The Fear principle (Accepting)

Jack continued to smile in amusement as the blonde continued her chatter. If she wasn't a hardass, she might have even found it adorable, but she wasn't about to allow herself to think of another person that way. Listening closely, she swung their arms gently as they continued to circle the arena, watching the guards closely. She knew that none of them trusted her, especially around someone as naive and innocent as Rinji. Jack would never hurt her, she was like the only person in this hell hole that was nice to her regardless of everything she had done, but the guards didn't know that. They just knew what she was capable.


Jack stopped in her tracks when Rinji vaguely mentioned Jaguar having relations with some of the inmates. "Dude, no way...head b**** is bumping uglies with us rif-raf?" The idea of it even being true caused the dark haired girl to smile secretly, knowing she could use this to her advantage later on. Hell, if anything it could make her sessions a lot more interesting now...


"Aw crap..." she muttered under her breath as one of the guards approached hem. Keeping quiet as he and Rinji spoke, it took everything in her not to burst out laughing at Rinji referring to her as a 'sweet girl'.


'Awww, honey if you only knew...' she thought to herself,her lips pulling into a smirk, her head down, keeping her eyes glued to the floor.


She waited until the guard had walked further off before looking back up, smiling softly at Rinji. "Thanks for that...sticking up for me and all..." she murmured softly. Just for kicks, and curious for a reaction, she leaned in and brushed her lips across the younger girl's cheek. "That was very...sweet..." She pulled away, using Rinji's own word against her and stepped back a bit, putting her hands into her pockets.
 
"Oh, Jack, Jaguar isn't a *****. That's not very nice to say, she's really very sweet- like you!" Rinji shakes her head, her slightly reproving frown quickly replaced with a more typical smile. "I told her before she's like her namesake. Fast and strong with a hard bite, but she's really just a big soft kitty too. She didn't like the comparison much for some reason."


Still mystified by Jaguar's reaction, she shrugged, both in response to her own line of thought and to Jack's thank you. She is more obviously receptive to her kiss, smiling up at her and bumping her shoulder against hers. "You're welcome! Like you and Jag, right?"


She appears disappointed when Jack puts her hands in her pockets but continues to walk with her, asking brightly, "So has Jaguar started to fix you yet?" She is still smiling, completely oblivious to how badly those words might go over. "She's supposed to be really good with that and everything and I heard you're hard to fix or whatever."
 
Bailey watched the exchange between Mason and Jaguar with mounting interest. Something in the way that Jaguar's body language had shifted, ever so slightly, had caught Bailey's eye. As she glanced at Mason, she realized that, despite how good he must have been at picking up on small cues like that, he didn't seem to notice it.


Gaining a little more confidence, she stepped forward, next to Jaguar instead of in her shadow. While she had never really been a religious person, she could have sworn that she was looking at the devil himself. There was something in his eyes that was so charming, yet malicious. She could see why it must have been easy for him to lure his victims away, if that was what he did; he certainly seemed the type. It was just the right amount of danger to draw in some girl with a thing for bad boys, but there was a strange softness there that really put Bailey on edge.


As Mason's eyes grazed over her body, she crossed her arms out of reflex and kept her body as relaxed as she could. His laughter surprised her, she imagined maybe something harsh like the bark of a dog, but it was shockingly soft, with an edge to it that made her think of some men in bars who tend to smile at someone right before landing a rough blow to their jaw.


Mason extended his finger and pointed it at Jaguar, “I think you and I are going to have fun.”


“Why go back for the flashlight if you knew you would risk getting caught?” Her own question surprised her almost as much as the curiosity she felt about the man.


The older man turned his head to look at Bailey, once again sizing her up for good measure and gave her a smile that made the hair on her arms stand up. “It was a good flashlight, I paid good money for it. Wasn't about to lose an investment, now was I?”
 
Fun...he thought that he would have FUN with her...


Hearing this word, Jaguar's thoughts automatically moved sixteen years back, taking in his soft, amused tone as he stepped towards her, his eyes gleaming as he reached out a hand...."Want to have fun, little girl?"


