sixthiterationlogs | A little too late, a little too much, a little bit left

WHO: Jake Jensen
WHERE: Around the South villge
WHEN: Just before everyone takes ill
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: None noted yet.

There was something about the mining trip that had made Jake feel a lot better about himself and this place and how life is. He needed to feel useful again, something he hadn't thought he might find here without the technology he is used to. Now things were so much better.

Or so he thought.

He got home, started cleaning things up, and in the process knocked some black dust loose from his pack. Coughing and choking, he got things to clean it up, throw it all out and thinking nothing of it with all they had done in the mine and it was no big deal.

Right until he couldn't turn a doorknob in trying to leave the Inn. It took him three tries, the last with his sleeve pulled down over his hand and it finally opens. Then he goes down to the forge to see if there's anything he can help with. Trying to open the door, his hand passing through the door.

Jake shrieks, backing up. "Oh. My. God. Did I die? Am I ghost?"

He freaks out a tiny bit as it goes on, heading back for the Inn and his house, and finding himself walking through a wall with little resistance. Oh man, this is so bad and so not good, and he's kind of freaking out as it goes on before it wears off.

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He's done it, tried playing with those computers. Yet he aches to do so as well, to get out there and toy with them once more.

But that means having actual working fingers. Which right now he doesn't have. So, right, water.

"Sure. Yeah. Later," he says, nodding, knowing they both know why it won't work right now. "I know. I know there's things a soldier could do here. It's creepy things long run, but it's useful," he says with a sigh, moving to get into the spring. "You joining me?"

Cougar's already taking his clothes off, letting them fall into a pile before he carefully sets his hat on top of them, smirking and wishing he could do something with his foot under the water, but until Jake gets his body back, there's no fun times to be had.

Besides, there's technology that doesn't have to do with computers. "What about inventing?" he suggests. Jake's a genius and Cougar trusts him with plenty of things. Why does it have to be electronic?

He's glad that Cougar isn't just going to leave him there, because sadly he kind of expects him to. In only that he deserves it. At last by the lecture he's gotten.

Settling into the water, making a face. "How come I can feel water but I go through walls? That's weird," he says, but he only looks more glum at that question. "There's a guy here who is capable of making a fully self actuated AI. It learns. It interacts. It's fully human in all but body," he says, still marveling at this. "What could I even offer? I'm a hacker, Cougar. I'm just a really high tech Robin Hood."

Cougar doesn't think that's all Jake is, but then, he's always seen Jake sell himself short and it's not just with this, so he's not surprised. Stripping fully naked, he gets into the water and soaks in up to his shoulders, unblinking as he stares at Jake.

"Then hack our house. Tech. Anything," he says. "Do what you need to be happy."

"I did. With the nuts," he points out, making a face at the sky as he cants his head back, staring up at the sky. "And, I don't know, just trying to see what I can do for everyone," he admits. "I don't know how to not do things. I've been trying for so long."

And yet he knows. He's also ridden himself hard, forced himself to try and be everything for everyone. He never thought about a time where skills like hunting and being a lumberjack would be needed.

"I... I might do that. Try and figure out some things for it. Make our lives easier."

"So feed the nuts to other animals. Hack them," Cougar says sharply, an annoyed edge in his voice because there are ways to do this without harming himself and he just wants Jake to see them. He doesn't want to have to literally smack the sense into him, but he will.

He wants to be with Jake, but not this sulking version of him, not when he has so much to offer. "Nature has codes. People have codes. Learn to hack something new."

Jake winces at that tone though, drawing back against the edge of the hot spring. All he can hear in his head is Cougar reminding him at the costume party thing that Cougar himself was hard to live with. Obviously he hadn't counted on how hard it is caring about Jake, especially when he's as off kilter as this place leaves him.

He starts to open his mouth. To argue, to babble about why he's feeling so lost, and why this is hard for him. He doesn't think Cougar wants to hear that though. Not with that tone, with the frustration he's feeling towards the things Jake does. Instead he nods.

"It won't happen ag... I'll try and keep it from happening again." Because he hadn't done this intentionally. It was an accident because he'd been trying to help the village. His gaze is fixed on the water between them, wishing somehow whatever this is would just let him sink into the ground. His luck he'd solidify like that and die.

Cougar just wants to able to touch him. He watches Jake and wants him to be solid so that he can push forward and kiss him so he can show the other man why he cares so much. He doesn't want Jake to be unhappy, he's just not very good at showing it.

"Try. I'll try too," he offers, because this can't just all be on Jake. He needs to do his part and help, however he can. "It's for us. It's so you can be happy."

"I am happy," he says, frowning at Cougar. Which isn't entirely true, but he doesn't want Cougar thinking anything else. Like thinking he's unhappy with them together.

"What if I stay like this? I mean, that can't happen, can it?" He moves his hand though, and the water ripples. "That's real, isn't it?"

"We find a solution."

There's nothing other than that. If Cougar has to spend his time scouring the villages and the wilds until he has something to fix Jake, then that's what he's going to do. There's no other option. Hauling himself out of the water, he coaxes Jake to do the same, wondering if it will have healed so quick.

Best to give a good incentive. "Come touch me."

Jake moves to follow, finding that he can pull himself up and out. He has a bit of solidity but he is still basically sheer.

Moving in closer, still looking naked, wet Cougar over as he tries to run his hand over Cougar's arm. He can... there is sensation but not entirely solid though he doesn't go through him.

Cougar thinks that it's working. Maybe it's not the springs and maybe it's just time doing its work, but whatever it is, Jake isn't going to stay like this forever. "See? Not dead," he taunts him with a teasing grin, leaning up to brush a ghostly kiss over his lips.

He hauls himself out of the water and shivers, heading to grab his clothes, thinking that Jake can help to hack one other thing. "You should figure out robes," he says pointedly, because that would be very helpful.

Jake isn't sure how, he's just glad that it is. He's glad that maybe he isn't somehow stuck like this. Even if, for a moment, he's caught up in thoughts. In what Cougar said. He's a brilliant hacker above and beyond all else. It didn't have to just be computers just because that's where he's focused. Hacking is about taking the system and twisting it to suit your needs.

Why couldn't he do that here?

Though the kiss brings him back to the here and now, smiling.

"I... I can do that," he says, nodding. "I've seen something that would totally work," he adds, moving to pull on his clothes. He notices dampness on them. "It is better... right? I mean, how else are they damp?"

Cougar's already squelching and squeaking in his, which means he wants to get back to the house quickly to dry out naked by the fire, and as he settles his hat back on his head, his smile is smug and aware that he's already coaxing Jake's head back around to what he can do.

Maybe not a total success yet, but they're getting there.

He gestures with a crooked finger for Jake to follow him. Maybe by the time they get back to the house, he'll be tangible again and able for Cougar to show his appreciation.

A little too late, a little too much, a little bit left

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