Angel, don't friggin apologize. And I'm not asking you for a report. Just...talk to me.
[But not about Athena, please. It still twists in Jack's gut that she's with his daughter, and not him. That for some reason Angel would rather be with his god damned nemesis than with him.]
[But he won't bring that up right now. He said he was just gonna talk to her and not bring up anything major, Athena would derail that entire plan.]
You gotta...like things. Have thoughts about things. You're exploring a whole new planet full of weird animals for the first time after never leaving the same damn room, you've gotta have things to talk about. I wanna hear'em.
[And he actually does. It's one of the things that's driving him to whatever lengths he can. He wants to be a part of her experiencing life like a normal person.]
[But she won't friggin let him! Or apparently even tell him about it over the phone when he goes out of his way to show he's trying.]
[Angel tried for a handful of moments to think of something, anything to appease Jack. The longer she tried, the more distant her thoughts became, and the more anxious she felt. As she struggled for words, her heart rate began to quicken, and she felt a cold sweat creep over her skin.]
I'm sorry. [Her voice came out strained, held back by a tightness in her throat. She lowered her device and leaned back against the bed that had been provided to her.]
I do not know how to do this, Jack. [She made no attempt to even try to call him by anything else.] I don't know how to be your daughter. Only a tool.
....Angel, come on. We used to talk all the time. We're closer than anybody. Hell, if you know how to talk to literally anybody, it's me!
[And back to this.]
[He'd really thought they'd made progress. He really did. He makes some effort to muffle his groan, but he doesn't do that good a job.]
Look, I get it. You blame me. I promise ya, you've made it clear. Message received. I'm not gonna argue with you anymore. It's not like it's gonna get us anywhere, and I really don't like this whole being pissed at each other thing. You...you take after me more than I thought, sweetheart. And one of the things you got from your good old dad was apparently being stubborn as hell.
But I'm trying. I don't think it's too much to ask you to meet me in the middle here.
I'm nothing like you! [The words left her lips before she had even processed them in her brain. For a moment, she gaped at him, before closing her eyes and turning her head way.]
[At least he couldn't physically hurt her for that anymore.]
I'm sorry... I'm trying too, Jack. I really am.
[Her thumb shifted, moving over the end call button. She considered hammering down on it, but her earlier sentiment rattled around in her head. Jack would be harder to deal with if she wasn't amicable toward him.]
I have a mareep. Did I tell you that? Her name is Mari, and she's very, very sweet...
[It was a lame start, but it was something. Anything to keep them from lashing out at each other.]
....uh, ow. But you are, baby. You're stubborn and you're tough and you're brilliant and you're fierce, just like me.
[If this is her trying...]
[But Jack just exhales and nods. Okay. They'll get through this. They can get through this. Because they were closer than anybody. Them against the universe, that's how it was. How it oughtta be.]
[He's just got ride out her...whatever the hell this is. Angry rebel stage, or something. If that means sitting here and talking about animals, fine.]
Nah, you didn't tell me about her. That's the lightning sheep, right? There's so many friggin Pokemon, I get'em all mixed up. They're pretty neat, though. Some of'em. I mean, my cats make money. How cool is that?
[Good, good. With the conversation drifting away from their relationship, Angel began to feel more relaxed. As long as she kept her eyes closed, she could pretend she was talking to anyone. Perhaps even the body double that she still wasn't sure about.]
Maybe... the pokemon here seem to like me a lot. But their owners are nice people too, so maybe it's just a projection of that. She gave a small shrug, aware that Jack might not be able to see it. Money making cats though...
[She trailed off, unsure of how to complete her thought. Truthfully, it didn't sound all that interesting to her. Money seemed to be easy enough to come by, and she didn't exactly care about making it big in the world. Still, it was at least interesting...]
Eh, you got that thing though, y'know? That...sweet, calming thing that animals usually like. You need one of those really friggin majestic horse Pokemon.
[Yeah, this is fine. Jack settles back himself, propping his feet up on his desk and grabbing his large bottle of pain killers. All the tenseness up till now has his face screaming at him. Not to mention he's had his mask on all day.]