He is pointing at her now, looking at her in the same way, his voice carrying that same amusement, and a muscle flexes in her jaw, a barely perceptible shiver running up her spine before she moves herself quickly, just as it hits her, hoping that the sudden movement will mask the shudder she does not in any way want him to see.


She had been weak then, helpless against him. She can never, not for a moment, let him see such weakness now. She has to show him now, immediately, before any relationship is tied to the past, that she is not. She has to take control, even in if it means being more reckless than she usually is.


"You are not one to let go of your gains, however ill-gotten, are you, Mason?" she says to him quickly, stepping towards him. "The movements you make, the choices you decide upon, are all made with a clear reason in sight. What is your reason, then, for allowing yourself to see the inside of these walls? You chose to be here. There must be a reason why, and certainly it's not just for the pleasure of my company."
 
"I ain't sweet..." Jack muttered her eyes narrowing slightly. She had to hold in a laugh when the blonde described jaguar as a 'soft kitty', knowing that to be anything but true from all the stories she had heard from other inmates in the past.


Letting out a snort when Rinji asks if she had begun to fix her, Jack just smiled and shook her head, her long dark hair going back behind her shoulders. "F*** no...I'm not broken...and even if I was, I think it'd take a bit more then just one short little meet and greet to really do anything ya know..." she shrugged and kicked at the ground with her left foot, the rubber dragging across the floor. She didn't like the idea of Rinji thinking her as someone that was damaged, even though she was. It messed with the image she tried to uphold. "What do you think?" she tilted her head sideways and studied the other woman for a moment. "Do you think I need to be fixed?"


She was curious to know just what all Rinji had heard about her.
 
"Oh, yeah you are," Rinji dismisses Jack's contradiction with a wave of her hand, reaching out again to pat her arm. "Everyone's sweet, Jack, don't you know that? You just have to figure out what it takes to make them show it, that's all. Some people like you to listen to them, some like you to talk to them, some like hugs and smiles...and some people, like you, just have to have nice things said about them once and a while!"


She smiled at Jack, as though expecting the woman to blossom under this brief amount of attention, and resumes her rapid pace of walking, pulling her along with her. She barely glances at her as the other woman asked her if she needed to be fixed, not understanding that the question is serious to her.


"Well, you could be tweaked here or there, but not too much and I wouldn't recognize you anymore! Don't worry, Jag's good at knowing how much to tweak. I'm pretty good at it too you know, and I'm not even an empath. I already tweaked you! You smile at me WAY more than you did at first."
 
"Yeah well..." kicking at the floor of the arena again, Jack ducked her head so that Rinji couldn't see as she blushed slightly. It was true, she did smile a lot more around the blonde, but Jack just shrugged that off, simply because the girl was too nice to react in any other way.


'She's NOT your friend...' Jack kept reminding herself.


"I guess we'll see how things go..."


((sorry so short, gotta head to work now))
 
It hasn't even been ten minutes and Mason already knew that this woman was going to be a pain in his ass. Did she really think that his imprisonment here was because he allowed it to happen? He watches Jaguar step closer to her and clenches his jaw. He can't very well do much about it, can he? Not when she's probably one button press away from Mason receiving some sort of punishment, and this b**ch, having provoked him, would not even earn herself a slap on the wrist.


He allows his gaze to shift to the other woman, who has not moved from her spot since she'd last spoken. She doesn't seem particularly afraid of him, thought she is watching him in much the same way someone would watch another person defuse a bomb. It would be a lie if he didn't admit that that alone excites him, though it certainly won't be as fun to break Bailey as it will to break Jaguar.


Yes, this will be fun. At least if their current little power struggle means anything. And really, he certainly does have the upper hand. While he may not have the advantage mentally, he does have more physical power, which is what is important in situations like this. After all, she only needs to get close enough.


