8/17 Instance: Punch Therapy

[tears~fall~like~glass]

Timelined for the day after [Instance]Fifty Shades Of Fabian.


Jessica: It was funny how little you could care that you'd done something if you did it often enough. A lot of things in life were like that. Right now it was putting her fist through pixel people. The first few times had been accidental but now she'd gotten used to it it was actually helping a lot.

Bobby: Annoyed that the DR was busy, Bobby started to just turn away, but then decided to check who was in there on the odd chance it was somebody he actually might want to see. His eyebrows lifted when he saw the identification and that she was running a combat program.

Bobby: He tapped in his override code and stepped inside quietly.

Jessica: Had she not been so focused, she'd have heard the door. But, concentrating as she was, she remained oblivious to the company. She only used her venom blasts to knock her enemies back when they got too close - pulling back the charge to use them more as concussive blasts. Just to keep the numbers in close combat managable but not so few she had time to think about other things.

Bobby: He had to admit she was good, smoothly taking out the bad guys. There was no way he was going to try to sneak up on her. He liked his ass too much. Plus, he didn't want to piss her off since she was one of the few people around who didn't think he was a serial killer.

Jessica: A few more accidentally dead bad guys and she figured it was time to take a break for assessment. She paused the program and pulled the tie from her hair to run her fingers through it. It was then that she realised there was someone else in the room, turning her head towards the sound of another heartbeat. Oh... she tried a smile but she was slightly worried she'd be in trouble now.

Bobby: "Impressive. Most impressive." Bobby smirked at her, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms.

Jessica: "Thanks..." she glanced around her, "Um... how long have you been standing there?"

Bobby: "How long do you want me to have been standing here?" He arched an eyebrow.

Jessica: "I don't know... however long it would have been for me to not be in trouble?"

Bobby: "Why would you be in trouble?" he laughed.

Jessica: "Well I don't know... this place has that whole 'no killing' thing and I know they're only pixels but Dr Scott keeps trying to make me see Dai as it is..."

Bobby: Bobby held up a hand to stop her. "Jess. Think about who you're talking to here." The eyebrow went a little higher.

Jessica: "Right. Yes... I know that... but well... I'm having kind of an awful week and that'd just be the icing on the cake..."

Bobby: "I'm not going to say anything. It's just the DR." Bobby shook his head and pushed off from the wall to walk to her. "If you were doing that to real people, then yeah, but..." He shrugged. And really, he had no room to talk. As Lorna liked to point out. "What happened? I know I left you quite happy and giggly."

Jessica: "Yeah... and that lasted for like a day... until I found out the guy I went on a date with is the same one that Clarice has been dating and it all kind of went to shit from there on..." she sighed.

Bobby: "Oooo." Bobby pulled a face, which turned into a grimace. "That Cortez kid, huh?"

Jessica: She nodded, "Yep... so we confronted him about it and... he doesn't think he's doing anything wrong. So now I feel like crap and that's just one of the things that's gone badly this week."

Bobby: "I gather that not everybody knew this was a casual affair." He tsked. "Maybe I was right about that little wanker then."

Jessica: "Apparently no one knew, apart from him. I wouldn't have been so pissed about it if I'd known." She leaned against the wall, resting her head on it and closing her eyes as she took a deep breath. "And I'd just started to feel better about everything."

Bobby: "Eh, don't let that fucker make you feel bad. That's not cool that he was playing the game with different rules."

Jessica: "It's especially not fair given that he knows I'm unfamiliar with the proper rules in the first place.... I just... I feel..." she sighed, "At least when I was working in Amsterdam I knew the score...."

Bobby: "Well, there are no proper rules, really," he said, scratching at the back of his head. "But it's polite to not fuck people around."

Jessica: "He seemed to think it unreasonable that we'd both assumed we were the only person he was dating that week." she frowned, "It's not unreasonable to expect someone to at least wait until your date's happened before they agree to go out with someone else, is it?"

Bobby: "Nope. Especially in that short of a time frame... considering there's not that big of a dating pool at the school anyway." He sighed, wondering how he failed so badly in his own relationship since he ended up talking to everybody else about theirs.

Jessica: "Okay... good... so I have a right to be angry..." She ran a hand through her hair, deciding to change the subject, "What brings you down here?"

Bobby: "Yeah, it's just... dickish." He shrugged. "Bored. Tired. Frustrated. I thought hitting things sounded good."

Jessica: "Well you're welcome to join me if you want? There's plenty to go around...."

