prodigaljaybird | (no subject)

It's strange to be outside again after so long spent indoors; first the endless dark of Rapture, and then the shuttered quiet of his own bedroom. He's seen the sunlight in bits and snatches, trickles through the slatted walls of the hut and shining through the door, but no more than that.

It feels good. Warm on his face when Jason tips it skyward, comforting. It feels good to know that in spite of the whole world ending, the sun and sky, the trees, the island is still here.

And going on as normal, if the sounds that greet Jason as he shuffles down the boardwalk are any indication. That feels good, too, and Jason feels better for every step he takes. In many ways, he feels like he's been ill, like it was a fever that's kept him indoors and not his own insurmountable dread. He feels raw and worn out, too hollow, but under the sun again...Bucky was right. He feels better.

He has no aim for where he's walking. There are faces he wants to see, but even now, he's afraid to seek them out. What will they say to him, what have they heard, or worse, what if they didn't care to notice he was gone?

The familiar hurt turns in Jason's stomach, and he takes the path not to the Compound, but down to Robin's Gym. Outside of class, the place is like a graveyard, but the wooden structures are familiar and sunlit. As ever when he's here alone, Jason thinks of Tim, and he smiles a little. "Way to miss the fireworks, little brother."

[ooc: wide open to familiar faces~ find him at Robin's Gym or on the way there]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He'd been so caught up in Teddy being back, that for the first few days (where he'd skipped a few classes himself), Billy hadn't even noticed Jason wasn't around. Not until he'd been informed that Jason was hiding out, that something was going on with him down in Rapture. After seeing the bruises all over Teddy from his run-in down in Rapture, the very thought of the city makes his stomach turn.

He hasn't gone seeking Jason out yet, mostly because he's not sure he's wanted yet. But Billy spots him ducking off the path, and he speeds up to catch up to Jason before he loses him in the trees. "Jason!"

Too tired to jump at the sudden shout, Jason turns, smiling faintly at the sight of Billy coming down the path. Natalia had mentioned something about a different boyfriend arriving, and with no small amount of relief. Despite his sudden rush of nerves, Jason looks forward to discovering what all that's about, though he thinks he knows where her relief came from. Billy's last boyfriend was a douche.

"Hey," he calls back, pausing.

"Hey, stranger," Billy says as he closes the distance, grinning as he catches his breath. It's good to see Jason's face, tired as he looks. "Kinda missed seeing you around. You okay?"

"Yeah," Jason replies without embellishment. Okay is probably as much as he should hope for today, but still, he feels better for Billy's grin. "I got - there were too many people here from home all the sudden, you know?" he asks, then shakes his head, because of course Billy won't see it that way. The ones he has from home are glad to see him. "I heard your boyfriend came."

Billy knows just enough about Jason to know that having people from home show up isn't the best thing for him, and he doesn't blame him for the disappearing act.

"Yeah, he did," he says, grinning. "He's been here just about a week and a half. We're still adjusting." Billy almost feels like a bad person for being so pleased Teddy's finally here when Jason had spent a week in Rapture to escape. But he figures Jason has better people to talk to, if he even wants to.

"Cool," says Jason, able to muster a real smile for that, if a small one. "I wanna meet him. Is he the..." Lifting his hand, he motions towards Billy's ears. "That time you were caught. Teddy?"

Billy mirrors Jason's motion without meaning to, trying not to think about the pain and horror that memory threatens to flood him with. He'd almost forgotten he'd told Jason about it, that entire night still a haze.

"Yeah, that was him. He showed up in Rapture."

Jason watches the misery flash over Billy's features, would feel worse for it if his own stomach could stop rolling. Showed up in Rapture. "He must've come in right before it closed," he says. "Before my dad."

"Yeah, just a couple days before," Billy confirms. He remembers hearing about everything, but so caught up in Teddy and everything between them, he hadn't realized just how big a deal Jason disappearing into Rapture had been. "So...your dad, huh?"

It occurs to Billy that he may, at some point, actually get to meet Batman.

Jason nods, head hung low as he shuffles along. Even now, he feels his heart stutter for every flutter of movement ahead or behind them. It's humiliating enough to share the island with his father; to have to face him with a friend at his side...Jason can't stomach it.

"Did you get along with yours?" he asks. "Back when you were home?"

"I did," Billy answers, knowing he's luckier than most, even among the Young Avengers alone. So many lost parents, no wonder they'd all been driven to a different sort of life. "I have the best parents. But I kinda also have a second set of parents, if you believe in the whole...magic and reincarnated souls thing. So my birth dad's a robot."

Edited 2011-11-26 23:35 (UTC)

Jason barks out a startled laugh. "What the hell does that mean?" He gets the second set, he's been through a couple sets of his own, after all, but a robot?

"Right?" Master Pandemonium had told them the story, and as much as Billy believes it, he still has trouble with some aspects of it. "My mom was a much more powerful witch than I am, and she was in love with another Avenger called the Vision, who was a robot. She really wanted kids, but since they obviously couldn't have any, she kinda...created me and my twin brother."

Out of shards of a demon's soul, but Billy isn't really keen on admitting that part.

Aware of how ridiculous he sounds, Billy holds up a hand, three fingers in the air. "Scout's honor, that's the truth. At least, that's the story I was told, and I believe it."

"Wow," exhales Jason, but he expresses no disbelief. It's a wild story, crazier than anything he's yet seen on the island, but it's familiar. Their homeworlds feel more similar than ever.

"So I'm a zombie, and you're a spell," he grins. "That's pretty cool."

"We wouldn't be superheroes without some kind of crazy back story, would we?" He'd always thought having some sort of tragic life made the decision to become a superhero easy, and the more he'd learned of the other Young Avengers and the more he learns of others, Billy believes it's true.

Why would anyone constantly expose themselves to mortal peril if they weren't messed up some way?