khajidont: (Default)
Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle ([personal profile] khajidont) wrote in [community profile] maskormenacelogs2019-11-01 06:55 pm

CATCH-ALL FOR NOVEMBER [ Jaime Reyes, Magnus Burnsides, Captain Rex ]

WHO: JAIME REYES, MAGNUS BURNSIDES or CAPTAIN REX... and YOU!
WHERE: Throughout the imPort cities.
WHEN: Throughout November
WHAT: A catch-all for my three characters as I start to get caught back up with the game! If you'd like a thread, feel free to just drop a starter here or contact me via PM/plurk @ wisdombitch and I'd be delighted to whip one up for you! I'd love to get back into the swing of things, so don't hesitate if you're interested. c: As a note, my tiny prompts of where they are don't factor in November events, but I'm more than open to playing with them if you have something in mind!
WARNINGS: Probable swearing/canon-typical violence.



JAIME REYES can be found at the Justice League, traveling around imPort cities, walking his dogs, attending classes at Heropa's college, at the gym, at various coffee shops, or at the Ted Kord Memorial Centre. He can also be spotted flying around, if you just want a random sighting! He's out and on the town!

MAGNUS BURNSIDES can be found walking around in the forest, picking up carpentry equipment, carving outdoors, walking his dogs, volunteering at the animal shelter, doing his job as a pro wrestler, doing inadvisable underground illegal fighting (in a mask, but that honestly doesn't hide that much), or at any manner of pubs and bars.

REX can be found doing his job as a police officer, at the gym, running errands, at the shooting range, refueling on coffee, jogging, and otherwise doing Dad And Cop Things.
dragony: (❥f - 10)

FOR BOYF

[personal profile] dragony 2019-11-06 02:58 am (UTC)(link)
[ It doesn't take a detective, or an empath, or a super-genius's level of insight to notice that Ruka seems off lately. It's probably not much of a surprise, either, with the mood of the Network at large, but it's a heavier fog when it's someone you live with. It crops up in a dozen little ways: a slowness to relax replaced by a tension that never eases; a poor appetite that vanishes completely some days; a pervasive, anxious quiet when she's home; a scarcity of calm in rest.

Like the stars that seem to hang so close to it, the brighter the moon gets in the sky, the more she seems to diminish. Shorter days. An ever-increasing darkness, lapping at the edge of daylight like a rising tide.

At dinner, with food pushed idly to grow cold, Ruka had excused herself — to go clear her head, or something along those lines. She'd taken her bike; there'd still been daylight, then. It's long, long past dark, now, and she isn't back yet. Even midnight mental chess with Khaji Da gets bailed from with a novel surrender, a tipping of the queen and a silence thereafter. The night approaches daybreak, and she's still not back.

Hmm. Nobody likes that.
]
dragony: (❥f - 20)

[personal profile] dragony 2019-11-11 07:00 am (UTC)(link)
[ Technically, Heropa isn't a coast town. It's close, of course, and it's easy enough to reach the beach no matter the time of day or time of year, but the city doesn't stretch to the shore. It's far enough and specific enough a place that a person doesn't just meander there — it's a destination that gets chosen.

It's not the same stretch of sand where they met again for the first time. But it is close.

Whether he ventures out to see for himself where she's gone, or if he simply keeps narrowing down her geo-position to something comprehensible first, it's an unusual little spot: a lighthouse, just a short skip from the tide line. There is no way it is open to the public at this time of night. So, when—because of course it's when, with how late it is, and how long it's been, and how quiet, and how worrisome—when Jaime inevitably makes his way there, Ruka at least is easy enough to find.

There, up on the gallery deck, the exterior walkway that circles the lantern room up at the very top of the lighthouse, Ruka leans heavy on the railing, chin balanced on her folded arms, more of her weight pressed there than on her feet. Strangely, she's not facing the water; her position in that circle faces her inland, looking over the city of the Cape, towards Heropa, and the rest of the world beyond it.