“I had no choice in coming here, lady.” He says flatly, allowing his smile to slide back into place. If she were to catch on at all that she had an effect on her of any sort, the battle would be lost immediately. That, Mason decides, can most certainly not happen. “If I had any choice in the matter, I'd still be outside. I'm here because people like you and your co-workers put me here. That's it.”
 
"Oh, things will go well," Rinji said with assurance, nodding for emphasis. "I'm sure of it. Everything always works out in the end!"


She squeezed Jack's hand, then surprised her with a one armed, quick, but nevertheless tight hug, careless of the narrow-eyed gazes of the guards as she stepped back.


"I have to go now, work and all that boring stuff. But I'll see you later! Walk again tomorrow, right?"


She doesn't wait for her to reply before pulling back. Waving over her shoulder, she says brightly, "See you, Jackie!" before disappearing down the hall, where she passes Alex and Sven and waves to them as well.


"Hi guys! What's up?"


**


"No, Mason," Jaguar says with control, though she can still feel her heart beating rapidly in her chest. "You chose to be here. You chose to go back for the flashlight, knowing the risk it would carry. You chose to act with increasing carelessness, knowing that you wouldn't be able to avoid capture with such sloppy procedures. You have always been reckless, but you've progressed from simple inexperienced crimes committed in private homes, where others would not see, to public acts. That tells me that on some level, you wanted to be here. That some part of you is drawn to being here."


Even as she speaks, most of what she is saying a bluff intended to provoke him, a part of her dreads that her words might be true. What if he was drawn here because, on some level, he did unconsciously recognize her, having seen her picture in advertisements on the telecom newscasts? What if he did know who she was...what if he was here to finish what he had started?


He would never be able to go through with it. She would never allow it. Still, a part of her wondered, almost feared, and she had to continue to steadily avoid Bailey's eye as she stepped closer, pushing harder than she would normally dare more to silence herself than because she thought it the right move. Looking into Mason's eyes, she said deliberately, even as she lightly struck out against his mental shields, testing their strength, "You got your wish, Mason. Here you are. Now what will we both get out of this turn of events? You may be disappointed to learn that sex is not included in the possibilities, you're not my type. Too stocky, you probably would have no endurance."


She knows even as she speaks that Bailey will be shocked by this, that Mason will be further angered, and though there is some calculation behind it, a desire to see his reaction to such provocation, his ability to control himself, part of this is pure impulse, vindictiveness, even defensiveness on her part. She wants to prove to him, somehow, that she is no child now, that he has no control, even to emasculate him.
 
The hug caught Jack off guard but she didn't let this be known as she simply shrugged and stepped back, running a hand through her hair in a flippant dismissal. "Yeah sure...laters baby..." she muttered lamely as she watched Rinji head off.


Rubbing her hands along her arms, she flipped off the guard that had been watching them the whole time, and had to hold back from using her powers on him. She wasn't in the mood to get in any more trouble this week and have her arena privileges taken away again. That and she was secretly hoping she'd get the chance to spend more time with Rinji tomorrow.


Humming softly to herself, she continued her pacing, dragging her one foot along the ground so that the plastic on the bottom of her cheap sneakers would leave tracks for someone to have to clean up later on. Without Rinji here, there really wasn't anything Jack felt like doing, so slipping through a few of the other inmates by the entrance, she headed back down the hallway towards her cell.
 
Bailey can't help it, her eyes just continue to grow wider the more she watches the interaction between the two. Part of her wants to page one of the guards on her telebadge to ask them to come stand by, just in case, the other part, however, is struck with morbid curiosity about what is going to happen between the two.


Mason is clearly not happy that Jaguar had so easily invaded his space with little to no hesitation, and even less thrilled at what she is saying to him. The changes in his body language are incredibly subtle, but she clearly saw him stand up a little straighter to make himself appear larger in comparison to Jaguar's stature, to do anything and everything he could to assert his false sense of authority over her.


"You don't know a damn thing about me." Is all that he says, but his step forward is very telling.


"Jaguar," Bailey says finally, trying to keep her voice even. "We've got lunch soon."


