epidemiology | EVENT ★ GILLIGAN'S ISLAND

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EVENT ★ GILLIGAN'S ISLAND

MAROONED

Three days after the eruptions wrecked their havoc, a storm begins. It's not so different from the storm the recruits first encountered upon arrival, but this storm seems oddly and peculiarly driven. In some places of the islands it's nothing but pattering rain, but in other places it's strong enough to lift a fully grown human off his or her feet. And that's just what it does. It sweeps up recruits here and there -- not all of them, and there is no apparent method to who it takes and who it leaves. Some stay on the Nalawi islands, some are simply swept up into the sky. Here and there the storm grabs a Nalawi as well, but these victims are always dropped again. Sometimes out over the water, sometimes crashing down into land. They do not generally survive this.

The recruits stolen by the storm aren't aloft for long. They emerge eventually from the tumbling, buffeting, blinding winds, spewed out onto the beach of a strange new island. This island, to anyone paying any attention to their surroundings, is a recent addition to the surface of the ocean. In fact, flying in the face of physics and statistical likelihood (much in the way the storm had), it seems to have recently been on the seafloor.

This island was clearly once inhabited, although it's been a long, long time since then. Uniform structures can be found arranged in streets and avenues, now all thoroughly caked in barnacles, coral, seaweed, and other assorted debris of the sea. Here and there can even be found dead fish, suffocated when the water began to drain away and turn to open air. Most of them are horrifying, the things that tend to keep to the dark depths of the water. Toward the center of this empty, silent, sea-claimed city a giant sea serpent threads around and through several buildings. It's just as dead as the rest of them, its huge, pale eyes staring at nothing.

There are a few things here that aren't quite dead, though. Sometimes something armored, dull red, and hungry crawls out of some dark place. These creatures can't really be compared to anything on the surface, but they are each about the length of a human, with three sets of sharpened limbs held up off the ground, used for stabbing forward to pierce its prey, and one set of pinchers below that. The pinchers might anchor prey in place for easier stabbing, but they also create a tiny sonic boom when clacked. Standing too close to this can leave you dazed and momentarily helpless. These creatures aren't fazed by the lack of water around them, they're just hungry and ready to feed on anything nearby -- even each other. The danger they present to recruits is at least slightly mitigated by an unknown force, though. If a recruit finds themselves unable to handle one of the creatures or overwhelmed by it, the storm itself will lash out at the thing. This isn't a very precise defense, but it is generally enough to pick up one or both of the contestants and separate them.

Nothing here looks anything like what can be found on the Nalawi islands, except perhaps the flora. It's difficult to tell. What trees have been left are waterlogged, petrified mockeries, it's unclear what they may have looked like while this island still lived. The buildings are all very inorganic, made of processed material and with the obvious aid of machinery. Whoever lived here was actually very proficient with machinery, it seems. Within the buildings, some residential and some commercial, can be found the rusted, now-useless remains of a technologically advanced society. Personal belongings can also be found, waterlogged and largely ruined, and all in an upset as if they had gone through frequent and destructive earthquakes. Still, they can tell the story of mundane, day-to-day lives here for anyone who cares to look.

Food is going to be a little tricky to come by unless you're a fan of seafood; fishing will be possible for anyone who opts to brave the edge of the storm, and of course there are the bizarre delicacies so thoughtfully raised up from the seafloor, dead among the streets and buildings. Recruits would do well to be careful with those, though. There is a particular kind of seaweed that, while it looks perfectly innocuous, will cause vivid hallucinations an hour after ingesting, for 10 minutes to three hours, depending on how much was ingested.

Above all else, though, is the eerie silence. The storm rages on, but although it completely surrounds the island, it keeps to the perimeter. Even the rain stays off of the island, though the sun is obscured by the heavy, ominous clouds. Thunder rumbles now and then, punctuated by lightning flashes, but there isn't a single sound on this gray, dreary, dead island that wasn't made by an ALASTAIR recruit.

OOC INFO

Recruits will ICly be here for one week, and OOCly the log will last for two. The storm will prevent any travel off of the island. Should anyone feel brave enough to try risking a trip into it, they will find it still possesses that ability to literally sweep recruits off their feet. It might also be due to this mysterious storm that no one on the island can seem to reach out to anyone on the Nalawi islands via jewelry network, nor to any of the NPC recruits they'd met at Oska.

