🍁 the times they are a changin' (ota)

[beallmysins]

WHO: Jax Teller
WHERE: porch of the 6I inn
WHEN: 25 October - mid afternoon
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: cursing, lbr

---

Hey, Abel. It's been a little while since I wrote to you so I wanted to sit down and tell you what's going on in this fucked up crazy prison I'm in. I miss you. You need to take care of Thomas and your mom, all right? I know I tell you that every time but I'm gonna keep writing it just to make sure it happens.

Snowed here the other day. It's getting cooler here but I don't have any idea of what the date is or shit like that. It's not like the real world, this place, and the longer I'm here the more it feels like I'm losing touch with what's real and what I can see and touch. It hadn't been that cold though, before, so the snow kind of came as a shock - seems to have melted, though.

Snow reminds me of Tahoe or up in Oregon where Gemma's people are from. It's not something we're ever gonna see in Charming, not unless something crazy happens. I'll take you kids skiing sometime when we get away. We're gonna get away someday, you know. Your mom's been after me to make that happen and I...

The wind catches then and the sheets come flying out of Jax's notebook, scattering the letter and some of the previous ones out across the porch and into the street in front of the inn. He scrambles to gather them up before they get trampled on and muddy because fuck if he's letting his only connection to his kids go and get ruined.

Is this what happened to his old man when he wrote his letters? Did John Teller write letters on scraps of paper on blustery fall days and hope that someday he was going to get to read them to his son? Jax has no fucking idea. There's so much shit he's finding out about his father after the fact that makes the hazy, golden childhood image of him tarnish a bit. He's afraid that's gonna be what happens with Abel and Thomas, that they'll read his letters and hear stories about him and think of him as some asshole and not as a hero like a father ought to be.

Jax pushes that down for the moment and focuses on grabbing up as much of the paper as he can, trying to keep his words and his tether to Charming and the real fucking world from getting soaked up with the mud and gloom of this place. Even if the snow's melted now and the leaves are pretty shades of red and gold he doesn't want to fucking be here.

"I hate this fucking place," he grumbles, stuffing bits of the letter back into the binding of the notebook.

Comments

27th

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana was alone this evening. Itiiti, who usually followed her like a shadow, was at the boat standing guard. Standing guard also stood for sleeping on the boat since he was growing into a very large pig that was already over 100 lbs.

The oar she had made was slung over her shoulders like a sword, held up by a strand of rope she had woven together out of grasses. Moana knew that there was rope and materials at the inn but she tried to use as little of those resources as possible. They should be for those who can't do things themselves.

In a rare turn of events, Moana was wearing shoes. She had seen the snow and while her shoes clashed with her island dress, they kept her feet warm while the ground began to freeze. She had a small bag over one shoulder when one of Jax's letters blew into her path. She grabbed at it and turned to see where it had come from.

"Is this yours?" She didn't read it but she did glimpse one of the names written on the piece of paper.

[beallmysins]

"Yeah, it's mine," Jax says, holding his hand out to get the wayward page from his journal. He hates when he loses anything he's written to Abel or Thomas because they're his reason for wanting to get back home more than anything else. They need him even if half the time Jax thinks they might be better off without him.

"I was writing a letter to my kids." Anyone else, he might not volunteer the information but Moana is different. She's like a kid sister, in some ways, if his kid sister could kick his ass and survive better than a Navy SEAL.

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana looked down at the letter and then handed it back over to Jax. She didn't read it but she found it curious that he was writing to his kids. After a moment it sank in. "You miss them." She could understand that. She missed her island, her people and her parents. There was so much uncertainty until she'd be able to see them again but she didn't want to give up now.

She looked at Jax with a bright smiled. "I'm sure you'll be able to give them your letters. What do you write to them about?" She had no idea what she'd tell her parents. In some of the cases she's sure that they'd rather not know what she was up too.

Moana often found herself getting into trouble.

[beallmysins]

"Everything," Jax says. "Anything that happens here, I write and tell them about it. I guess it's kind of like keeping a diary but I'm telling it to them so it makes it easier to write." It's weird, sharing such an intensely personal thing with someone else but he doesn't mind sharing it with Moana. She's different than most of the other people here and other than her and Wanda, he doesn't think he'd share much of himself with anyone else.

"Sometimes I tell them about you. I figured they'd get a kick out of a girl beating their dad at everything important."

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana made sure that there weren't any more letters floating around before moving to sit on the edge of Jax's front porch. She'd never been in his home but she assumed that this was the place.

"That's really nice of you. To think of them here." There were nights that Moana tried not to think of her home and her family. It never worked, but knowing that Jax was thinking of his kids made Moana smile. He was a good father, even if he didn't realize it, because he was always thinking about his kids.