Her eyes never leave Mason , whose face begins to soften just a little bit. It's far from defeat, there's something in his features that she can't quite pin down... recognition, maybe? She isn't quite able to name it because by the time she feels herself getting even remotely close to it, his face spreads into a wide, dangerous grin. Once again, his index finger is up and he's shaking at Jaguar lightly.


"I got you now, lady." He says slowly, the very tone of his voice nearly made Bailey's skin crawl and she crossed her arms tightly over her chest. She waits for him to elaborate, but he simply just repeats: "I got you now."


"Come on, Jaguar." The sternness of her voice, the total lack of fear in it, is surprising even to Bailey. "We can continue this later."
 
Mason is larger than her, even now. Jaguar is a tall woman, but he is considerably heavier, a few inches taller, and though she is not opposed to violence if needed, has always carried a glass knife up her sleeve to be used if necessary, he has considerable more practice than she does with it. He is standing even taller than usual, making his body take up as much space as near hers as he can, even stepping closer in a manner that is almost a threat.


She hears Bailey's voice, knows the girl is growing nervous, that she is likely setting a very bad example for her, but she cannot acknowledge her. It is not her or her safety she is thinking of now. She is looking at Mason, almost without blinking, daring him to back down.


But then he is smiling...why the hell is he smiling?


No. Oh shit, no. She knows that look, the light dawning in his eyes...he knows. He remembers, he f***ing REMEMBERS...


"I got you now, lady...I got you now..."


He hasn't touched her, but it feels as though he can see through her clothes, see through even her skin, that he has seen all the way to her heart, even to her very soul. Jaguar has to work very hard to keep herself from shuddering as he leers at her, and she knows he is imagining her as a child, that he is recalling, as she herself is trying to keep from doing.


"Want to have some fun..."


She hears Bailey again, her voice louder now, but continues to ignore her. No, she can't back down, she won't let herself do any such thing. She can't let him win. She is Jaguar Addams, she is above this, she is...she is not a child. She is a teacher. She is his prison guard, for f***'s sake, she is not giving into this...


This emotion? This fear?


"I'm not finished," she tells Bailey without looking back at her. "But if you are uncomfortable, I can let you go."


The words are final, but she is looking at Mason, speaking into his mind.


"I don't know what you're talking about," she lied. "But I'm not afraid of you, so using your body to try to intimidate me is unnecessary."
 
The only word in Bailey's mind to describe what she felt at the sound of finality in Jaguar's voice was "stuck". She shifted her weight onto one foot and debated on whether or not it would be wise to get a guard to shut the entire thing down.


Mason's grin only got larger and more dangerous when Jaguar admitted her ignorance at what he was talking about. "I think you know exactly what I'm talking about."


Unable to put up with anymore, Bailey stepped outside and paged Sven on her telebadge. "Can you please come down to Mason Cooper's cell? I'm having some difficulty getting Jaguar to leave and this has escalated way out of control."
 
Of course he did. He wasn't an empath, but if he had still managed, somehow, to figure out who she was, and where he had last seen her...if he really did remember, then he did not need to pick up on her thoughts in any sort of supernatural manner. He would be able to guess them by virtue of reasonable conclusion.


But she has other matters to concern herself with right now. Bailey, who is not even a full time teacher yet, Bailey, who is her STUDENT of sorts, is trying to take control. No, Bailey has succeeded in it, because without Jaguar's permission or will, she is paging Sven to come...to what, haul Jaguar out of the situation like a defiant child? To come take her, one of their best teachers, out of a situation like she can't handle it?


This is unbelievable. Not only is Bailey defying her, which is completely against what her standing in the place should allow her to do, but she is undermining her, not only in front of a staff member, not only in front of a prisoner, but in front of a NEW prisoner, and Mason Cooper at that. The one prisoner she cannot afford to let her see chastened even a little bit, the one prisoner she can't stand to ever let see her give in to anyone or anything...this is the one Bailey is deciding to pull nonexistent rank on.


And yet if she refuses to do as Bailey is basically forcing her to, then Sven will come in and yank her out forcefully, and that will be all the more humiliating.