Players who signed up for plot slots will be receiving additional information, which we ask they share with the rest of the characters. You may sign up here for information that can be found while exploring the island, as well. Please direct any questions to the OOC write up.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[You fought for this Rin, don't get shy now. He wouldn't let her put a knife to his throat or anything, but he has just enough chill to let her take a look at an injury without feeling the need to do more than watch for funny business. If it hurts to move, he doesn't much let on, yet. Just stops to listen, steady and sharp and unruffled when she snaps at him. There is no irony in his tone when he asks for a clarification.]

In the storm?

[Incisive, as if to be sure before he lets it drop. (Like there's a worst case scenario here that he's seen often enough to be wary of.) It's a subtle serious and watchful shift in his demeanor that she hasn't seen before, save for maybe in the seconds before he rebuffed her when they last parted. This is not quite Jason Todd the public face, the irreverent ALASTAIR asshole. It's a little more of Jason Todd the vigilante, weighing the what ifs and the evidences and the risks of ambivalence against biases against pressing for more. He might not look it, but he might just be the last person on the island to jump to leering or jeering about that sort of thing. He's always been quickest to outrage on behalf of those that life and law doesn't always favor or protect. And growing up in a place like Gotham, that was more common than most people liked to let themselves admit. Seeing that go on and on uncontested and unavenged had burned bitterness into him long before he'd hung up his boy wonder cape for good.

He buys it. It makes the most sense, considering. But he asks, anyway.]

[surprisingly, she doesn't grill him for it. instantly, meeting his eyes evenly and seriously—in fact, perhaps it's as if the whole atmosphere between them sobered up a few degrees—rin appears to have understood what he's implying loud and clear. and there's no freaking out. no screeching. she's not pushing him away with her glare, but this likewise doesn't fit with whatever he's seen of her. she grew up in a world where unfortunate actions against women are not only allowed, but for rin, in many instances assumed to be so commonplace to be something she has to be able to fight off. it's life. it's the standard.

it wasn't that long ago that gilgamesh had her pressed to a building with a bruising kiss.

still, she doesn't expect this line of questioning from him—in what situation would it fit, really?—and it... has a greater impact than she shows. she had suspected it before, of course, but what if he was a good guy who was slightly rough around the edges? what if he had hard morals he was set to? in either case, he would earn rin's appreciation.

it isn't most guys that would ask something like that. jason sticks out. she'll store it away and remember it.

but she doesn't want him to look at her how he is now, if only for his sake, so she speaks up.]

... Yeah. [her voice is level enough to be believable, expressive enough to let him in on her emotions about it. this is a girl who lost her skirt in the wind, and that's all, and she isn't happy about it.] I was wearing it, the wind swept me up, and somehow when I hit ground again it was gone.

[for good measure, and now talking mainly to his leg:]

I could defend myself if anything else had happened.

[she ventures to brush fingertips at his pants, or whatever it is he's wearing, that's covering his leg. now she's stammering again. now she's a little nervous. it's back to normal for her.]

I have to... touch you, skin to skin. Is that okay?

[It's standard in too many places. For too many people with no power or no voice. Too many dirtbags and users and abusers escaping punishment through loopholes, lies, connections and buys. Or just apathy, ignorance. That's not justice. That's a broken system. He watches her answer, level and sharp, even after she looks away.]

Never said you couldn't.

[Never about that. But he lets the subject die there without another word. He isn't a good person anymore, not really, and he'll cop to that fact pretty easily. Good people don't do the kinds of things he does. (Which is why the world needs someone like him to do them in the first place.)

But, apparently satisfied enough by her answer, he leans back a little on the legs of his chair. Despite the general motorcycle jacket getup at first glance, he's wearing tactical gear underneath, once she gets a better look. Dark denim for blending in at night. Scuffed boots made for walking silently in varied terrain. More confidently than he really should, considering the constant low burn of pain even when undisturbed—]

Don't look so nervous, Doc, I'm not made of glass. Pretty sure you can't make it all that much worse if you tried.

[The irreverence bleeds back into his voice when he answers, but the argumentative edge to it has eased, a little. You've got this far. Do your worst.]

[she's grateful for the vote of confidence.]

Bear with me. This is probably going to get weird.