Bobby: "Sounds like fun, babe." Bobby grinned and straightened up, stretching out.

Jessica: She smiled back and stretched again herself as she'd been standing still for a while, tying her hair back once more. "Ready?"

Bobby: "As ever." He cracked his knuckles. To ice or not to ice? Eh. Later.

Jessica: She restarted the program, dropping into a stance in preparation for their first attackers. "And I really won't get in trouble for any overkill? It's mostly accidental anyway..."

Bobby: He took up a position nearby her and gave her a look. "It's just the DR. You're fine. I wouldn't do it in real training, but..." He shrugged.

Jessica: "This is why I'm in here today and retracted my offer of helping people train just for now... I don't trust my ability to modify my strength...." She frowned and took it out on her first opponent, accidentally proving her point. She sighed a little, "See what I mean?"

Bobby: "Well see, that's good then. You knew yourself enough to keep from accidentally hurting people." Especially holograms that were trying those kinds of moves. Bobby didn't bother with his powers, just knocking the goon off balance and knocking him out with a punch.

Jessica: "I don't want to hurt people if I can help it... it's enough to know I can." She easily took down the next wave, the difficulty level slowly increasing. "The why part is something I'm never going to know."

Bobby: "Yeah... I hear you there." But he wasn't going down that train of thought right now. One tried to get the jump on him from behind and he sent a blast of ice at the enemy, then took the feet from under the other hologram. "The why?"

Jessica: "Yeah.... why he made me learn all this crap. I have no idea. I don't know why we moved around so much, I don't know why it was so important that I stay inside all the time and I don't know why I had to learn how to defend myself so completely... I asked him, several times... he said he'd tell me when I was old enough..."

Bobby: "He.... oh, your father." He kind of recalled her files. "Maybe he was - this probably isn't comforting - kind of paranoid. Like, one of those survivalist types?" Bobby aimed a kick at the guy as he struggled back up. "Stay down!"

Jessica: "Maybe... I don't know..." she wrinkled her nose as her fist went though another one. "It kind of seemed like he had a plan..."

Bobby: "Well, crazies often do." Bobby ducked a swing and took the legs out from under another hologram, this time icing him to the floor. He looked over at her quickly. "How strong are you, anyway?"

Jessica: "I can lift up to around seven tons...." she blasted a few back to take out the ones closer to her.

Bobby: Bobby's eyes bugged slightly. "I'm... strong in ice form, but... yeah." He iced his fist to take out the goon closest to him, putting real force into it just for the hell of it.

Jessica: "It's kind of annoying actually..." she gave a slight shrug, "Especially when I'm annoyed or upset...."

Bobby: "Well, I can understand that." A group moved toward them and he frowned, remembering why he was annoyed and upset. Jaw set, he took them all on.

Jessica: Jess let him get on with that, focusing on her own targets, taking them down methodically, using the terrain to her advantage. "I broke a lot of things growing up... but I learned pretty fast to hide what I broke."

Bobby: Two left. He moved between them, dodging at the last moment to let them overshoot their target. "Me too." Shifting to ice, he caught one of the holographic goons and used him as a battering ram against his buddy.

Jessica: "Because of your powers?"

Bobby: "Yeah." The hologram protested his use until Bobby flung him headfirst into one of the men threatening Jess. "Mine... sometimes are easy, sometimes not so much."

Jessica: "Mmhmm, I get that...." She decided to test something, considering he was in his ice form now. She focused her fear pheromones and sent a cloud out, the nearby enemies fleeing in panicked confusion.

Bobby: "I'm not that scary. I didn't even go ooga-booga." Bobby watched the exodus, arms spread in confusion. He turned to look at Jess.

Jessica: She gave a grin, "Pheromones are good for things other than making people hit on me."

Bobby: "Nice!" He grinned. "I don't want to shift back right now, do I?"

Jessica: "Probably not, you'll be scared of me too and then I'll be sad." She pouted a little, "The room should clear the air of them faster than outside though. Good ventilaiton in here."

Bobby: "Yep, it's designed that way. Panic room and all." Since there weren't any baddies around now, he started to form an intricate ice archway over them.

Jessica: Jess watched the ice and chewed her lip. It looked nice but it was cold... "It's got some nice sound proofing too. I like that."

Bobby: "It does." Bobby shot her a side glance, adding more artistic flourishes to the creation. They looked like flowers, so he went with it.