Gritting her teeth, she finally steps back from Mason, though her eyes are still on him, rather than Bailey, as she replies to her. "Everything is perfectly within control. But clearly you are uncomfortable with this prisoner, and perhaps shouldn't be working with him any longer or observing me doing so either. I'll escort you out, Bailey, and next time I'll come alone."


Without another word to her she speaks into the telebadge to Sven. "Cancel that. We're leaving." Shutting it back off, she goes through the proper procedures for evacuating safely, saying to Mason, "I'll be back tomorrow."


The moment they are out in the hallway Jaguar grabs Bailey by the arm, grateful to be able to focus on her anger towards her rather than the residual pain and shock from the encounter with Mason as she nearly spits out at her, "Do not EVER do that to me around a prisoner again. You don't know what the hell you just did, but don't you EVER try it again."


Releasing her arm roughly, she stalks away from her towards the elevator, getting into it hoping that Bailey will not follow. Pressing the floor number for Jack's cell, she barely waits for the doors to open before she strides down the hall to her room and punches in the code to open the door. This time she is reckless enough not to go through proper safety procedures but instead goes in as though not worried that Jack might try to escape. And she wastes no time when she enters the room and relocks the door before she walks straight up to her, looking her directly in the eyes at a distance very invasive of her personal space.


"You are afraid to be close to people, that if you even begin to let down the shields that separate you, that would let them let you in, that they will hurt you. That any love you have for them, or even the smallest bits of pleasure they can give, will be gone too and leave you with nothing. You have no idea how to have intimacy even in the most basic sense. You have a hell of a lot to learn, and we'll start with it now."


With no further introduction she grabs her by both shoulders adn pulls her to her, kissing her roughly on the lips. Screw cameras, screw the fact that she said the first thing that came to her mind rather than creating a careful plan. They all know that Jaguar's ways are unusual, to say the least, and she can come up with a valid reason for the action later. Hell, maybe she even will have one. But now, she wants only to distance herself from what had happened with Mason, from the touch she had felt all over even when he didnt' come anywhere near, and this is the first way to do so that comes to mind.


(Mediocritys Muse and MegaPatman, please post soon. This rp is still open and accepting characters, we really need to have someone who is boss/head of Eyes of Man/Jaguar's superior, if no one wants to play it, I will. Anyone?)
 
The moment Bailey had finished paging Sven, she knew that she had made a grave mistake. She watches Jaguar go through the exit procedures, feeling the blood drain from her face and follows her out into the hall.


At the sudden grip on her arm, she flinches slightly and lets her eyes close when Jaguar starts to yell at her, a cold pit blooming in her stomach. She wants to respond to her, to explain to her that she really was out of control, that it wasn't just Mason who was making her uncomfortable. Mostly, it had been Jaguar that scared her. Bailey isn't exactly sure what she witnessed, but she knows full well that Jaguar was incredibly close to getting dangerous with him, to creating some sort of confrontation that, while still in his cell, could have been fatal.


Deciding that it isn't a good idea to get in the elevator with Jaguar, she steps onto the next elevator and goes to the floor with her office and stepped on. Her heart pounding, she hits the button for her floor and steps off, trying to smile at Rinji as she walks past her desk.
 
Jack was too into her book to even sense that someone was approaching her room. It was a frayed, and badly misshapen hardcover copy of Homer's 'The Iliad' that she had swiped from a previous teacher several months back. She had managed to hide it under her clothes when escorted back to her cell that day and had done a rather good job of keeping it hidden, thanks to a hole in her mattress. She had read it several times by now, but the story of the battle for Helen of Troy and the brave Achilles never got old to the inmate, and she often found herself picking it up during her cell downtime, to get lost in the age-old classic.


She barely had enough time to stash it, when Jaguar was suddenly standing there in her cell, invading her privacy and personal space. As her brain struggled to come up with fast snappy replies and comebacks, the Sicilian didn't even understand why her new teacher was here, and was just processing what she had babbled out about intimacy, when the other woman was suddenly kissing her, and rather roughly at that.