[rin replies next on a huff of a breath, seemingly sucking in her courage with the inhale. her fingers delicately work to roll up the material of his pant leg, almost as if she really was a doctor. it will be weird, she means, if he hasn't seen magic before—and there's no actual reason to think that he has, aside from that pesky suggestion in the back of her mind that there's something off, something weird about him, too.

she's red. she's not a coward and she's not seriously attracted to jason's snazzy motorcycle rider style or anything (that she'll admit), but she's still a healthy young woman tending to a well-muscled young man around her own age.

he didn't lie about the gravity of his injury. she takes in the swelling, eyes the shoddy brace, and inwardly winces at the pain it must be causing him. that sort of pushes away everything else, and pretty soon the soft palm of her hand is resting against his leg, just above wherever the splint would start.

and it starts glowing. beneath her hand, something is glowing.

he'll no doubt feel his leg react to it. it's the faint pulse of energy rousing to attention and moving underneath his skin; it's not painful, but the sensation of something like blood being re-situated along the length of his injury is a dull thrum.]

There's a lot of compression.

[no duh.]

[People seem to be pretty low on parlor tricks, lately. So despite the vague warning, he wasn't anticipating anything more magical than your run of the mill field patch when she goes to take a look. But he can feel it as soon as it starts, some invasive alien kind of energy seeping into his blood. And he sure as hell doesn't like it. (In no small part because it's actually not entirely unfamiliar an experience or a concept as it could be. Just not a particularly pleasant one.) It takes all of a split second for him to tense up and jerk away, sitting up straighter as he gets both feet back on the ground, hands snapping up like he's going to use them. He stops himself short of standing up or lashing out, but the reflex is there, sitting just under his skin.

The sudden movement gets a hell of a protest from the injury, and this time it shows. The blood's gone out of his face, but his eyes go harder. He sucks air in through his teeth, fingers curling at his sides, jaw locked.]

Thought there was a premium going on superpowers these days.

[Terse, and not just because it hurt like hell. Not because he hasn't seen weirder, either.]

[she told you to bear with her, jason, not lose it. rin reacts quickly, but barely, and his heavy leg pulled from her lap more than sends her off-balance. she flattens down her leaf skirt out of instinct before she senses the oncoming threat of an attack, and then she's bowed back in self-defense in her chair, arms blocking her body because she knows she isn't really strong enough to fight with her magic this weak. he'll notice her eyes are now as alien in appearance as her spell had felt; an electric blue brighter than their natural hue ripples and swirls within them like the gentle flow of a pool of water.

and yet they're expressive, and they convey an important tell: fear.

she's confused and offended and slightly startled.]

What are you going to do?

[is she asking about that reflexive response of his, or, more literally, about what he plans to do after he's tugged his leg back to him, and he's in obvious pain? shocked as she is, rin commands her voice to be level. she sort of suspects it, now. many unlikely "patients" might recoil at unfamiliar magic, but most of them don't react ready to strike.]

It's my magic. It won't hurt you...! I promise it won't hurt you. I have to be careful with what I have left, so you can't be interrupting it like that! Please, just trust me. Trust me for something small like this.

[she's oddly persistent about helping him. but, maybe there's a reason for that? she fans her hands out, subtly apologizing and trying to communicate she's harmless in one fell swoop.]

If you don't believe me that it won't hurt you, look for yourself. You're fine. The magic guides your own body's healing process. ... Just let me do this.

Edited (a few wording things (sorry, i had computer issues... :c)) 2016-05-17 06:25 (UTC)

[Don't worry, when he loses it, you'll know. He's clamping down hard on his rabbiting pulse and the spike of adrenaline alarm she'd summoned up by surprising him. This is not an entirely rational reaction to someone trying to do something nice for you. And he gets it, logically, but blindsiding Bats goes badly on a good day, and Jason Todd isn't a particularly stellar model of stability by any standard.

(He'd been pushed into the Pit without his say-so. And he doesn't hold it against Talia in the least—she'd risked a hell of a lot to make it happen, and he'd still be as good as dead if she didn't—but that particular "magic" is not nice. It sticks with you, because nothing like that comes easy. The Lazarus Pit will bring you back from the brink of death good as new, make you functionally immortal if you play your cards right. But there'd been side effects. A terrible acid green thing like madness at the bottom of his breath for days, sitting behind his eyes, seeping into his bones. And some days he thinks it's impossible to know if it had gone away or if he'd just gotten used to it.)

He backs down by inches, but he doesn't look a lot less agitated. Nothing. He's not doing anything, he doesn't like her looking at him that way. It makes him sick, and angry, and it makes him feel like an asshole, and that makes him even angrier. He wants to tell her to get the fuck away from him if she knows what the hell is good for her.