"I don't beat you at everything." Moana laughed before tucking a loose strand of curly hair behind her ear. "Just most things."

[beallmysins]

"Everything that matters," Jax says, snorting a little. "When God was handing out skills to survive in creepy villages, he gave you all of them and he gave me none of them."

He grins, though, and tips his head toward Moana a little. "But at least you pity me enough to keep me alive."

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana leaned against the porch, her hair falling over her shoulder as she turned to look at Jax. "It isn't pity." She replied with an easy expression. "It's a chief's duty to keep their people safe and help them." He wasn't from her island but as far as Moana was concerned he was part of that family.

"I can teach you?"

She thought he might enjoy having things to keep his mind occupied.

[beallmysins]

"Hey, if I learn a bunch of survival crap when I'm out here, I'll be the best tatted-up Boy Scout leader that Charming's ever seen," Jax says. He's never going to be a traditional parent but he wants to try and be there for his boys as best he can and the idea that he's here away from him pulls at him sometimes and makes him feel guilty. Having something else to focus on would be beneficial.

"I'm a blank slate. Teach me anything you want. I almost got the hang of the rope stuff, you know."

[chosenbytheocean]

"Have you been practicing?" Moana asked, her tone betraying her disbelief.

She knew that he had practiced some but Jax was one of the few people that she could tease. One of the few people still left in the village. So many friends have come and on in that time. It made things difficult but Moana kept going, she'd continue to keep going.

"So what do you want to learn next? Fishing? Basket weaving? How defeat a lava monster?"

[beallmysins]

"The lava monster might be the most relevant thing you've mentioned," Jax says. He's a little wary if only because there's been a lot of fucking earthquakes in the last year and with earthquakes, there could be volcanoes. He'd learned that shit in school a long time ago but it stuck - in Japan and places like that? Earthquakes came with tsunamis and lava. He's not going to dismiss that possibility here in the village.

"Fishing's probably gonna keep me fed, though. You're probably able to do it with your bare hands, right?"

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana lifted her shoulders in a shrug.

Her lava monster was probably different from any lava monster that they ran into here. Then again, she somehow had the heart. It wasn't completely out of the question. For now she'll focus on the fishing.

"I can teach you to fish. I have an extra net I can lend you." She laughed and shook her head. "Why would I do that? I can use a spear, a net, I have some traps I've been putting out in the ocean." So far to no luck. The only thing Moana hasn't used was a fishing poll but she could probably figure it out quickly.

[beallmysins]

"Well, you're pretty awesome at everything else, I figured you didn't need anything else to fish," Jax teases. He thinks learning to fish is probably the best idea considering it's one of the steady food supplies in the village and he gives her a quick nod.

"If you're willing to teach me how to use the net and the spear, I'm willing to learn. It'd be good to know how to do something other than fix roofs and trade."

[chosenbytheocean]

"Hey." She tried to sound offended but there wasn't any strength behind the word. Instead she smiled and shook her head.

"Yeah." Moana leaned back, and glanced up at the sky as she continued. "You know how to make rope which means you can make a net if you wanted too. I can show you how to make a spear too." It'll break over time and it'll be good if he knows how to repair it. "If you don't mind. Then fishing."

Learning to build the tools might be important, if Moana ever finds herself whisked away from the village. She'd feel more comfortable if she's able to teach people what she knows.

[theintercessor]

The page slaps against his shin, held by the breeze as he pauses to pick it up. He's far enough from the inn that it makes more sense to glance over the contents, but as he wanders toward the source, he connects the names to the face and--well, drops his arm. Even as the context sharpens the words, and he knows Jax likes to write to his kids.

It sets him jogging a bit, hurrying to hand the page over. His hair's long enough now that it just lands in his eyes no matter what he does with it, and his free hand pushes it back. "Letters home," he asks, not pretending he didn't look it over.

[beallmysins]

"Yeah. Kind of a bullshit thing to do, I guess, but if I ever get home, I want my kids to know what happened. I'm not the kind of father who's gonna run out on them."

He's done a prison stint since they've been alive, sure, but it'd been short. He's not going to be someone who walks out on his kids and leaves their mom or grandma to raise them. That's not his style.

"If I don't and somehow shit from this place can get home? I want them to know I didn't forget them."

[theintercessor]

Run out on them isn't a sentiment that really sets Jude off--he'd never really thought Charlie would leave, but maybe something like this. Held up by something beyond his control. Kept away by work and worry. Making long visits to tell officials how he was keeping them afloat and why his ex wife really shouldn't be allowed any contact, whatever improvements she'd made.

