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

[killorder]

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.

Comments

[killorder]

"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?"

[thecatinahat]

"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."

[killorder]

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.

[thecatinahat]

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.

[killorder]

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?"

[thecatinahat]

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.