(no subject)

[xxhottgirl4uxx.livejournal.com]

Long hard night of work, and nothing but baked beans in the local grocery store? Feh.

Jane sighs, and buys three immensely overpriced cans anyway. It's not as if there's anything else around this week. Life is more fun in Metropolis since the apocalypse, but it's a lot harder, too, in some really unexpected ways.

It occurs to her just before she opens her front door that she's left her stompy boots at the club - with the night's takings stashed in the toe. Damn. That won't be there tomorrow if she doesn't go back now.

So:


Dawn is breaking over Metropolis, and a tired-looking girl in jeans and a sweater is walking down a seedy street, alone.

Comments

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

Well, that's no good. A girl could get in a lot of trouble doing that. For instance, she could find herself walking down a seedy street, alone, as the engine of a jeep growls from behind her. The jeep comes up close and-- passes her.

Lucky.

Then again, by the time she's back at the club, the jeep is out front. Two shadowed figures are unloading boxes. In the middle of the night, that rarely means anything good in Metropolis, so maybe she should report it or...

As she walks into the light of a street lamp, one of the shadows looks up and... waves at her?

"Jane? Hey!"

[xxhottgirl4uxx.livejournal.com]

Jane is frowning, hands in her pockets, incredibly suspicious -- until she recognises him, and beams, lighting up all over.

"Sokka!"

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph hangs back a little, awkward, but grins and waves.

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

Sokka remains grinning. Because he and Steph are unloading boxes of fruit from the farm and it's early in the morning and Jane has clothes on and this little excursion will make everybody happy.

...or at least, it's one of those do-good things that makes Steph smile, and he's been worried about that lately.

"Hey!" he calls again, grinning, and comes around the jeep to meet her. A glance back and he's holding a hand out to Steph encouragingly. "We brought you stuff."

[xxhottgirl4uxx.livejournal.com]

It is totally making her happy! She beams up at him, and then refrains from flinging herself at him for a hug - because she has a pretty good memory and he was way weirded out by the touching.

Handshake? Plz?

"You brought me stuff? Oh my God, is that what I think it is?" She turns to Steph, to the boxes, and back, expression delighted. "Oh wow and this is Steph, right? I heard so much about you!"

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph nods, grinning. Helping Sokka do good stuff is just as good as doing good stuff on her own - she gets to feel good about it! Also, one of the mangos got crushed in transit and everything smells like mango and it's SO GOOD. So Jane gets a big - if slightly shy - grin.

(Shy, because even tired-looking and without makeup, the other girl is way pretty.)

"That's me. The fruit is all Sokka's idea, though."

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

Handshakes are go. They can work on hugs when Steph quits looking quite so apprehensive around Jane.

Steph is getting an arm wrapped around her waist, too. "Well, I promised," he points out, a little sheepishly, shrugging. "But we didn't know when we'd come back, so we brought a few boxes."

[xxhottgirl4uxx.livejournal.com]

"Oh my God." She puts both hands over her mouth, trying very hard not to jump up and down with glee. "Oh my God, you are amazing."

To Steph: "He is amazing! You should marry this one!

To both: "Oh my God, wow, is that mango!? Do you know how hard it is to get a real, fresh mango in this city? Oh my God you are my favourite people ever!"

If they have never seen an edging-towards-thirty woman gleeing like a sixteen-year-old, now is education times! (Not that she looks much older than twenty, but that's not the point.)

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph laughs, leaning against Sokka and sliding her own arm around his waist too. "I know," she points out happily, amused by Jane's spasms of glee. "I probably will."

Glamorous strippers are totally less intimidating when they're just normal people secretly.

"Yep, it's mango. Lucy brought them from Australia just a day or two ago, so they're still super fresh."

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

Sokka is grinning, too, incredibly pleased with Jane's reaction.

...which is so great and so gleeful, she probably completely misses that look of gobsmacked-ness on Sokka's face as he looks sharply at Steph.

I probably will.


There is so much grinning now.

"Pineapple, too," he adds, still beaming at Steph, even if the words are technically directed toward Jane. "From Hawaii."

[xxhottgirl4uxx.livejournal.com]

"Wait, seriously?" Jane gives him and her both a sudden doubtful look. "Someone went to Australia? Just for fruit? And then Hawaii in the same day?"

Are you guys crazy?

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Lucy flies," Steph explains, grinning because Sokka's all grinny, like he somehow failed to notice her total adoration or something. She elbows him.

"Fast."

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

"One of those hippie freaks you guys keep wanting to avoid," Sokka agrees, glancing at Jane with his grin unchanged. "Lucy's pretty much the entire reason why anybody lives at the farm at all."

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

Hello, tired-looking girl. There is a nervous-looking girl also on this street, alone. She is giving you a deer-in-headlights look.

[xxhottgirl4uxx.livejournal.com]

"Hey," Jane murmurs quietly, essaying a brief smile but no more than that.

Who knows what nervous-looking kids get up to these days? Jane can kick a small amount of ass if needed, but she's not exactly eager to tangle with anyone.

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

...

After registering that she is, indeed, being the one addressed (Jane might be talking to that trash can or something), she fidgets and forces out a "...hi"

[xxhottgirl4uxx.livejournal.com]

Jane had totally intended to walk straight past with her head down.

But ... that was such a scared little 'hi'.

"Uh ... are you okay?" she asks, tentatively.

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

She thinks this over, examining the issue.

"where is this?"

Not exactly an answer, but her ultimate answer does depend somewhat on this information.

[xxhottgirl4uxx.livejournal.com]

A bring-in? Jane thought they didn't turn up inside Kansas. She eyes the girl warily, still not coming any closer.

"Metropolis, Kansas. Uh, Earth, if that helps."

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

"kansas...?"

That is a Long Way from home.

Which is, in her opinion, a very, very good thing.

"They stopped God," she adds, with relief. "but Daddy's gone."

[xxhottgirl4uxx.livejournal.com]

Jane hesitates. Her instinctive reaction is 'wow, you're really crazy, huh?' but ... well, it's the freaking Apocalypse.

"They stopped God?" she echoes carefully. "Do you want me to help find your Dad?"

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

"big dog man got him" So, no.

She fidgets, head down. "they said that at school."

[xxhottgirl4uxx.livejournal.com]

"... what school?"

This girl is not looking any less crazy. Jane has absolutely zero mothering instinct, too.

But damn it, she can't just leave a bring-in without at least pointing her at the nearest shelter or something. That Oracle chick runs one not too far from here.

"And what dog man?"

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

...

...

OK, it's not like she hasn't told people before. And they ARE a long way away.

"Midwich" And because she can tell this is not totally helpful on its own, "it's back home." So you don't have to worry about the other kids creeping up in their current monstrous forms and assaulting you with knives making fun of you, Jane.

"...who is Oracle?" (Nobody has bothered to school Alessa on telepathy etiquette.)

The dog man subject is not a happy one. "he was there. came there. and made Daddy run..." The pitch of her voice rockets, and she drops into a crouch, shivering.

[xxhottgirl4uxx.livejournal.com]

Jane is already reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder when she realises what the kid just said.

" -- how did you know that name?" she demands, voice slightly high-pitched, instead of anything more friendly and reassuring.