Jessica: "It's kind of nice to not be able to hear everything that goes on in this place, even if it's only for an hour or so... and it feels different to how it did when I had the patch on."

Bobby: "Well, yeah... you've got your powers, you just lose one aspect of it in here." Garden gazebo, mirroring one he'd seen out near the greenhouse, covered in climbing roses.

Jessica: "Well I wouldn't say lost... it's like a distraction but better because you don't suddenly hear everything when you forget to focus on the distraction... does that make sense?" She reached a hand out to touch one of the ice roses. So pretty.... and cold. It hurt but she did it anyway.

Bobby: "Mmm, yeah, it does." He watched her admire his handiwork and smiled. "I mean, I'm doing this while I'm talking to you and watching the scaredy bunch there." Their fake enemies were slowly regathering.

Jessica: She winced a little and withdrew her hand, flexing her fingers a few times before rubbing her hand on her leg. "Your powers are really nice you know... elegant." she smiled.

Bobby: "Thanks." He concentrated, forming a little delicate spider to climb the trellis closest to her. "They can be."

Jessica: Jess watched the spider, fascinated. "Really... you have no idea how jealous I am right now... that's beautiful..."

Bobby: He grinned, but noticed the holograms making a rally. Sick of this game, he stared in their direction, flash-freezing the goons.

Jessica: "Aww and I was going to enjoy punching them..." She gave him a pout but quickly got distracted by the ice spider again. So awesome! She wanted to hold it...

Bobby: "There will always be more." Bobby studied his work on the fake baddies. It was horrible, what he could do.

Jessica: She plucked the spider from the trellis because she couldn't help herself. Spiders were a huge weakness of hers. Maybe she'd see if she could buy one made of glass... it was almost the same...

Bobby: He shifted back, looking away from the frozen men, and watched Jess. The spider reanimated, crawling over her hand.

Jessica: She smiled as it started moving again, watching its progress even though every point its eight icey legs touched felt instantly (and painfully) numb. She'd always liked watching them walk.

Bobby: "Yeah... I guess for every terrible thing my powers can do, they can do something awesome. Everything's a trade off."

Jessica: She glanced up from the spider to give him a smile, "It's a beautiful thing you can do, Bobby. I mean it..." She carefully put it back on the trellis because her hands were starting to hurt rather a lot.

Bobby: Bobby just returned the smile, dissolving the ice gazebo and allowing it to wisp back into the air.

Jessica: She was a little sad for the disappearance of the spider but she knew it couldn't last forever anyway. She rubbed her hands together to get the circulation somewhat back to normal and flexed her fingers.

Bobby: He went over to the frozen images. "This isn't so beautiful though."

Jessica: She followed him, "I suppose that depends how you look at it.... it's quick..."

Bobby: "It is that." Bobby made a face.

Jessica: "Quick's a good thing..." she looked between him and the frozen simulations.

Bobby: His eyebrows lifted.

Jessica: "If it's quick, no one suffers... no families have to wait around in limbo for news and they don't lie in a bed somewhere in pain or so out of it on drugs they don't know who they are anymore..." She looked at the faces of the simulations as she said that.

Bobby: "Ah." While she had a point, he wasn't sure it helped. He called to Danger to end the program and the frozen men faded away. "I suppose."

Jessica: "You've never lost someone that way, have you? In a hospital I mean..."

Bobby: "No." He shifted. "Well, my grandpa. But... he was a grandpa. He was old... it wasn't a surprise or anything."

Jessica: "Both my parents died in hospitals... It's kind of why I don't much like doctors.... they always have bad news... and coming here has done nothing to change that perception..."

Bobby: "I'm sorry." Bobby somewhat regretted suggesting her father was nuts now. "That would definitely give you a bad opinion of them."

Jessica: She gave a shrug, "It was a while ago... I'm just saying... If you have to die young... it's better if it's quick. For everyone involved...."

Bobby: "I'm going to go with not dying at all." Bobby gave a firm nod, shooting a glance at her with a half smile.

Jessica: She gave a small smile back, "That's always preferable."

Bobby: He winked, breaking into a full grin.

Jessica: She laughed a little at the grin, "Okay well... I need a shower and some tea. Want to join me?" She paused, "For the tea not the shower."

Bobby: "Damn." He clucked his tongue, but laughed. "Tea sounds good. I'll hit the boys room. Meet you after?"

Jessica: She blushed a little and nodded, "See you in the kitchen then." she gave a smile before heading towards the door. One day she was going to get herself in some serious trouble.