These are just pain killers, don't worry, I'm not getting high while we're talking. But yeah, I gotta say, Cattrap drives me nuts half the time, but I can't complain that I got a money cat. I can complain about the literal bag of garbage that stalks me everywhere, though. Because there is a literal bag of garbage that is stalking me. I dunno how it keeps getting in the house.
Horse pokemon? [Even though she didn't want to admit it, her interest was piqued. She hadn't had much time to research the other creatures and the world, and she wasn't sure how to bring it up with her companions. It wasn't surprising that there were creatures like that, just as it was surprising that there was an electric sheep or a fire chicken.]
[Of course, her wonderment quickly gave way to masked annoyance. Relieved as she was that he wasn't getting high, it would have surprised her if he was. It was just one of a great many things she had come to expect from him.]
[Still, the discussion of his apparent garbage haunting is enough to distract her.]
Did you catch it? Or does it just like you. [She paused for a moment.] Are there really garbage pokemon?
Yeah! There's a whole classification of Pokemon that are 'mounts'. And it means exactly what you'd think, you can ride'em. I've got a goat one - she was a gift, I didn't pick her out myself. And she's not big enough to ride yet. But there's a coupla cool horse ones.
You know, I'm pretty damn good at horseback riding. Maybe that could be something we do together, some time.
[He's just putting it out there. It could be fun, he could teach her to ride. Then Jack laughs as he pops his pills, almost choking on them.]
Yeah, me, the guy who can't even stand littering, caught a garbage Pokemon. No, the damn thing's just been creeping on me since I got here. I turn around and it's just there.
[She allowed herself a laugh, more than grateful to move past Jack's "together" comment. For the time being, she had no plans of going anywhere near him, or even so much as thinking about going near him either.]
You should catch him anyways. Name him that. [She regretted the words the second she spoke them. She'd heard the sounds that one of his pokemon had made the last time they had spoke. If Jack already felt disgusted toward it, then she couldn't imagine what he would do to the creature if it couldn't escape him.]
HA! You know, that's not a bad idea, sweetheart! It already gets along with my team, since it's...always here. And it's already always here.
It, uh, it might already be mine, honestly. I dunno.
Oh, hey, I hatched a dragon last week! He's bright yellow! He's gonna grow up and be huge and black, though. But an actual dragon. Like one of the ones in those books I used to read you when you were little.
[Angel did what she could to keep a grimace from her lips. Instead, she kicked her right foot against her left calf. If she weren't on a call with her father, she might have even swore. The "bandits" were rubbing off on her, after all.]
[Her anger ebbed in the slightest as Jack moved along. His words were dangerously enticing, far too often she had caught herself daydreaming about what it would be like if things were normal. When he talked about reading stories, about what she truly believed to have been a normal childhood, it was easy to fall into that habit]
[And that habit often led her to her more dangerous fantasies: that perhaps her father could be redeemed]
What's its name? [Despite the alarm bells in her head, Angel didn't want to give up the conversation. Though she did what she could to convince herself that she simply didn't want to deal with whatever other topic Jack would switch to, she knew that that internal longing was at play.]
Dunno yet. Tossing some ideas around, but I kinda wanna wait till he's all grown up to decide. Right now he looks like a cartoon baby dinosaur. Then I gotta get myself one of those fire unicorns and I'll be all set.
To be honest, I've got a bunch I haven't picked names for yet. The only one I came up with a name for right off the bat's Doom Bo...Bob.
[When he named Doom Boner, he never imagined introducing him to his daughter.]
That dumb fat puppy's really grown on me. Spoiled little lard bucket even gets to sleep on the bed.
So... you enjoy fire pokemon then? [All things considered, she would have pinned him as a poison user, perhaps even psychic. Either of those would be more befitting of his personality than his current choices. She wasn't going to say anything, even if her smirk was direct giveaway of her thoughts.]
I like fairy types myself. Very pretty. And elegant!
[Angel glanced at her mareep, smiling to herself. Fairy might have been nice, but nothing would replace Mari. As if reading her thoughts, Mari gave a pleased sort of bleat.]
I named my first pokemon Mari. It... wasn't very creative but... I still like it.
[ The way Jack described his pokemon almost made her want to meet it. The fact that Jack would be there to witness quickly turned her off of the thought.]
