Jade plays music and sings to John and Davesprite.
This'll be referenced later - once the others are gone, she doesn't
find the heart to sing for a long time. She's sort of weirded out to
hear her own voice (which will have deepened a little, considering
she'll be like 14) when she eventually does.
It's the first time she's done any music in front of anyone.
She gets started singing. Davesprite doesn't seem to react at all,
though he's watching. This worries Jade. Does he.. not like it? But
John sort of gawps - he's amazed at her talent - and smiles. At least
he's for sure enjoying it; that's enough, and she continues.
After the song, Davesprite still doesn't say anything, make any kind
of expression, let alone one Jade can read. John applauses and tells
her he's crazy impressed - he never knew just how good she was! She
smiles and thanks him. But - Davesprite. Gosh. Did she ask him to
come hear her song, something she hadn't shared with anyone before,
only for him not to like or care about it? Did she waste his time?
Was this a good idea? Davesprite interrupts her thoughts: "Dang.
You're seriously good. Nice." Jade nearly sighs of relief, but
catches it. She sure knows she doesn't want to bring any of her
thought up and make things difficult! But seriously, she is so
relieved. It's so awesome that she has friends who like the things
she shares. "Heh, thanks."
(Ok, todo question here. Does Jade play her ukelele? She had it kept
in the LOFAF lab. Maybe she fetches it, then brings it back after.
For later events, it's got to be there. Putting it back gives the
opportunity for a night-time reflection scene I'd like to write...
and maybe parallel later, visiting LOFAF at night another time, well
after John and Davesprite are gone. Probably not long after she sings
to herself again - that'll have sort of gotten her into the mindset
of figuring her thoughts and feelings about everything out. I think
she'll go to an outside porch, or some similar place she would have
spent a lot of time at as a kid, staring up at the stars. Blah blah
trope, but I think she'll have legitimately always felt comfortable
with the night sky of space. Of course, there won't actually be any
stars, or really space at all, in the artificial night-time the
planets experience now - it's just the shadow LOFAF casts upon
iteslf, staring out into the darkness in the ship and the meaningless
void beyond. But being there still comforts her.)
> ---
Conflict between Jade and Davesprite.
Something that will last. It's an argument.
It doesn't start out as anything significant. Jade enters the room
Davesprite's in and starts talking about $something. Eventually he
says something that she really disagrees with, so she calls it into
question. He responds defensively. Being a COOL GUY and majority Dave
Strider (who has all those experiences with his bro), he isn't
emotionally affected by her questioning what he said. This frustrates
Jade: can't he see he said something bad?
It escalates from there. Jade pushes how what he said was wrong.
Davesprite stays defensive. Eventually, he gives up, and admits he
might not have said the best thing possible. It's not obvious to Jade
whether he actually means that, or is just trying to get it over
with. In fact, he does, to some degree, but he doesn't think he said
anything so significant to warrant Jade's outburst. He expresses that
to her, but Jade takes it, perhaps rightfully, as minimizing his
fault and turning the situation onto her.
In the moment, Jade is frustrated. She's outwardly confident on her
viewpoint, but internally she's squashing arguments her own mind is
raising against her. She feels she's being rational about that - she
can't afford doubt when she's supposed to be really certain in what
she's arguing, right?
There's no real resolution here. Davesprite explicitly calls off the
argument; he's tired of the conflict. She realizes neither of them
are getting anywhere. He leaves her. She slumps onto the couch after
he's left. Jade reflects, her own steam dissipating a little. Was
Davesprite right? She did make a big deal out of one thing he said -
perhaps more than was necessary. Yes, what she said was wrong, but
could she have just calmly told him that? Did she blow it way out of
proportion? Her thoughts here echo the things Davesprite said closely;
she's seriously considering what he said. She wonders if he didn't do
the same for her. Most of all, though, she's frustrated with herself.
She feels she let the argument get out of hand, and she blames herself
for cutting off the ordinary conversation she'd originally meant to
have, and - key point here - for Davesprite leaving her. She got in
the way of him just enjoying the day or doing whatever he was in the
middle of, with a discussion that boiled into a fruitless argument,
and he ended up leaving her alone.