Not at all strangely, she's been crying. She has been for a long time.
]
dragony: (❥f - 01)

[personal profile] dragony 2019-11-19 05:55 am (UTC)(link)
[ She doesn't stand up any straighter, or push herself away from where she's leaning; her blink is slow, tired, a little bit of damp still clinging to her lashes. She leans her head a little towards the left; there is, very faint, a slight curving of one cheek for a hidden fragment of a smile. ]

Isn't it past your bedtime?

[ It's too gently said to be a rebuke; it's no masked go away.

She looks down.
] I didn't want to keep you up.
dragony: (❥f - 11)

[personal profile] dragony 2019-11-24 12:36 am (UTC)(link)
'm always gonna worry about you, [ she murmurs, still quiet. She doesn't let go of the railing, or pull her hands out from under his. Her fingers shift a little, knuckles pressing lightly against his palms — a tiny acknowledgment of the comfort.

It takes longer to do anything more than that. She lets her head rest against his for a moment, lets herself breathe. It's a terrible little conflict with her powers: she can draw comfort from Jaime's usually-steadier presence, but getting to the root of her own feelings is somehow an uphill climb. She needs company and solitude simultaneously. It's misery.
]

... It's stupid. I don't know what's wrong with me. [ She blinks a few times, to try to get the last of the wetness out of her lashes. Her voice is a little rough, hurt, but tone is a self-disparaging wryness — the kind that does more damage for the sake of trying to hide it. ] I'm just getting worked up over the dumbest things.
dragony: (❥f - 01)

[personal profile] dragony 2019-11-29 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
It's... it's not that.

[ She can feel his worry, and his care, and a little bit of his frustration—not at her, somehow, despite everything—and it is comfort. It is, in its own way, a stable footing. It's just up to her to accept it, and actually step forward.

Her hands move, finally, coming out from under his hands to rest atop them, fingers splaying across the armor.
]

It's... I mean. Yeah, I went through this before, but... everyone's getting involved. Everyone wants to help. That's a good thing, isn't it?

But... the... the more I hear other people talking about it, the... the less certain I feel. It doesn't make sense, right?

[ It's frightening to even say this much. ]

Everyone's so sure it'll work out. Everyone's certain.

[ She speaks quietly. The words are almost whispered, but it does nothing to hide the frustration. It doesn't do anything to mask the anger. ]

How can I trust anyone that's never failed?
dragony: (❥f - 20)

[personal profile] dragony 2019-12-07 06:18 am (UTC)(link)
Always.

[ He's right. Or, well, maybe he's not right about a hundred percent of the cases — there are successes, there's competence, even if she can't see it right now — but he's right enough. It's always the people that try to take command with no idea what they're doing. The ones that let reputation precede thought, the ones that never listen to anyone they're not predisposed to trust.

And Ruka — for all her experience, for all her knowledge, for all her understanding and intelligence, for all that she knows and all that she can figure out — is never in that category.
]

And, if we lose, they're not gonna be the ones who have to deal with it. They'll leave. Replaced with more of the same.

I... [ She's tried so many times. To explain the scale. To demonstrate the scope. Stories, and essays, and pictures, paintings — anything to convey the scale, to convey the danger. Anything to make people understand how different this is from their hometown trials. But it never connects. Does it? No matter how plain she tries to be, the message misses the mark. ] ... I can't... do anything...
dragony: (❥f - 10)

[personal profile] dragony 2020-01-27 11:03 am (UTC)(link)
[ It's always hard to believe words like this. Of course it is. So many things have gone wrong in her life — so many things that she was meant to fix, or protect, and so many things that she tried with all her strength to set right. She says it's hard to trust the people who haven't failed, but maybe the truth is that she can't relate to them.

It's hard to believe them from Jaime, too. Even though it's Jaime. He's never lied to her to spare her feelings; he doesn't try to gloss over ugly truths just to make her feel better. He's never denied her anything. He means everything he says. He's sincere, and honest, even when it's difficult and ugly. He wouldn't lie to her now.
]

I want to believe that. [ It's the closest she can get, and even that much gets caught in her throat. She's too cried out for fresh tears; her eye burns for the strain of it anyway. Her heart hurts. Her whole body aches for it. ] I don't want it to go the same way... I don't want to start over anymore.

I don't want anyone else to live with that. I just... I... I want to believe we have a chance, this time.