in Riverdale, only he didn't get a paycheck for it.

He can be found among the shelves, or at the check-out desk, engrossed in something gross. ]

02 - I'd sell you my own values for the sake of others

[ The last couple of years, Jughead probably spent more time in Pop's Chocklit Shoppe than anywhere else and although that particular diner is out of reach, everything else stays the same. He'll settle in at a booth after work with a cup of never-cooling coffee and his laptop, typing away until well into the night. This is when he does his best work, when everyone else has gone home to their normal lives with their normal problems. Maybe he doesn't have a school paper to write for or the half-written novel on Jason Blossom's murder, but there are other things. Other novels. Other stories. ]

03 - So hold this glass cos' it keeps cutting me

[ Some things never change but one thing has absolutely changed in the past couple of months - he never had powers back home. Practicing at the Meadows was a good idea in theory but an awkward plan in practice and so he's resorted to mostly empty parking lots around Maurtia Falls. He'll set out whenever he's got some spare time, lining up water bottles and taking notes on how many he can keep a certain color for how long, if he can switch it up, where his limits lie. Eventually he should move on to something bigger, perhaps, but for now bottles are fine. It's not like this power is good for much, anyway. Not saving the world any day soon.

Curious onlookers are welcome to join him or just ask what the heck he's up to out here on his own. ]

Comments

[hellosirs]

[ Shh, don't think of him as a child, that's certainly not how he thinks of himself! ]

Oh, that stuff's always fascinating! Once you draw up a psych profile, it's easier to get a read on the criminal's motives and way of thinking. Do you ever try to solve the cases yourself, based on the stuff in the books?

[burger_king]

[ If it helps, he was just as weird when he was younger. ]

Always. That's half the fun, if you ask me. Less fun when it's an actual active serial killer in your actual hometown, but still pretty exciting.

[hellosirs]

Oh, you had a serial killer? Did they get caught? I caught one on a train, once!

[ he probably shouldn't be talking about catching a murderer as if they were a pokemon, but Angus takes a lot of pride in his work! ]

[burger_king]

Not yet. Not when I was last home, at least. [ Give it a couple of hours. ] On a train? How did that happen?

[ Are you in fact a tiny Hercule Poirot? ]

[hellosirs]

[ More like an appropriately-sized Encyclopedia Brown who got dropped into the middle of a DnD campaign! ]

He was one of the attendants, and he killed the engineer in order to gain access to the train car where all the passengers' valuables were being kept. He, um, he sort of got punched off the back of the train before he could be arrested, but we still figured out who he was and how he'd been doing the crimes, so it still counts!

[burger_king]

Yeah, I'd say that counts. [ Sounds like a lot, honestly. ] So, are you part of a... a group or something? Because it kind of sounds like this is your day job.

[ Talk about a junior detective! ]

[hellosirs]

I used to do freelance detective work back home, but the police here aren't really okay with having kids around crime scenes. Here, I just do intern stuff at a publishing company that does mystery books.

[burger_king]

That's kind of what I've been doing back home lately too. [ Involuntarily, but he's getting good at it. ] How did you get into it?

[hellosirs]

I started out by sending anonymous tips to the militia; pretty soon they figured out the tips were coming from the same person. Things sort of escalated from there.

[ he says it a bit sheepishly; the militia hadn't been happy to find out their tips were coming from a 9-year-old boy, at first. ]

[burger_king]

That's clever. I usually just pester local government until they listen to me. [ Something they're doing a lot less lately. ] You find any mysteries around here? Conspiracies?

[hellosirs]

Some shifty stuff comes up in the Majority Reports sometimes, but I haven't been able to investigate any of it. The local police recognize me now, and... um...

We didn't have guns, back home? So I've been told to stay away from anything that looks like it might get too dangerous.

[burger_king]

Probably a good idea. Guns are serious business, trust me on that one. [ He frowns. ] Have you been here long?

[hellosirs]

About... a little over a year? I got here last March.

[ Something occurs to him just as he's picking up his last book, and Angus suddenly gasps, almost dropping the book all over again. ]

Oh gosh, I haven't introduced myself, that was very rude! I'm Angus McDonald, sir, it's nice to meet you!

[ He sticks his free hand out to shake Jugheads', almost as if they're in some kind of business meeting. ]

[burger_king]

Almost a year longer than me, then. [ He arrived in February. Seems longer.

The weirdly formal handshake is reciprocated - he can't help but give Angus A Look. ]

Jughead Jones.

[hellosirs]

[ It's fine, he's received many Looks over the years! This is nothing new. ]

'Jughead?'

[ Angus is from a fantasy world and is used to names that are a little bit out there, but 'Jughead' is a bit odd even by their standards. That said, he isn't rude or the kind of person to question someone's name when it's given (unless they're a criminal suspect, and he has reason to be suspicious), so Jughead it is! ]

It seems weird, but it doesn't feel like such a long time. I think I'd be more worried about this whole scenario if I didn't have friends here with me, and if we didn't know for sure that we return to the same points in our respective timelines when the porter sends us back.

[burger_king]

[ So far, almost every single person he's met here has done a double take of his name. It's a little weird, honestly. Is it really that strange? Certainly better than Forsythe Pendleton the Third, right? ]

That does help... and I'm glad you have people from home here with you. I don't really like thinking about what it would've been like being dropped in here on my own.

[hellosirs]

Me neither... it'd be weird enough being here alone with a bunch of strangers, but I'd be too worried about what's going on back home.

[ Angus would have been able to handle it, for sure, but it would have been scary and unbearably lonely without some familiar faces around. ]

[burger_king]

Apparently nothing happens back home as long as we're here, but... knowing that doesn't really help, huh?

[ He's sure concerned about a lot of things still. Not to mention, people could show up here. ]