Instead he bites his tongue and closes his eyes and pries his fingers out of fists. Clenches his jaw and scrubs his hands over his face and rakes them through his hair. It's not that he doesn't believe her. Healing isn't a trick that's unique to the Lazarus Pit by a long shot. It's more a matter of choice, and space, and shattered trust, and not getting played again. Of being in control of his own life again.

He looks back at her squarely, if not steadily.]

You're trying awful hard to do me a favor.

[It comes out pretty accusingly. It's downright suspicious, at this point. Doesn't take the world's greatest detective to point out the dozen reasons Rin has to ditch him here and now and save the dregs of her power for a better cause.]

Edited 2016-05-17 08:30 (UTC)

[she watches him carefully, and finally, she chokes down her initial astonishment, striving for a relaxed atmosphere. that's easier said than done, but no one ever labeled rin a quitter. she takes him in and she holds his stare—unsteady though it may be—and she bites her bottom lip, appearing more ashamed of herself than anything.

damn it. she always messes up at the critical moment. of course he'd freak out if he had some... bad history that made him do this, and it's really not his fault her first attempt went so badly, it's hers.

—well, she can't be moping about it forever. mistakes are mistakes. what's important is that she does a lot better from here, and she's convinced she's capable of it. rin sucks in a calm, slow, deep breath, composing herself. she rests her hands back on her lap and it might be clear she's ready for him again, at any time, if he does bother to trust her for what to her is such a small thing.

rin doesn't waver when she admits it—even if her voice is quieter, like other recruits were eavesdropping behind the door and she didn't want them to hear her. this is just for jason, but it's the truth.

little does he realize, he chooses the exact words very accurately. it is a "favor"; this is about favors. not entirely, because she would help him despite it, but she wants to pay him back.]

That's because you helped me. I owe you one, and I don't like being in someone's debt for too long. It's not a habit of mine. It complicates things if you did something kind for me and I never do anything in return, you know?

[yeah, whatever, rin. your stupid favor bullshit makes sense to no one but you most of the time.

it isn't the full story. if he needles her for it, she would recount it on her own, still... she was cruel to him. it wasn't her place to assault him with those questions (who hurt you? what happened to you?) without even knowing his name. she won't bring them up again right now, for obvious reasons. musing on her limited experience of his injury, she also provides,]

It's broken. All I'm going to do is cut down the swelling and set it up properly. It's not something I can just abide by, to leave you like this.

[with the determination to her, that's a crime that equally conflicts with her morals.]

Edited (changed some words) 2016-05-17 19:35 (UTC)

[Broken. Great. Peachy. Putting that aside for the moment, he takes a breath to settle and weighs the sincerity of her answer when she cops to it. A lot of the lingering tension comes because he very much doesn't like feeling like she's trying to pull one over on him, and that takes priority. She's obviously got a motive. The best thing she can do right now is be straight with him about what it is.

He still doesn't really get her. It takes him a beat to figure out what the hell she might be referring to at all. Clearly, they both remember that night a little differently.]

"Do unto others," huh? [That's cute.] You've got some pretty loose standards for kindness. You ought to save your gratitude for people who deserve it.

[Friendly advice. Bend over backwards for every shady guy who halfasses an escort and you'll be racking up debts for days. To people who haven't earned it at best, who'd take advantage of it at worst. That's a pretty risky philosophy.]

[it's not so much trying to fool him, as it is rin being clumsy and barreling ahead in a rough situation before everything she should consider catches up with her. she would be sitting here even if that night hadn't happened.

but it's true the fact that she thinks he did her a "favor"—however awkwardly—plays into a large part of that obligation.

she replies a bit too viciously to the quote.]

I didn't take anything from any damned Bible, don't insult me. [someone has something against... religion? christianity? catholicism? (the answer is "priests".) if calling a holy book damned earns her a place in hell, she doesn't seem concerned by it.

rin straightens up and her shoulders lift when she bristles at him.]

Don't say it's "loose", either. I just told you I don't make it a habit. [here goes.] I could have passed out, or really ruined that celebration if you hadn't... taken my drink away from me. So, thanks, all right?