It's just kinda worked out that I've got a bunch of fire ones, actually. I don't want the horse 'cause it's a fire type, though, I want it 'cause it's a horse. I miss having a horse. And it's not just any kinda horse, it's a unicorn. You know me and unicorns!
I've actually got a full Pokemon team. I got a tentacool, a skorpi...something, a psychic cat, a badass hawk... those are my battling Pokemon. Then the money cats and D.B. are more like...you know. Pets. I don't keep'em in their balls, they just live at the house. Makes it feel less empty. Not that a handful of pets can replicate the homey, full-of-people feel of a busy space station, but...eh.
[When Angel mentions her preference for fairy types, Jack grins.]
I am not surprised, sweetheart. One of the first days I'm here, I see this...cat, I guess. But it was this real pretty light pink and looked like a magic fairy tale cat, and I thought 'I bet that's the kinda Pokemon Angel'd like'. It was a fairy type.
[And look at that, he gets to tell her about it after all.]
Mari's a cute name. Works for a sheep. Mari was a little lamb!
Heh, he is. Never really thought of myself as much of a puppy person, but...I dunno. I got him 'cause I thought he'd be big and badass, but that was a gross miscalculation on my part. He's big, but he sure isn't anywhere near badass. That's okay, though, I like having'im around.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
brokencode) wrote2016-08-22 05:17 am
Audio Message
[But not about Athena, please. It still twists in Jack's gut that she's with his daughter, and not him. That for some reason Angel would rather be with his god damned nemesis than with him.]
[But he won't bring that up right now. He said he was just gonna talk to her and not bring up anything major, Athena would derail that entire plan.]
You gotta...like things. Have thoughts about things. You're exploring a whole new planet full of weird animals for the first time after never leaving the same damn room, you've gotta have things to talk about. I wanna hear'em.
[And he actually does. It's one of the things that's driving him to whatever lengths he can. He wants to be a part of her experiencing life like a normal person.]
[But she won't friggin let him! Or apparently even tell him about it over the phone when he goes out of his way to show he's trying.]
Audio Message
I'm sorry. [Her voice came out strained, held back by a tightness in her throat. She lowered her device and leaned back against the bed that had been provided to her.]
I do not know how to do this, Jack. [She made no attempt to even try to call him by anything else.] I don't know how to be your daughter. Only a tool.
Audio Message
[And back to this.]
[He'd really thought they'd made progress. He really did. He makes some effort to muffle his groan, but he doesn't do that good a job.]
Look, I get it. You blame me. I promise ya, you've made it clear. Message received. I'm not gonna argue with you anymore. It's not like it's gonna get us anywhere, and I really don't like this whole being pissed at each other thing. You...you take after me more than I thought, sweetheart. And one of the things you got from your good old dad was apparently being stubborn as hell.
But I'm trying. I don't think it's too much to ask you to meet me in the middle here.
Re: Audio Message
[At least he couldn't physically hurt her for that anymore.]
I'm sorry... I'm trying too, Jack. I really am.
[Her thumb shifted, moving over the end call button. She considered hammering down on it, but her earlier sentiment rattled around in her head. Jack would be harder to deal with if she wasn't amicable toward him.]
I have a mareep. Did I tell you that? Her name is Mari, and she's very, very sweet...
[It was a lame start, but it was something. Anything to keep them from lashing out at each other.]
no subject
[If this is her trying...]
[But Jack just exhales and nods. Okay. They'll get through this. They can get through this. Because they were closer than anybody. Them against the universe, that's how it was. How it oughtta be.]
[He's just got ride out her...whatever the hell this is. Angry rebel stage, or something. If that means sitting here and talking about animals, fine.]
Nah, you didn't tell me about her. That's the lightning sheep, right? There's so many friggin Pokemon, I get'em all mixed up. They're pretty neat, though. Some of'em. I mean, my cats make money. How cool is that?
I bet you're real good with animals.
no subject
Maybe... the pokemon here seem to like me a lot. But their owners are nice people too, so maybe it's just a projection of that. She gave a small shrug, aware that Jack might not be able to see it. Money making cats though...
[She trailed off, unsure of how to complete her thought. Truthfully, it didn't sound all that interesting to her. Money seemed to be easy enough to come by, and she didn't exactly care about making it big in the world. Still, it was at least interesting...]