For a moment there, she started to fight her off, but she quickly remembered what Rinji had told her earlier and after a beat, found herself kissing Jaguar back, her arms circling her waist and pulling her hard against her. It had been months since she had last been with someone like this. The last time had been one of the new and more naive guards that would bring her her food trays. She had managed to slip into him mind, and mess around with the feelings he already had for her there, pushing him just to the max. The sex had been good, but short, cut off rather abruptly by the other guards pulling her away from him. She hadn't even bothered to find out his name before they had shipped him off to work another block.


The idea that this could all be a test, or even a trap was in the back of her mind as she moaned slightly, biting down on Jaguar's lower lip before snaking her tongue between them. If that's all that this was then she might as well enjoy herself. Deepening the kiss, she pushed her body up against the other woman's so that she had to back against the one wall of her cell, and as she broke the kiss to come up for air, she wondered where this was going to go.
 
Rinji has been sitting at her desk for perhaps a minute when Bailey passes by, but this is in her opinion more than enough time of sitting still. Standing up, she gives Bailey a wave and a smile, calling out to her.


"Hey Bay! What's up? Did you finish up with Jag? How did it go? Yeah, I know, confidentiality and all those big words, but you can give a thumbs up or thumbs down, right?"


Rinji is hardly an observant person, but even she can tell that Bailey looks strained, however, and she frowns, tilting her head. "I guess it's a thumbs down day? Even with that hot Mason guy?"


**


Jaguar didn't know what she had expected out of Jack, but it wasn't this. Given how Jack had tried to use sexually aggressive and suggestive posture and innuendos to get control over her situation in their initial meeting, and given that her core fear has already been identified as intimacy, Jaguar would think that the woman would fight her, or try to become an aggressor in their encounter. She would not be surprised if Jack jerked away and cursed her out, or even tried to hurt her.


But the woman isn't pulling back. Jack is kissing her, seeming to enjoy it...she's even wrapping her arms around her, making noises of enjoyment, and they don't seem to be feigned, as though she is trying to manipulate to get the upper hand again. And as Jaguar had hoped, she's pretty damn good at what she's doing. She hadn't lied about that much.


With most encounters such as these, Jaguar went in knowing exactly what she was doing, what she wanted to accomplish, both for herself and for the prisoner; she had no illusions of this. With most she would know what she intended to get out of it and how it would satisfy her, what emotions she was burying in the exchange. Even more closely she would know what the prisoner would get, what fears they might be facing, what positivity they could receive.


With Jack she was acting on impulse, out of a need she herself did not want to face or identify fully in the moment, and as for Jack's needs? They were not superior to her own, but rather only equal.


Pulling back briefly, panting just slightly as she caught her breath, she slid her hands up to Jack's face, looking deep into her eyes, and spoke to her subvocally, aware of Jack's heart beating as fast as her own.


Hush, Jack. Be silent. Be still. See who you are. Be what you see.


She allows her forehead to come forward, barely touching Jack's, and even as she cloaks her own thoughts from her, she lightly presses against the outer shield of Jack's, just enough to gauge her feelings. She digs slightly deeper, searching for any fears that might crop up, and as she does so leans forward to press her lips against Jack's, a distraction, yes, but also a comfort, a reassurance, a small measure of the intimacy she fears.
 
Bailey is just barely able to suppress the cringe at Rinji calling Mason "hot". To her, he is far from attractive, though she can understand why some might see him that way. There is a certain charm to him, one which, to Bailey, comes across as more threatening than sexy.


"Thumbs down, for sure." She answers, deciding not to divulge too much. "I crossed a line with Jaguar is all," she says carefully. "That's all, it's fine." She sits down and runs her fingers through her hair. "How's your day? Thumbs up or down?"
 