[well, it definitely is that night she's referring to—there's no doubt, now. as far as "not deserving her gratitude", it would be hard to convince rin she's made a bad choice. jason's rough around the edges, but he also spent the time to ask her about her skirt. he did take her drink from her. he did lead her away, and he walked off without truly escorting her back to her room, but he left her like that.

if he's a terrible man, she thinks she would gamble. because everything so far has mostly proven to her that he's safe enough.]

[His brows hike up toward his hairline at her vehemence. He's not scandalized. Jason gave up on god for good (in this particular universe) a long time before he played Lazarus in his own right. But that's not a casual level of offense, either.

He doesn't ask. Other fish to fry. It's not the most convincing justification—not his best heroing, lets be real—but it's actually easier to accept, this way, than having her try to convince him she's doing this out of pure altruism, or (false) affection. Or pity. They're still strangers. And he never liked being a charity case.

And from a strictly practical standpoint—he certainly can't afford the broken ankle, right now. So. Terms.]

Don't spring the voodoo on me again unless I know it's comin'. I'm not a big fan of surprises.

[Clearly. He's not all that against magic or superpowers or whatever they are as a rule, and he wouldn't always react so explosively. But it's invasive in its own way, and he knows what kinds of varied impossible things superpowered people can do. The only defense people like Jason have against that is being prepared. No matter how normal or small it is to her, he has every right to be wary.

After a beat—]

This makes us square. Got it?

[No more debts.]

[that's an awful lot of assumptions to pile up on someone who simply wants to help you, jason. but she's realized by now that he's a prickly case, and she's going to have to handle everything by leaping those extra steps forward to make him comfortable with it.]

Yeah.

[no complaints on her end. the regality of her tone would almost imply of course we'll be even, my time isn't to be wasted. it's fair, what he requests of her, and she figures he's finally stating what he needs out in the open, so she sees no reason not to embrace it.]

I'll tell you what I'm doing and why every step of the way.

[now that they're really supposed to be all square and settled, though, rin can't avoid it; her conscience would eat her up if she didn't reveal it. she turns her neck as if to hide her face, but her voice, shaky and nervous and soft, should prove again that she's being genuine with him. why else would she have a reason to put herself through this?

he must be beginning to understand she doesn't like appearing at anything but her best.]

But I have to say something first. You probably don't remember [that's a laugh. they're both the types to remember it.], or maybe you tried to forget about it like you have every right to, but I'm sorry for what I said to you before you walked away.

[a moment of silence hangs in the air.]

It wasn't my place.

Edited (wrong word...) 2016-05-18 05:11 (UTC)

[Gotta consider all the angles, you know how it is.

And just when they seemed to have squared themselves away, she goes and does that. He remembers. He wasn't planning on validating it by bringing it up, but she beats him to it. He doesn't move save to tighten his jaw, the silence stretches a second too long before he answers. But his response is carefully dry.]

Well, drunks do say the darndest things.

[As if he's letting her off the hook for making the wrong assumption. It doesn't invite talking about, because he doesn't at all intend on letting the conversation continue in that direction, today. It isn't her place, and it isn't her business, and he isn't going to spill his guts for a pretty face and a bit of first aid. It doesn't have anything to do with anyone here at all.]

I'm not a drunk.

[rin retorts, and her eyes flash briefly in an anger that could only be irritation. obviously she's not if she doesn't make it a habit to get drunk, but it's the principle of the thing. with that, from her direction, the mood effectively lightens.

he doesn't "forgive" her and she notes that, although she wasn't expecting it. okay. that will do. she's not in the pattern of denying her gut feelings about something, what her instinct tells her—because it's never steered her wrong before. she saw something in his eyes, then, she thinks, even if she was drunk, but she can push it away and act like none of it matters.

it doesn't. when did she become so concerned about another person's sob story? (she's always too compassionate for it to fit with the attitude she shows off.)

rin pats her lap. second time's the charm.]

Anyway, let's try this again. Relax, and trust me. I'm your teammate. I'm not going to screw you over.

Edited (deleted a sentence) 2016-05-18 12:08 (UTC)

[Past Rin's blood alcohol content has something to say about that protest. Her indignation works out. Letting her work her mojo is still edging out of his preferred comfort zone, but needs must, so Jason's more than happy to let the conversation slip back into more neutral territory while she does it.

Eventually, he exhales, then rewards her with an exaggerated grimace before he obliges and lifts his foot back into her lap. He's paying for the back-and-forth and the stress he's put on it with a constant and crisp ache creeping further and sharper into his nerves. It doesn't do much for his mood, either.]

