[coming out of my cage, and i've been doing just fine]

[pop_of_color]

WHO: Rosa Diaz & Jake Peralta
WHERE: Some Maurtia Falls dive bar
WHEN: April
WHAT: Jake tries really, really, really, REALLY hard to be Rosa's confidante. It may or may not work out in his favor.
WARNINGS: N/A, will update as needed.

Picture this: a seedy, dimly lit dive bar, with Jake and Rosa opposite each other in a booth at the back. There's a low murmur from the mass of humanity, the smell of deeply entrenched stale beer and spirits wafting up from every surface in the joint. No one's smoking, and yet, the air has a strange fog to it, stinging the nostrils. Some of the lights are flickering, others are out and haven't been replaced. There's the clink of glassware, the glug of poured alcohol, the scrape of stools against the ground.

But Rosa and Jake are pretty separate from the beating heart of the room, neither really wanting to descend into its belly entirely. Each has a drink in front of them, and each of them is looking into their drinks' liquid depths like they'll find the answers to life. Or maybe Jake is trying to think of the perfect Die Hard quote to ascribe to the moment. Maybe Rosa's thinking about what she can legally destroy with the largest sword she can manifest without getting into any sort of trouble. Whatever it might be, they're introspective, and Rosa doesn't look too thrilled.

It isn't the company, it isn't the locale. It's something else.

"Shit sucks."

Hope that explains everything, Jake. Good luck.

Comments

[9544]

[ Jake was absolutely trying to come up with a Die Hard quote, but more he's wondering how the hell he's gonna get a copy of the movie. He hasn't seen it in so long now, he's starting to forget the subtle nuances of the film!

Maybe he should talk to Hans Gruber again. Get a little inspo.

But he kinda doesn't think the guy likes him very much.

His response is automatic: ]

Yeah.

[ - right before he realizes Rosa's said something and he should probably pay attention. ]

Wait.

Why?

[ #nailed it ]

[pop_of_color]

What? No reason. Nothing. I didn't say anything.

[It all sort of comes out as a quick, rapid fire of words, one after the other, before she grips her drink and tosses the rest of it back with a quick flick of her head.

Avoiding eye contact, she grabs his drink - not paying attention to whether it even still has anything left in it - and her empty one, sliding out of the booth to head back to the bar.]

Refill.

[Avoidance? What? Rosa? Noooo. Never.]

[9544]

[ Mmmmmhm.

Jake watches her take his drink, still half-full (or half-empty) actually, and disappear to the bar.

Ooo-kay.

Super weird.

And when she eventually comes back: ]

So. That was weird.

[ No, he hasn't forgotten. And no he isn't letting this slide. ]

[pop_of_color]

[She tenses her jaw, eyes still lost in the amber liquid of the cheap ass whiskey in her glass, before she downs half of it in the same manner as before: a quick toss of her head.

She brings it down to the table with a bit of force.]

What was weird?

[You're going to have to try harder than that, Jake.]

[9544]

You know.

[ Oh, believe him, Rosa. Jake hasn't even begun to try harder. He's gonna try so hard, he'll win this like a goddamned marathon.

He waves a hand. ]

That. You brought something up and then you split.

[ He takes another swig of his drink.

Raises an eyebrow.

Stares into the depths of Rosa Diaz's soul.

Or just stares. ]

You know we're friends. And we're in this weird Twilight Zone city where the only people from our world are you, me, Boyle and Gina. And we're not even from the same time.

We've been through a lot.

[pop_of_color]

[She meets his stare, though that primal instinct in her awakens, and she takes it as a threat, as a challenge. She squares her jaw and shoulders, tightens her jaw, and meets said challenge, whether it's Jake's intention or not.

This emotion feels way more comfortable than the one she's got bubbling around in her gut somewhere.

That one, she does not like.]

Yep. Like a fucking dragon.

[9544]

Yeah.

[ And the worst part is he never actually got to see the dragon up close. He'd just felt the flames greedily lick at him while he saved that house of people with Boyle.

Hoo boy. What a way to arrive in the city. ]

Fond memories of that. But totally not the point. I'm just saying ... you know you can talk to me about ... stuff.

[pop_of_color]

... What stuff? [Ugh, Rosa. She knows perfectly well "what kind of stuff," but ...

Okay, look, she's trying.

She's starting to warm up to the idea, albeit ... at a glacial pace.]

Emotions are terrible. They're the fucking worst. We should be able to cut them out like organs.