It's fitting.
no subject
[Yeah, this is fine. Jack settles back himself, propping his feet up on his desk and grabbing his large bottle of pain killers. All the tenseness up till now has his face screaming at him. Not to mention he's had his mask on all day.]
These are just pain killers, don't worry, I'm not getting high while we're talking. But yeah, I gotta say, Cattrap drives me nuts half the time, but I can't complain that I got a money cat. I can complain about the literal bag of garbage that stalks me everywhere, though. Because there is a literal bag of garbage that is stalking me. I dunno how it keeps getting in the house.
no subject
[Of course, her wonderment quickly gave way to masked annoyance. Relieved as she was that he wasn't getting high, it would have surprised her if he was. It was just one of a great many things she had come to expect from him.]
[Still, the discussion of his apparent garbage haunting is enough to distract her.]
Did you catch it? Or does it just like you. [She paused for a moment.] Are there really garbage pokemon?
no subject
You know, I'm pretty damn good at horseback riding. Maybe that could be something we do together, some time.
[He's just putting it out there. It could be fun, he could teach her to ride. Then Jack laughs as he pops his pills, almost choking on them.]
Yeah, me, the guy who can't even stand littering, caught a garbage Pokemon. No, the damn thing's just been creeping on me since I got here. I turn around and it's just there.
It's worse than Nakayama.
no subject
You should catch him anyways. Name him that. [She regretted the words the second she spoke them. She'd heard the sounds that one of his pokemon had made the last time they had spoke. If Jack already felt disgusted toward it, then she couldn't imagine what he would do to the creature if it couldn't escape him.]
no subject
It, uh, it might already be mine, honestly. I dunno.
Oh, hey, I hatched a dragon last week! He's bright yellow! He's gonna grow up and be huge and black, though. But an actual dragon. Like one of the ones in those books I used to read you when you were little.
no subject
[Her anger ebbed in the slightest as Jack moved along. His words were dangerously enticing, far too often she had caught herself daydreaming about what it would be like if things were normal. When he talked about reading stories, about what she truly believed to have been a normal childhood, it was easy to fall into that habit]
[And that habit often led her to her more dangerous fantasies: that perhaps her father could be redeemed]
What's its name? [Despite the alarm bells in her head, Angel didn't want to give up the conversation. Though she did what she could to convince herself that she simply didn't want to deal with whatever other topic Jack would switch to, she knew that that internal longing was at play.]
no subject
To be honest, I've got a bunch I haven't picked names for yet. The only one I came up with a name for right off the bat's Doom Bo...Bob.
[When he named Doom Boner, he never imagined introducing him to his daughter.]
That dumb fat puppy's really grown on me. Spoiled little lard bucket even gets to sleep on the bed.
no subject
I like fairy types myself. Very pretty. And elegant!
[Angel glanced at her mareep, smiling to herself. Fairy might have been nice, but nothing would replace Mari. As if reading her thoughts, Mari gave a pleased sort of bleat.]
I named my first pokemon Mari. It... wasn't very creative but... I still like it.
[ The way Jack described his pokemon almost made her want to meet it. The fact that Jack would be there to witness quickly turned her off of the thought.]
He... sounds nice.
[Even if Doom Bob was a horrible name.]
no subject
I've actually got a full Pokemon team. I got a tentacool, a skorpi...something, a psychic cat, a badass hawk... those are my battling Pokemon. Then the money cats and D.B. are more like...you know. Pets. I don't keep'em in their balls, they just live at the house. Makes it feel less empty. Not that a handful of pets can replicate the homey, full-of-people feel of a busy space station, but...eh.
[When Angel mentions her preference for fairy types, Jack grins.]
I am not surprised, sweetheart. One of the first days I'm here, I see this...cat, I guess. But it was this real pretty light pink and looked like a magic fairy tale cat, and I thought 'I bet that's the kinda Pokemon Angel'd like'. It was a fairy type.
[And look at that, he gets to tell her about it after all.]
Mari's a cute name. Works for a sheep. Mari was a little lamb!
Heh, he is. Never really thought of myself as much of a puppy person, but...I dunno. I got him 'cause I thought he'd be big and badass, but that was a gross miscalculation on my part. He's big, but he sure isn't anywhere near badass. That's okay, though, I like having'im around.