1st Floor Rec Room, Saturday Afternoon

[unborn-renegade.livejournal.com]

Jak and being shut in didn't mix well. He had too much energy. Spending the whole morning indoors had made his fingers and his toes itch, by the time afternoon rolled around he was about ready to go JET-boarding out in the blizzard or something.

It was a very, very rare show of a sort of sense of self-preservation that led him to park his ass in the rec room instead, fire up the fireplace, and snag a handheld to play some racing games. It wasn't quite the same, but.

It'd have to do. Hey, at least it was charged.

[[ ooopen ]]

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[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah woke up from another long nap, no longer feeling quite as grated and jangled, and found that it was dark, cold, and boring. And if she spent another minute in her room, she was going to explode.

She started at the bottom of the dorms, looking for something to do, and blinked at Jak. "Hey," she said, wandering in, looking around with interest. "Cool. Something that escapes a power outage."

[unborn-renegade.livejournal.com]

Blink.

Oh.

Crap.

"You look better than what radio said."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was scrabbling for another hand-held, and looked up from the box. "Um? Oh, yeah." Sleeves covering all the scrapes and cuts on her arms helped. And Radio was something she was going to have to get caught up on, apparently. "I got banged up, but nothing broken. Ribs were the worst of it. I'll be fine." She pushed her hair behind her ear, and stared hard at the hand-held's screen. "Your mission must've gone fine. On Sunday."

[unborn-renegade.livejournal.com]

Jak shrugged. "Just busting up some cargo," he muttered. "Had a rescue last week." Of Lurkers.

Lurkers.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Really? From prison? Or something else?" At least he was willing to talk about it. Dinah tried not to look too interested, even though she was dying for info, and grumbled as she set off bombs on the hand-held. "Nuts."

[unborn-renegade.livejournal.com]

"Prison ships," Jak said, vaguely, and poked at his own consoles. "We got sent out to free some Lurkers."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah blinked. "Those gorilla guys you showed me?" She shook her head, confused. "Why?" She added hastily. "I'm just curious. Not critical."

[unborn-renegade.livejournal.com]

Jak shrugged. "They're slaves these days," he said, "And it got me a gun upgrade."

He was a simple guy, really, except for all the ways he wasn't these days.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Oh," Dinah said. At a loss as to how to take that, mostly. She looked away, fingers randomly stabbing at her GameBoy without looking at it. "For going after... right." Praxis. She rubbed her head, and scowled.

[unborn-renegade.livejournal.com]

"Every little bit helps."

Jak's car on the tiny PSP screen made a swerve to the right, neatly dodging an incoming missile.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Right." Dinah swallowed hard, watching that. "What are you going to do, after he's gone?"

[unborn-renegade.livejournal.com]

"I'll see about that when he's dead." Read: Jak didn't have a clue.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Which just gave Dinah that helpless feeling about Jak being safe that she was trying to stifle down again. She looked back at her Gameboy, remembering a lot of other times when they'd played video games.

"I'm sorry about Sandover," she said more quietly. Still not looking at him. "I wish you could go back." Maybe you would have something else to look forward to, then.

[unborn-renegade.livejournal.com]

"There's no going back."

Jak's thumb jabbed the 'shoot' button violently. A car exploded in a spectacular blast of fire.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. I know." Dinah winced as the little car on the screen exploded, and asked, "Dax still okay?" At least one person remained, didn't he? Always?

[unborn-renegade.livejournal.com]

"Yeah."

A long pause. "Dax is fine." He was probably down at the Hip Hog right now, chatting up Tess and getting his belly scratched in the usual theatre d'mildly disturbing. "He's survived Haven for a long time."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"That's good." Another week, another mission, another survival. Yay. Was this progress? Not arguing? At least she'd had a chance to say "sorry" about Sandover. Maybe in another couple weeks, she could ask him 'how are classes going?' and not feel so tense or confused about the answer. Maybe.

Dinah got up from the chair, and decided to take the Gameboy with her. "I'm heading back upstairs. See you. Later."

[unborn-renegade.livejournal.com]

Jak let her go.

Well.

He let her get up, at least, before he said, "Dinah?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yeah?" Don't sound so hopeful. Dinah turned a mostly-just-curious face to Jak, waiting.

[unborn-renegade.livejournal.com]

"How'd you get that banged up?"

Her words, yes.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Dinah winced, one hand going to her head as she did so, and grimaced. "Training accident, thanks to Azula. We were sparring, and she blew up a boulder-- lost control of the lightning before I could get clear." Fairness warred with annoyance, and evened out to, "She didn't mean to hurt me. Just being stupid."

[unborn-renegade.livejournal.com]

"Right."

He wasn't sure what, exactly, he could say on the topic. "Looks like it hurt." ...Except for that.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Ribs, head." Dinah held up her arms, contemplated the bandages. "Mostly like bad road rash on the arms, from the sand and rocks." She dropped them again, and said, "Griff got me to the clinic real fast. Simon said I'll be fine in a week."

Which was not no, it didn't hurt. Jak did his own kind of avoidance well enough to recognize it, probably.

[unborn-renegade.livejournal.com]

He needed to find Azula.

Maybe.

His own feelings were a little conflicted on the subject.

"So it did hurt and you're trying not to talk about it," he said, flatly. "Where's Azula?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

What? Dinah blinked and said, "I don't know, I haven't seen her since Thursday, I was too pissed off to talk to her after this." This was... nah. Jak had barely acknowledged their friendship since he got back, he wasn't going macho-protective now, was he? Dinah shook her head, thinking she needed a rest again. Wishful thinking? Un-wishful thinking, since it wouldn't help. "Simon gave me drugs, Karla gave me salves, I'm sleeping a lot. And yeah, it's embarrassing, a little, that I got caught unprepared." She shrugged, her fingers tightening on the Gameboy as she looked away. "Plus I'm still mad."

[unborn-renegade.livejournal.com]

A lot of extra information, which was... good? Not? Whatever. "I'll talk to her," is what Jak settled on, cutting to the point.

He'd been running on a nearly full tank of dark eco for over a week now; it was possible this was starting to fog up his judgement.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Uhhh..." Awkward. So, so, awkward. "You really don't have to, Jak. But thanks?"

[unborn-renegade.livejournal.com]

"Don't mention it."

Game Over. Continue?

He smashed the button that would lead him to the place where there was more to blow up. Probably not much life left on the battery.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah left, feeling vaguely disturbed, and like she should say something else.

But then she usually felt like that around Jak these days, she concluded, climbing the stairs.