[9544]

Well, yeah, that'd make everything so much easier ... if bloodier. And possibly leaving a lot of literally emotionally scarred people walking around, but.

[ Jake breathes in. ]

You know, we never did talk about why you needed all those bottles of cheap Chinese whiskey and the tubs of ice cream.

[pop_of_color]

What. A girl can't want cheap-ass whiskey and a delicious frozen treat?

[She exhales a sigh, looking at her whiskey, swirling it around in the glass.]

Nah, it's just ...

[She falls quiet for a while. Like, a while. To the point of it not being entirely clear whether she's forgotten how to speak all together.

Eventually, though ..]

Before you guys showed up, I was ....

Dating someone.

Sorta just .. happened. Got along real well. She was funny and smart and all that sentimental bullshit.

[She downs her whiskey, taking the opportunity for another long-ass pause.]

She got ported. No warning, fucking nothing.

[9544]

She.

[ Jake has to repeat this because it doesn't occur to him at first that this is actually the pronoun Rosa has chosen to go with. And then she repeats it again.

Yeah.

That seals it. ]

You dated a girl.

[ That's so ... awesome? And also somehow surprisingly unsurprising.

He nods, takes a breath, and then groans in commiseration. ]

Damn. Rosa, I'm - [ He considers going for a joke to make light of things, but he reaches for his drink instead. ] Sorry. I guess so much weird stuff happens I forget the normal stuff can happen here too.

[pop_of_color]

[Every single muscle in Rosa's body tenses when he repeats the pronoun.

Fuck.

She forgot that Jake didn't already know about this. She forgot that she hasn't really ... "come out" to him yet, the way she did with Boyle. She almost visibly recoils away from him, like she's pre-emptively wincing from a blow - physical, verbal, emotional, whatever - that she's anticipating, waiting for it to be A Big Deal or something equally as shitty.

She doesn't say anything to confirm his reckoning with her dating a woman, but then ..

Nothing explodes. He doesn't get all weird about it. He doesn't make a joke, he doesn't make it into A Thing that she'll have to punch him for later. Slowly, she feels some of the tension leave her, starting in her shoulders, which gracefully descend away from her ears.

Okay, cool. She can just feel shitty about Ruby being taken, then. She doesn't have to feel double-shitty for a biphobic friend. Despite her sadness, there's something a faint smile lingering on her face, even though it doesn't really break free in any noticeable way. She forgets sometimes, that Jake's one of the good ones.]

Nothing normal about a giant fucking Porter randomly taking people and bringing people at will.

[Insert long fucking pause here.]

I think you would've liked her.

screams at your tag

[9544]

You've got some weird tastes - [ Seriously. The Vulture? Ugh, he hates that guy! Everyone hates that guy! He's the wooooooorst. ] - but honestly, yeah.

I think whoever she was, I would have liked her.

[ Because at the end of the day, he knows Rosa isn't the touchy-feely kind. Getting her to open up takes a lot of proving; he knows this from experience. Hell, she'll break up with someone for drinking too much soup.

But when she cares, she cares fiercely, and that kind of feeling isn't something to take for granted.

Jake can be dumb, and he is dumb in a lot of ways, but Rosa's friendship has never been something he's taken for granted. They'd been through a lot, and they're going through a lot now. ]

Anyway, I meant more the ... relationship stuff. I don't even know what the Porter thing is about, but it's weird and it freaks me out to think that someone out there can just give and take people away. But the connections we make here are just as real as they would be if we were back home.

i need that dead-died smiling emoji damn it bc /sobs

[pop_of_color]

[Rosa won't - and can't - argue her having weird taste. The Vulture, the Sham Wow guy, the evil gremlin from Gremlins .. yeah, she's got weird taste.

But Ruby went against all of that. Everyone has their shit, everyone has their baggage, but she was probably the most well-adjusted, "normal" person she's ever dated. As in, ever. In her whole life. She kind of felt, after Ruby had left, that maybe ... she just ... wasn't meant to have that sort of relationship. Maybe the only ones that last for any significant amount of time ... are the fucked up ones. Like Pimento. She bailed on Marcus, who is probably a closer contender for being the most normal relationship she's ever had.

Maybe Rosa's just not cut for normal.

She snorts at that, giving him an affectionate but slightly too hard kick under the table. She doesn't know her own strength, especially not with Porter Powers.

But the sentiment is friendly, at least.]

Gotta wonder sometimes. Does it even matter? If we're all gonna be sent back someday?