During all this, John is in the adjacent kitchen, cooking. He's stuck
out of their argument entirely, not really knowing what to think or
how to make himself of any use within it. When Davesprite leaves,
he's heading into the kitchen. Jade hears him kaplomp into a chair in
the dining room, just outside her view. After a moment, John glances
toward him and says he's cooking rice for supper. Davesprite doesn't
respond, and John turns back to focus on his cooking. Jade sees this
all, John's voice catching her attention. She doesn't respond to it.
She can't stand to talk to anyone right now. She wonders if the way
she grew up has fated her to never be capable of actually talking to
anyone, about stuff that seriously matters to her anyway; to never
truly have any friends in the real world.
> ---
The last supper.
John prepared it - some kind of vegetable and one of those boxed
rice mini-kits (not Betty Crocker) that happened to be kept in the
ship kitchen before they arrived. (He probably has similar stuff in
his own house, but in this fic he hasn't yet been to LOWAS.)
It's pretty tense. Jade is still thoroughly distraught, if a bit
tired - upset and frustrated at herself but not with the same energy
she had just after the argument. Davesprite isn't really saying much
of anything. They've all gathered to have supper together. Jade has
trouble just looking at him, let alone reading his eternally neutral
Strider-brand expression. John still isn't really sure how much he
should be partaking in whatever's going on between the other two.
He's tentatively trying to lighten the mood, or at least to get
either of them to talk, preferably to each other, even if he doesn't
really know whether that's a good idea or not.
Jade's still down, but she puts in the effort to talk. She
complements John's cooking, but it comes out weaker than she'd
intended, or at least she thinks so. But John smiles, and thanks her.
He remarks he's really gotten boxed food down to an art over the
years. (In all honesty, he has: he put his own spices and tweaks to
the recipe in. Not dramatic adjustments, but enough to give it a
certain Egbert flair.)
Now that Jade's made the first move, Davesprite ventures to say
something too. Even if he doesn't understand why, he sees Jade is
upset, and there is some semblance of guilt in him there. He doesn't
want to make things worse. In actuality, he adds only a comment in
agreement with Jade: "It's good." John thanks him.
Partially sub-consciously recognizing that Davesprite is another real
person who's actually there, Jade looks up from her food, toward him.
She's trying to understand what's going on inside his mind. He's got
the usual neutral face, though held perhaps a little more still than
normal. His wings are tucked in, and he's a bit hunched down. His
sunglasses make it impossible to tell where he's actually looking,
but his head is tilted down - more toward the center of the table
than his plate of food. (Do sprites eat? Yes, sprites eat, if at
least just for enjoyment.) Jade sees he's feeling some kind of guilt,
or at least being more careful with what he does and says than
normal. This mostly worsens things for her, though. Instead of
appreciating that he's trying, and that friendships are difficult and
complex but that there's hope that things might improve between them,
Jade finds her guilt renewed: she made things difficult, she got in
the way, she made this supper tense, she upset Davesprite.
Just at the moment Jade is reenveloped in that, Davesprite turns his
gaze toward her. He dares something he thinks might help - he
twitches a smile ever so slightly. Jade almost immediately realizes
she's been staring at him and abruptly looks away, back to her food.
What is he saying? Jade has no idea how to read the gesture. Urgh!
She wishes people would just speak what they're trying to get
across. Frustrated at everything, she shoves a particularly large
spoon of rice clean into her mouth.
John stifles a laugh. Jade notices and glares at him - but realizes
that.. really isn't called for, and consciously relaxes herself. She
supposes the sight of her stuffing her slightly canine mouth with
rice would be a bit of a funny sight, and she knows John isn't trying
to be mean or anything. She smiles a little, and takes a gentle, much
smaller - dare she think "petite" - spoon of rice. She's tilted her
head right toward her spoon as she raises it, but her eyes are angled
straight at John, searching for a reaction. And there it is: John
actually does a little laugh now and is grinning, not held back.
Slightly startling Jade, Davesprite quietly clears his throat, just
loud enough to grab her and John's attention. He raises his eyebrows
just over the rims of his shades. John glances towards Jade, but she
hasn't even thought to consciously be upset at Davesprite, not at
that moment. He looks to Davesprite, who has lifted a dainty rice-
spoon, a little clumped ball at its end, and presently has the spoon
flipped upside down, contents suspended thanks to the majyyks of
sticky rice. He melodramatically, slow-motion puts his lips closed
against the spoon, eyebrows still raised, and pulls out the spoon,
totally rice-free. Jade actually does a little snort-giggle. John
smiles wide; she catches him, entirely friendly, rolling his eyes.