Yeah, we're one big happy family.

[Isn't that a joke. Jason's not much of a team player, nowadays. But anyone who thinks their little crew is much of a team in the first place just hasn't been paying attention.]

[that's the whole point. they're not a team, not yet, but the only way they'll become a team is by people believing they're one.

jason is acting like the biggest whiny baby, to her. disgraceful. even so, rin holds her tongue, shaking her head to briefly shift her hair out of place—all his attitude means is she'll just have to make him eat his words. as soon as his foot is settled, her hands gently slip back into their former spots around his ankle, and she keeps her end of her promise when she warns him,]

... It will be the same as it was, to start. [sure enough, the same thrum of magic and energy rises to life with a dull tremor; her eyes adopt that swirling-watery quality to them. the glow is secondary, and right between her fingers wrapped around his leg.] All I'm doing is guiding everything to establish a better flow. That means I'm moving blood and any excess from the swelling—to be reabsorbed, or to help out more efficiently in easing the damage.

[she's no doctor, though.]

What I'm really looking for is just to feel your energy run smoothly.

[Good on her word, she explains what she's doing before she gets to doing it. It's interesting, in the way that superpowers are always kind of interesting, even after you've seen them again and again. Defying the usual definition of humanly possible. (Hell, if she's even human at all. He's not a xenophobe.) He actually liked that about the Titans, in his very short tenure. Watching the likes of Donna Troy or Raven do what he can't. Learning ways to match himself against it. Work with it. (Like a team. So much for that.) He doesn't deal in metas very often, these days. Until ALASTAIR picked him up.

Whatever she's doing, it doesn't hurt exactly, not in a way that can be any worse than the low-key agony it's set in with already. But it puts his teeth on edge. Like biting down on tin foil.]

Sounds real zen. [He closes his eyes for a few seconds while he tries to make sense of it. His blood is humming distractingly. The whole thing kind of kicks back at how wired and tense and on he still is, all the time. Smoothly is easier said than done, because nothing about Jason Todd runs smooth. He puts up a good front when he's trying, moves without a hitch in a fight, but it's not hard to poke holes in it once you know how to look. He is broken glass and bitter coals, feedback loops full of jagged edges and coiled knots.] Do I need to think happy thoughts? Find my center?

[Is he even serious, it's hard to tell.]

Edited (don't stifle me spellcheck) 2016-05-20 22:10 (UTC)

[rin, in contrast, seems to loosen up the longer they linger here, just like this. her hands shift and at first it would appear there's no purpose to it, if not for the fact that the unnatural feeling follows along with them—it heightens, but his ankle is lighter—she's performing something delicate enough to be surgery beneath the surface, but with a skilled reassurance behind it that doesn't brook any doubt.]

You don't need to do anything. Sit back and relax. Don't guys eat up stuff like this? —I guess not you, you're a jerk.

[it's not a sharp reply. it's direct, but she's pretty clearly lost her fangs. could it be... a joke? maybe?]

I'm the one who has my work cut out for me. With someone like you, it's easier said than done.

[another matter-of-fact jab that almost, almost has a hint of good-natured sarcasm to it. she's not here to make him feel worse (regardless of what his opinion might be). surely if he can dish it out, he's able to take it.

a simple contact spell wouldn't reveal everything about him through this nebulous "energy" she's shaping, but it doesn't require genius to know jason's pent-up. rin pauses. her lips part and she thinks better on it, then a cooling rush like snowflakes drifting down on skin travels in time with her voice, dulling frayed nerves without leaving them absent the sensation anyone needs to get by.]

I'll numb it so you won't be in pain.

Edited (phrasing stuff, saw something hours later...) 2016-05-21 02:09 (UTC)

[Yeah, that's him. Grade A jerk material. He doesn't want to distract her, but letting things fall into silence doesn't sit as well, either. She's feeling chatty, anyway, it seems. He answers like a reflex.]

It is the first date. Wouldn't want a reputation of being easy.

[Second, if they count the aborted walk after the party. (The conversation at Oska probably doesn't count.) This is very clearly not a sincere answer. He lifts his eyes back to her hands when things get weird again, narrowed but a fraction less suspiciously. He stays put, this time, but—]

Don't go out of your way.

[This is partly ironic—she's gone out of her way by miles, at this point, and she's explained herself. (Sort of.) Partly a push to get on with it. He can deal, and the sooner it's over with the better. If she burns out trying to make him feel better instead of actually fixing him up it won't do either of them any good.]