"Aw, thumbs down? That's too bad," Rinji frowned, crossing her leg in front of herself as she leaned back against her desk. "Was it a big thumb down or just a little thumb down? Or like a wavy thumb to the side like an okay thumbs down? Hm maybe not like that because it might look like you're hitching a ride. Or have that disease where you can't control your hands. Carpool tunnel or something....so why was it so bad?"


When she hears Bailey reference Jaguar understanding comes to Rinji's eyes, or at least she believes she understands, and she reaches to pat her shoulder sympathetically, giving her a smile. "Oh, Jag's cranky sometimes, isn't she? You just have to ignore it and do what you want anyway and she'll forgive you later. You know she loves you, she just doesn't know how things should go sometimes so you just have to show her! That's all. Like with prisoners. I can totally be friends with them, you just have to show her how it's okay. She's just too careful sometimes."
 
Jack was too into the sudden physical contact to even notice what was going on. Her body was still pressing against Jaguars, keeping the other woman against the wall of her cell, one hand having come up to dig into her hair as her lips still hungrily covered hers.


It was the hand against her cheek the slowly started to jerk her back down to reality, and as the kiss broke briefly, Jack could feel someone pushing against her thoughts briefly. It was soft really, the feeling almost not even there, but without the kiss to distract her, it was obvious to Jack what Jaguar had started to do.


She wanted her to see what she was? To be what she saw? Alright...


Jack was pissed...


As Jaguar kissed her again, she fought not to give in to the mind games, focusing on her own desires for a moment and returned the kiss, even allowing her tongue to snake between the other woman's lips, and slide against her own. When she was close enough, she caught her lower lip once more between her teeth, only instead of a gentle nibble, she bit down hard before shoving Jaguar roughly away from her.


"You stupid, pushy little tease!" she snarled, her eyes narrowing in anger. "Is this what you do? Dangle your body in front of us pent up cases to get into our heads. In my head? F*** that!"


Crossing her arms over her chest, she realized how hard she was breathing. God, she had actually wanted her, had wanted to see how far the good doctor would go...


"You need to get out..." she paused and shook her head, cheeks starting to flame as she looked away. "Just get the f*** out of my damn cell!"
 
Too careful. Pft.


Jaguar being too careful was hardly the problem with what happened in the cell with Mason, but, confidentiality is a thing that exists, so Bailey doesn't see the point in elaborating much further. The fact is that, if anyone can cheer her up at all, even with her short (and possibly short-lived) career here at The Eyes of Man, Bailey knows full well that it would be Rinji.


"I just crossed some hairs, is all." She says softly, a small smile tweaking at the corners of her lips. "And I think you mean carpel tunnel." She clears her throat and sits down, crossing her legs, "What about you? How has your day been so far?"
 
This was not going according to plan.


Not that there had been a plan. That was generally Jaguar's way; dive into things with little to no idea of what exactly she intended to do, and have confidence that somehow it would all work out as it should. But this is even more impulsive than her usual doings, because this one, ridiculous as it was, was more than business or pleasure. This was in part an attempt at validation for herself, proving something to herself that she still could not name, and so for Jack to reject it was difficult not to take responsibility for as a failure not only of her job, but of herself, in a sense.


She had expected Jack to resist. Hell, she would have thought she would have done so considerably earlier; this protesting and aggression is not a surprise. What is a surprise to her is that she actually has a flicker of an emotional response to it.


Still, she pushes it down, calming her breathing, trying to rid her skin of the flush she knows remains from Jack's touch as she looks back at her steadily, remaining as close as Jack will allow, even pushing her limits by stepping just one step closer. She doesn't try to invade her thoughts, but speaks with her voice, her tone even.


"What is it that is threatening about it, Jack? What I might see? Or what you might feel? How you might feel inside, or how you might feel towards me?"


**


"Crossed hairs? That doesn't make any sense. Crossing hairs isn't a bad thing, that's how you braid, after all," Rinji shrugs, but then brightens, as though something about this has dawned on her. "But Jag really doesn't like it if you play with her hair without asking her first. She says something about respecting her space or something weird like that. Hello, I'm not like right on top of her. We have at least several inches in between us. And her hair is pretty braided."