John sighs, relieved. He says something dorky/Egbert-brand - he's
really glad he has the both of them here on the journey, and as
friends in general too. Davesprite nods. He says he shares the
sentiment. Jade looks at the both of them, and smiles: "Me too."
> ---
Jade visits LOFAF.
That night, Jade has trouble falling asleep. Her mind is rampant with
all sorts of confusion and loneliness and yet warmth and comfort all
at the same time, and it's keeping her up. She decides to visit the
lab/home she grew up in, now on LOFAF in the ship's living room,
hoping to sort out her thoughts at least a bit.
Jade tiptoes out of the bedroom, down the hallway and into the living
room. (The three of them share the same bedroom, which was actually
some kind of generic, empty storage room before they repurposed it
with their sleeping bags. Those were probably duplicated from an
original Jade had somehow. Alchemy never stopped being a thing, you
know! Actually I'm clueless how this would really make sense, I don't
think I want any of them to have gone to any of their planets before
yet, blah blah blah figure this stuff out later. IT'S JUST A CUTE
IMAGE OK.) She shrinks herself down and teleports to the base of the
tower on LOFAF. It's a single action, nearly instantaneous, though
she still hasn't quite gotten used to the tingle of having her own
space messed with yet.
Jade looks around LOFAF, and then up, towards the top of the tower.
Her observatory-bedroom that's so familiar to her is gone, of course.
Jade has trouble remembering all the stuff that happened right before
she merged with Jadesprite and ascended to godhood. She hasn't really
yet opened the can of beans that is Jadesprite's own memories, being
in part her dead dream self, but as she takes in the scene it becomes
apparent that a lot of her memory of what went on while Jadesprite
was, well, a sprite, is quite muddled. She shudders. There's so much
she feels she ought to figure out eventually, and she can't really
imagine talking to her friends about quite a lot of it, despite how
glad she is for their presence and, well, friendliness. Also, it's
still cold on LOFAF, especially under the night sky. She enters the
base of the lab.
Jade hesitates when she reaches the elevator room. The teleporters
probably still work, but suddenly the notion of confronting really
any of her thoughts at all freezes her up a bit. Just what does she
want to figure out? Being inside her home reminds her of how she used
to just be okay and not worry about much. There really wasn't much
that she could have felt conflicted about; even if it was kind of
weird living mostly alone and having a magical dog for a guardian,
nothing ever changed. And when she did, occasionally, feel uncertain
about anything in life, she'd never afforded it that much thought.
It never felt all that difficult to just set aside the things that
weren't easy to be sure about. Jade knows that isn't the point of her
visiting her home tonight, but she still kind of wants to cling onto
the carefreeness that she feels she remembers. She takes the stairs.
> ---
Jade shrinks John and Davesprite to fit onto LOWAS.
John wants to visit his home; Davesprite tags along. After all the
craziness of yesterday, he's a bit worn out. Him and Jade aren't
necessarily mad at each other - in fact, they never really were;
they were more so unto themselves - but they aren't exactly totes
chill as though nothing had ever happened.
In her mind, Jade is reluctant to see them go. As much as the air
between her and Davesprite isn't exactly 100% smooth, she seriously
enjoys company, and doesn't want to imagine having neither of her
friends here around. But she sees Davesprite probably needs some
space away from her, so she agrees to send them both off.
John says they'll only be gone a couple hours - he suggests Jade can
teleport them out and back to normal size once it's 11:00. She says
sure, and thanks him - knowing she'll only have to be alone for a
very specific amount of time is a lot less daunting to her.
John and Davesprite depart. John says "see ya" with a smile;
Davesprite, "later". Jade puts her hands into that rectangle gesture
she always does - it's not actually necessary to make use of her
powers, but she likes the symbolism. Just as neon green sparks of air
begin to collapse around the two, invisible to all but her,
Davesprite turns his head. He was staring out into space (hehehehe);
now he's looking straight at her. He.. smiles, totally full, honest.
It's bigger than Jade's ever thought a Strider could go - dangerously
approaching the span of an ordinary smile, even - and truer than
she'd ever imagined. She's baffled as to why he's smiling. Perhaps
he had some semblence of knowledge about what would happen to LOWAS.
Only he may ever know. She's confused and surprised, but she smiles
in return.
A flash of green as the air totally collapses around them. John and
Davesprite are gone.