[she knows that. she's been working her magic on him all along with the understanding she would have to go about it slowly, carefully, and without an ounce of waste. her planning is directed so far ahead that even if her magical energy cut out on her completely, there's still enough of it shared between them for her to set the bones, the final step.

but he's right. logically, practically, rin has no reason to fix the break and add all the bells and whistles of the luxury of magical anesthesia. the numbing continues anyway. in the next minute or two, any remaining twinges of pain from his ankle will have disappeared, and stay disappeared.]

Can it. I told you before it's not something I can do, to just leave you like this. [she speaks distractedly, in a tone that's quiet and maybe out of place in how tender it is, and what could sound something like her scolding him is instead more a request for him to just accept it. please. at the end, though, she does make a soft "pfff" underneath her breath, like his ridiculousness never ceases to amaze.] If this is your idea of a date, I don't know whether to feel sorry for you or teach you better. Pickings are already terrible around here.

If you think I'm "going out of my way", take me out to a nice restaurant sometime.

[she's well aware all of it—asking him to let her do so much for him—is a weak argument. if they were ever really even to begin with, jason wouldn't be wrong to guess she's giving him far more than what his favor was due. but wasn't that true from the beginning, for a guy who stuck a gun in her face? she's just a nice girl. kind of. it's not sympathy, it's what she feels is right. she can "owe" him, but he'll never "owe" her, for this.]

[It's certainly been revealing, in some respects. She'd have to be a nice girl. To offer at all, let alone insist past him being difficult about it. Of course, telling him to "can it" only encourages him. (Regret going the extra mile, yet?) But given he's not at all comfortable with the whole magic process or the concept of letting her get too close or accepting (or needing) handouts from near-strangers with fuzzy motives, he's more than willing to drive the conversation a little farther away from the topic while they get it over with.]

I don't know, I hear a little danger really gets the blood pumping.

[But considering his shortlist of teenaged crushes involved Barbara "Batgirl" Gordon and Donna "Wonder Girl" Troy, he's probably not the best person to ask. He sort of missed out on prime high school dating window by virtue of missing most of high school.]

Besides, seems like all they're serving up around here are sushi plates and tetanus risks.

[Full up on rust and dead sealife here on Gilliagan's Island. Very romantic.]

[she's happy to embrace that. rin's almost finished, by now, and it's only a matter of ensuring the groundwork she's laid is strong and defensible. this is taxing for a magus of her level with no real specialty in healing, but she grins and bears it. she's learning a lot about jason, too. despite how tense he is, her magic is causing things to run better.

it just goes to show her she's still amazing. jason todd will get what's coming to him. (by having his injury dramatically healed, but...)

her jaw is clenched tight, having worked through a difficult part, but her lips curl into a sly smirk at his quips. she's amused.]

You're always one step away from danger when you're dealing with me.

[at least she's honest???]

We'll be off of this island and finished with this godforsaken mission soon.

[her smirk smooths into more of a smile, then—and she could fuss about it, throw a mini-fit in her irritation and worry about a toss-up between being just plain forgetful or stupid, forgetting manners, but... she decides to go with it. turning to him,]

My name is Rin, by the way.

[He hadn't forgotten, and he isn't stupid. He's just cagey and not particularly concerned with making friends around the crew. Hasn't made pains to put up an alias, but doesn't go around introducing himself to everyone on the crew. Matters even less, now that ALASTIAR's gone and given them a handy magic directory that spills the beans anyway. Annoying, but manageable. No one here knows who Jason Todd is. (Was. Or that he's supposed to be six feet under in the Wayne Family plot back in Gotham.) Red Hood is a persona that he'd been picked up before he could put to use. (And Robin stopped being an option a long time ago.)

So, after a beat—]

Jason.

Jason?

[rin raises her eyebrows. she was expecting a western name, but this one is interesting to her, for some reason.]

—Well, it does suit you.

[even if it was an alias, she would never think of him using that.]

[He cocks a brow. That's funny.]

Is that right?

[If you say so. Hadn't really thought about it. (Definitely not when he was growing up. "Jason" was no one. It wasn't until he started being Robin that he started feeling like he could really do something more than just get by for another day. Fix what was broken in Gotham. And what a load of lies all that turned out to be.)]

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tw: slight mentions of violence

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