In response to Bailey's question about her day, Rinji, who is now sorting through chips to replace but is incorrectly alphabetizing half of them by labels, looks up at her with a smile, setting the last one as she says, "Good! Jack is really sweet, we hung out a while. You know what, do you want me to braid you hair? It would look pretty too."
 
"That's not what - " Bailey stops herself and manages a small shake of the head, smiling weakly. "Nevermind, it's not that important, I guess. I just kind of got on her bad side is all."


Despite her previous anxiety about what had happened between her and Jaguar, she can't help but feel a little better watching Rinji chatter away and organize the chips. When she mentions Jack, she raises her eyebrows, "Yeah? Did you guys talk about anything fun?"


At the question of whether or not she wants Rinji to braid her hair, she shakes her head and smiles again. "No, that's okay. Maybe sometime outside of work." Her smile broadens, riveted watching the girl avoid work at all costs and silently muses to herself how she even managed to get the job here. But it doesn't really matter, she's helping her far more than anyone else has so far since she started working here.
 
"On her bad side...hm, just give her a little of that weird space stuff she likes so much and she'll be better later," Rinji advised after a millisecond's consideration, reaching to give Bailey another pat on the shoulder and an encouraging smile. "You know Jag. She likes to be right and everything. And if she's wrong or not feeling good or something she doesn't want anyone to know, she's strange like that. Because how are you going to feel better if you don't tell anyone so they can help you out? So weird!"


She shakes her head, now tapping her sparkly pink nails on the desktop before lifting them and examining them. "No chipping still, I did a pretty good layer here...I should do your nails sometimes. Nails and braids, you'll be so hot Jag can't help but forgive you. She likes girls as much as guys, you know."


This offhand information is said so casually that she seems unaware that Jaguar might consider this rather personal. "I'd do Jag's hair too but we don't really hang out all that much, I don't know why. We totally should. And she won't let me do hair stuff at work either, which makes no sense because it's relaxing and she should totally relax more in this place...you know what she said when I said that though? She just laughed and said I was already the staff's human therapy dog and maybe I should be the one to stop working so hard. I don't know what she meant though. She says the weirdest things sometimes."


Now rummaging in her desk for a paper clip, she begins to bend it out of shape as she continues to say the first things that come to her mind. "Me and Jack, we just walked around linking arms and everything. She says she's not broken, so maybe Jag's already fixed her up. That would be cool...they'd be a good couple, don't you think? Her and Jag? They'd look pretty hot together. Her and that Mason guy too."
 
"I said to get the f*** out..." Jack said slowly, her voice deathly calm. She had to stop herself from shouting it, taking in deep, shaky breaths and slowly started to count backwards in her head, a trick one of her many nannies had taught her growing up as a child when she started to throw a tantrum. Sometimes it helped, kept her from doing something foolish...other times it just made things worse.


The more she thought about what had happened the more she wanted to hurt her. It was hard to not just give in, to go over and grab the other woman roughly by the shoulders and push her up against the wall again. She wanted to use sex to get into Jack's head? She had no idea just what a bad idea that could be...


God, she could still taste her...


Focusing on her teacher's face, she tried to press discretely into her mind, to see what had caused this little encounter in the first place. her thoughts were masked, but there was fear there, fear mixed with rage, and Jack couldn't figure out from what.


Swallowing hard again, she backed up away from Jaguar as far as her cell allowed and crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't want you in here...get out...GET OUT!" Her voice was slowly getting more high pitched, angrier even, and it took everything in her to not start yelling for a guard. She knew that would only end up getting her detained, and she was really looking forward to the possibility of seeing Rinji in the arena again the next day.


Finally, she let out a shaky sigh and ran her tongue against her lower lip, which had suddenly gone dry. "Please..."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 4 (members: 0, guests: 4)

Similar threads

Sora No Kami
A vicious dance with death (RP 1x1 based on the song "My R") TW: Self-loathing, Suicune
Replies
1
Views
200
Sora No Kami
Sora No Kami
Back
Top