didn't take too long 'fore i found out

[conspiracytheory]

CHARACTERS: jackie + hyde
LOCATION: one of their rooms, probably hyde's.
WARNINGS: none as of yet but will update as needed.
SUMMARY: so it's time for a serious discussion about "hey we are actually stuck in space."

[ this is not good. hyde knows that. he's aware that this isn't a good situation. he's a pretty aware dude. once the high wears off and he's kicked around for a few days, he knows this is a bad scene.

he also doesn't now how to get out of it.

it's like this more intense, fucked up version of edna leaving the first time, stuck somewhere without any clear options back to something good. and he's got jackie here with him. jackie's not cut out for this shit, that's just a fact. hyde's read some stuff, alright? he's heard about what goes on up here. jackie's not that type of girl, she's just not. donna might handle it, but jackie isn't--

they just need to figure out a plan. a way to deal.

which is why he doesn't break out the stash, just takes off his sunglasses and hooks them on the front of his t-shirt, because this serious, and they have to act serious, damn it. ]

Jackie, c'mere. We've got to figure out what we're doing about this.

Comments

[shrillest]

[She pauses in the application of her lipgloss in the mirror, then finishes the smooth stroke as if he hasn't spoken. It isn't that it matters- Other than her little jaunt into the gardens after she first arrived, Jackie hasn't ventured farther than the trek from her room to Steven's, and then back again. It's a daily habit, and that means there's no one to impress.

But once the high's worn off, and days have passed and nothing changes, it settles unease low in her stomach. There's nothing to occupy her time, because the device is something she doesn't want to use, not when it's new and beyond her understanding and just another stark reminder of just how out of her element she is. But without it- without exploring, there's nothing to do and it means she thinks.

This at least, is mind numbingly familiar, and needs nothing more than muscle memory to accomplish. She can shut her brain off, and it's so normal for her that Steven doesn't doesn't bother her about it. This isn't a conversation she wants to have. But once her lips are bright cherry red, she doesn't have an excuse not to comply, and there's no way to reasonably pretend he wasn't loud enough. She sets the cap and tosses it back onto the bag of makeup that had come in her log and makes her way toward him]

Why do we have to?

[It sounds dismissive, but she's matched his tone. More serious for him than she's ever been for anyone else, and once she reaches where he's seated on the bed, she gently nudges his hand off his knee so she can slide into his lap, arm slung carelessly over his shoulder. Jackie already knows the answer.

It doesn't matter how long they wait- They won't just wake up back at home like it never happened. And no one is coming for them]

[conspiracytheory]

[ it's kind of tempting to just...ignore this. say everything was fine, they're fine, kiss jackie and relish the fact that they're alone and red isn't going to barge in and threaten to put a boot in his ass. it's not the worst, you know, having his own place, and a fully stocked kitchen and--

and he wants to go home. home, which tends to be an ever fluctuating and uncertain thing where hyde's concerned. he sighs, lets her drop into his lap, winds his hands around her waist and tug her in, comfortable and easy. ]

Because we're still up here. It's been a week, you know?

[ a week. a week without anyone coming looking. without any escape plan. they couldn't hide out in his room forever.

for one thing, they were going to run out of weed one way or another. ]

[shrillest]

[She leans the majority of her weight against him, settles her free hand across the back of his wrist- and if she closes her eyes, she's sure she could almost pretend this was just another afternoon in the Foreman's basement. Nothing to be afraid of, except maybe another one of Michael's tantrums. Though the bed reminds her of the old military cot in Steven's room, the rest of it- Space is cold, and metallic and completely spartan. No fading couches, or band posters that she doesn't even think really qualifies as music- not even messy laundry.

He speaks and keeps her firmly rooted in the situation at hand]

Yeah, but they've noticed your gone, Steven. They've got to be looking for you.

[Space might be out of their reach, but she'd like to be wrong. She'd like to think that if they just wait a little longer, maybe for them to put a second mortgage on the house and get the money, or just- figure out how they got here and just follow them- They'll come after all. And then they won't have to worry about anything. Because it's not like the Forman's will leave her behind, even if they weren't looking for her.

It's an odd concept to have to acknowledge, even just in the back of her own mind. Steven has a family. It might be kobbled together and mostly an accident, but they do care about him. She's seen that. They'll miss him. A few years ago, she would have been Steven- Now? Her father's in prison and her mother won't even come home, much less care that she isn't there.

It doesn't actually matter if she's popular at all. No one's going to miss her.]