"I don't think it's bullshit," he says plainly, releasing the page into Jax's grip. "I'd want my dad to do that if he got stuck in a place like this. Think about me and all." Think about Charlie is all he does sometimes, his mind picking at a question over and over--where was he. He'd been very concerned about it when he came through the fountain, but he's lost the context. "Maybe I should write a few for my old man."

[beallmysins]

"It's a good way to keep your thoughts organized," Jax agrees. "So much shit happens here on a regular basis, it helps to write it all down. I'm not real good at just writing for the sake of it but if I'm writing to my boys, I have more focus."

It works for him. He doesn't know if it's something that'd work for everyone but that's what keeps him focused and keeps him busy recording all the crazy shit that happens in the village on a regular basis.

[theintercessor]

Jude isn't much of a writer--he always left that part of their wild projects to Parker--but he understand the point. It's more or less what he keeps a sketchbook for: recording the world around him, getting his idea of it down. He thinks better when he's drawing, and he recalls what he was thinking about better when he has a drawing to look at.

He's only recently starting drawing for other people. He doesn't know how much it helps.

"Did you spend a lot of time with them, before you got here?"

[beallmysins]

"Yeah. Still with their mom," Jax explains. He considers Tara the mother of both his children even if she didn't carry Abel and it's not worth explaining that complicated relationship to anyone outside Charming; half of Charming considers Abel hers anyway. No point in mentioning Wendy.

"Busy with uh...work and shit but I always make time for my kids. My old lady's a doctor. Sometimes she's not there to do the tucking in and the bedtime stories."

[theintercessor]

His tone hovers between humor and real incredulity when hey says, "A doctor married you?" Maybe the joke is in the phrasing, that it was very much her decision, and not Jax's. If he's quick, he might catch the edge of a smile before Jude's hiding under his hair, spying sideways at the journal in Jax's hands.

It's good, that someone's using them. He has the one he gave Credence, now, and he isn't sure what he's supposed to do. Give it to Jax, maybe. He'll fill the first before too long, if he writes this much.

[beallmysins]

"Look, I ask myself that every damn day," Jax says, laughing along with him. He's not real fucking sure why Tara married him, only that she did, and he's damned glad for it. He shrugs a little.

"Maybe I got something she needs. Maybe she likes getting with a roughneck. No idea. It works, though, between us. Opposites attract and all that shit."

[theintercessor]

Doctor is good though--if Jax really is missing back home, it means she probably keeps things paid for okay, and has all that good insurance and shit Charlie was killing himself to hold onto at the factory. The kids might not see her much, they definitely feel the loss--but they'll be provided for.

Jude doesn't know why he should care so much, couple of kids he's never even met, but it's--good.

"Maybe they do," he says, thinking about how Parker could be like a firecracker with a sledgehammer for a mouth; but maybe they don't always: Bodhi's pretty quiet.

Not that he's doing anything with either of them, so what the fuck does that count for? Busying his hands with the important task of pulling lint from the pockets of his jeans, he struggles past his isolated embarrassment. "How do you think--they must get on alright, with you here, if she's a doc and all."

[beallmysins]

"Hope they do. They spend a lot of time in daycare," Jax admits. "When I'm off doing my shit and she's working. Used to spend a lot of time with my mom, too, but my wife doesn't like Gemma too much. Thinks she's a bad influence."

Jax isn't too sure that's far off from the truth. She's made him into the twisted, fucked up son of a bitch he is and Tara not wanting that for the boys? Well, that's natural enough.

"They like daycare, though. Not the same as me or their mom but...it's something."

[theintercessor]

"That's your job," he says, thinking of Charlie busting his ass, one day off a week for errands and a little more sleep. If he took it. "Making it work, for the future and all that. Even if they don't like it at the time."

He doesn't know what he'd do, Charlie in a place like this and him left behind. Ride out his scholarships and do what he could to take care of himself. Be nice to know if his old man got to go somewhere else and take a break. He wouldn't even be mad, he'd just hope he was getting his rest. "My old man worked two jobs as long as I can remember," he admits. "If they're as smart as their mom, they'll get why you guys did it that way."

[beallmysins]

"You figure it out as you get older," Jax agrees. "My old man died when I was young. I barely remember him. The only thing I ever had of him was journals and letters, you know? That's why I want to write as much as I can for my kids. If something happens to me or I don't ever get back...I just want them to know me somehow."

It's not the same but it's better than nothing if Abel and Thomas get to know him through the words he writes. "But I need to get back to them. It's not fair on Tara for me to be stuck here and she's all alone."