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[prodigaljaybird]

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]

Comments

[backward]

The past few days have all been a sleepless blur. Watching Tony while he rests, listening to the darkness envelop the hut, fold the siblings close. His nonsensical babble has become her white noise, but there are times now when she thinks that it'll get better, that it'll wear away, and maybe Tony will learn to emerge again, as strong as he ever was. (He's been here. He's been here, and he's survived— no, thrived in the wake of it all, nothing capable of weighing him down for long.) Times when she feels fine leaving him for an hour or two, darting through the trees, listening for voices and warding them away with nonstop movement. Times when she runs, not knowing where she goes, or who she might find in her path, all the while her heart thrumming with the knowledge that she needs to get back, soon.

It's not good to abandon people.

But her lungs scream for air today as she runs down the beaten path, a figure racing by her side in a blur. A familiar one, dragging her to a stop, eyes wide as she stares.

She'd thought—

"You're back," she says, and it's too stunned to sound like an accusation, like a plea, like anything at all. Just white.

Like hope.

[burnwithus.livejournal.com]

She's been looking for him.

It's a recurring theme in Katniss' life, or at least it's beginning to be. At the very moment that she begins to trust and care about somebody, they have to go and die or disappear on her. Boggs is the greatest example of this. And Finnick. Oh, and Peeta? Peeta's crazy, back home. Absolutely insane. And he'll never be right. They took him and they made him like that.

So it's no doubt that after a couple of days of Jason being gone, Katniss' mind begins to supply its own bits of information on what could have happened to him. Of course, she's been told the official reasons for everything, but this paranoia is something that isn't easily combated.

(Damn her for caring. Damn him for making her care.)

Once again, Katniss combs the island for him like it's part of her daily routine, but she's beginning to lose hope. She's a good tracker and always has been, but Jason moves like a shadow. If he doesn't want to be found, he won't be.

Oh, but there he is, standing amongst the rickety frames like he's been there all along. Katniss moves silently, arms crossing against her chest when she finally approaches.

"Hi."

[teambatgirl.livejournal.com]

Stephanie's running. She's doing it a lot lately, even more so since Bruce showed up and sent everything into a tailspin. It's a chance to clear her head, there's something meditative about the way the world can narrow to her breath, the pound of feet on the ground, and the next step. Puts her worries about Damian, about Jason, about this whole damn place, out of her mind for as long as it takes to do a circuit.

Along the path, she turns to the gym to do a set of reps before heading the rest of the way home. Is slowing down when she sees-

"Jason." She lets out a breath that's all relief. After another day of watching for him to come out of Rapture she'd given up her post, trusting that she'd see him when- if- when he came back up. And here he is. "Oh, I'm glad to see you."

[halfscarlet]

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!"

[irisewiththesun.livejournal.com]

Zuko doesn't remember the last time he saw Jason.

He knows it's been a while, but it's not like they ever hung out every day, or anything. It was a relief, at least, to hear from Captain Barnes that Jason was still around, just...not available. After his uncle and his sister, and then two days of thinking his boss at the club was gone, Zuko really doesn't want to deal with the disappearance of another important person right now.

He's been checking places periodically. Places he knows Jason might show up. He hasn't been pushing, trying to see him at home or anything, because Zuko of all people understands the need to just be alone sometimes. He stops by Robin's Gym again today, and suddenly there he is, like he never left, like he hasn't been hiding away at all.

Zuko doesn't say anything at first, knowing Jason will realize he's there even if he doesn't make a sound. He just leans against one of the unfamiliar pieces of equipment and watches.

[curiously-cora.livejournal.com]

"Jason Todd!" Coraline yelled, approaching Jason with a face like thunder. Coraline looked like she was about to hit him or yell at him or worse question him forever but what she did instead really should not have surprised anyone. Coraline hugged Jason tightly. She wasn't letting go, she was never letting go. "You're back. You were gone, you disappeared and I was so scared that you were gone. So, you're not allowed to do that again Mister or I'll- I'll tell on you and then you'll get grounded. And being grounded sucks so you don't want that. So you can't disappear."

[illuxinated]

It feels like she's screamed his name. She can hear it in her mind, a sort of frantic mantra that echoes in the damp jungle air, but emotion has seized her throat and vocal cords and the only actual sound is the hard slap of her sneakers against the hollow planks of the boardwalk. When she hits him, it's at full speed, enough to nearly knock them both over, arms instantly tight around his neck, rubber soles of her shoes squeaking against bamboo as she pushes up on tiptoe.

"Are you okay?" she hastily asks a moment later, small hands framing his face as she leans back just enough to get a proper look at him. Her fingertips are trembling just a little, but for the first time in days she feels like she can finally breathe.

[madeofstories.livejournal.com]

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you'd actually been hiding," Grace says when she sees Jason on the path. She can't remember the last time she saw him, come to think of it; it's been weeks. Of course, it's not as if she couldn't have gone looking for him, asked around to see if anyone had seen him.

But with that had come the chance that he wasn't around anymore. That he'd disappeared, as people often did on the island. It had been her fear of that, perhaps, that had kept her from inquiring after him for so long.