[conspiracytheory]

[ she might not mean to, but she puts her finger right on something that had been eating at him. what if the foremans assumed he just up and left? what if that's what red thought, that hyde skipped town without word? he curls his fingers through hers, squeezes tightly, but he doesn't say anything. ]

Red's not going to call NASA looking for me.

[ flatly, dismissive, because hyde doesn't want to think about it. bottling things up, that's the way to deal with this. ]

We gotta figure this out, so we don't get like, eaten alive by this place while we're finding our way out.

[ because that's going to keep this discussion nice and calm. ]

[shrillest]

[She squeezes back, takes comfort in the familiarity of his touch, in the unspoken way he offers gestures instead of words to make her feel better. To soften the blow of the conversation he thinks they have to get through. If he'd been anyone else- Wouldn't have even been close to enough. But it's more than he's offered anyone else. For now, that isn't nothing]

Of course you think that. You don't even think NASA goes to space!

[It's hard to argue against it. She fully believes that they'll miss Steven, that they'll notice- That they care about him. But Mrs. Forman might not have the kind of pull over Mr. Forman to get him to do it. To go to such lengths.

But it's all they have.

The hand she'd carelessly flung over his shoulder curls in the fabric of his shirt. Hard enough that her knuckles turn white. Her voice is dangerously quiet, too calm. The last thing she wants to process is this, that he could be serious]

What are you saying?

[conspiracytheory]

[ if it were anyone else, hyde would have told them to sac up and get their shit together. not donna, maybe, but anyone else. but jackie's got a whole separate playbook. hyde's been working on it. he's getting better, but he's still missing all the shit for kidnapped into space. ]

I'm saying we gotta be careful, is all.

[ steven hyde, saying they had to be careful. what is this even. ]

People die up here. You can't go around doing all that stupid stuff you do.

[shrillest]

Careful?! No, I can't die, Steven- I'm seventeen and-

[She tries to make it shallow, make it an expected rejoinder than neither of them have to think too hard about. It cracks half way through, shows the real fear that's clawed it's way to the bottom of her stomach, spread ice cold through her body and settled heavy on her chest- a dead weight making it hard to breathe.

'Careful' and 'don't do stupid things' aren't a plan. There is no plan they can make that comes with any sort of guarantee of safety. The worst thing she has had to fear in regards to her own safety was the time Michael set her house on fire, and that was only a room.

She wants to finish. Wants to say she's too hot for that, but she can't. Because she gets hung up on the fact that she's seventeen. That isn't anything but too young and too incapable of dealing with something like this]

[conspiracytheory]

[ he gets it. he does. she trails off and hyde tightens his grip on her. jackie's panicking and hyde totally gets it. he did the same, had the same thought, and he's over it, which is why he can be here rubbing circles on the small of her back, steadying her. ]

We're not gonna die.

[ totally certain, because fuck if hyde is letting that happen. ]

We just got to be aware of ourselves, alright?

[ it's not...really a great plan, he'll give her that. but it's all he's got. ]

[shrillest]

[She twists a little in his arms, so that she can press her face into the groove of his shoulder, and tighten her own grip in return. She doesn't say anything when he affirms that they aren't going to die. Just remembers to breathe, and inhales in tandem to the small circles he's making on the small of her back. Tries to calm.

Maybe it makes it easier, that this is all so outside of her realm of understanding. She can't sit there and dream up all the scenarios of what could possibly go wrong, can't get stuck on them. Jackie has no idea what about space is capable of killing her- Except for perhaps the other people, but then she can't even begin to fathom why]

Alright. [It's still too quiet, not quite right. Because maybe it just makes it worse instead. Because now it looms over heard, some giant unknown- But she isn't going to fall apart. She isn't alone, and more importantly, she's with Steven. He has never, even when he didn't like her, let anything happen to her when he was around]

What- Do I do that's stupid? [Jackie is only asking, is only willing to believe that there actually is something, because- She knows she won't get a rejoinder about how she only reads girly magazines, or hasn't bothered to learn anything about his theories. Jackie has never had to be careful about anything in her life, from how she spent her money, to how she spoke to other people. But Steven has, she- Figures this is a good place to start]

[conspiracytheory]

[ they're just kids. they'll stay out of it, all that other shit that's been happening. sirius told him how to read back on the network, and hyde started out looking for blue chicks, but then he read all the other shit.

people get hurt. people die. and those are people who knew what they were doing up here. he and jackie? this isn't their show. they need to keep out of that. ]

I dunno. I figure we'll know stupid when we see it. Or I will.

[ taking pot shots at jackie's wealth, what to do when in doubt. ]

We gotta listen to what that cat chick said. No walking around the dark halls alone.