Jackie’s holed up in a vent eating pep bars when her radio goes off. She finishes cramming her current bar into her mouth, chewing as she waits to see who it is. Can’t be Tenenbaum, she hasn’t rescued any Little Sisters lately.
“Where have you holed up, sister? I can’t spot you on any of the cameras.” That’s Atlas. Oh good. She hasn’t heard from him for a while now. Jackie washes down the pep bar with a little stale coffee as he prompts her for an answer. “You reading me?”
“Yeah. I’m in a vent.” She radios back, scooting close to the opening and sticking her arm out, waving a little. Jackie’s not quite willing to come all the way out, not when she’s nursing a few wounds here and she knows there’s a spider splicer in the next room. “I got cornered, found a med kit in here, some food. Give me a few minutes. Be out soon.”
“That’s fine love, take your time.” Jackie pauses, giving the radio a look. That’s a new one. She’s gotten used to sister, though sometimes the way he says it brings to mind nuns rather than comrades. Love, on the other hand, seems more like a pet name.
Jackie’s never had a pet name before and she’s not sure how she feels about it. She wolfs down another pep bar and finishes off the coffee, getting her items all loaded and sorted before slipping out of the vent and heading off to deal with that spider splicer, camera at the ready to get a snap of that hook-flinging jerk.
“Wait a moment there love.” Atlas says and Jack comes to a stop. Even though she can hear the splicer singing hymns in the next room, she finds herself very attentive to what Atlas is saying. “You seem to be slowing down. Are you feeling tired?”
“No. Just had three peps and a coffee. Got lots of energy.” She radios back, her voice soft to keep from drawing any attention. Jackie edges towards the exit, raising the camera. “Two secs.”
She ducks into the room, jerking it up and snapping a shot of the splicer as it clatters towards her. He shrieks, throwing hooks and she ducks and rolls to the side, filling a palm with fire and nailing him with the first throw. The splicer falls with a shriek and before he can spring away again, she’s got her machine gun out and filling him full of lead. The loud rattle of the gun dulls her hearing a little but when it comes to an end, she knows for sure there’s nothing left to hear but the dripping of water.
Jackie loots the corpse, taking $10 and an autohack off of him. Nice. While she’s reloading, the radio hisses back on. “Well that’s good to hear sister, but you’ll want to be careful. You never know when you’ll find yourself counting sheep.”
Odd thing to say and she opens her mouth to tell him as much when she feels all the energy drain out of her. Jackie’s knees almost go out on her and she ends up leaning against a wall just to stay upright, feeling like somebody’s tied weights to every part of her. All she can think about is sleeping even though she knows this a dangerous place to do it.
“Go on sister, it’s alright. I’ll take care of you.” That’s the last thing she hears before she slides down the wall and onto the floor, curling up in a ball. She knows she shouldn’t sleep here and she knows she should be much more worried than she is right now. But all she can focus on is shutting her eyes and falling asleep, right beside the corpse of the splicer.
She wakes up in a dark room, lying on a cot. Jackie goes from prone to upright in half a second, on the defensive as soon as she’s aware of how vulnerable she is. Her weapons are gone, and so’s the radio. There’s still EVE in her system though and she calls up a flame, lifting her hand to try figure out where she is.
Jackie doesn’t recognize this place. It’s easy to get turned around in Rapture but she feels certain that she’s never been here before. She attempts to estimate how long she’s been in here. While Jackie feels surprisingly well rested, like she’s been sleeping for weeks, though the blood on her sweater is still a little wet and sticky so she can’t have been out more than two, maybe three hours. She puts that aside and glances around at the rest of the room.
It looks like somebody’s been living in here for at least a few weeks, if not a few months. Not good. Whoever found her might be outside then, waiting for her to wake up. Jackie looks over the room in case there are any weapons, but all she finds are papers and a few spare changes of clothes for a man, and finally a door. It doesn’t seem to be locked and she extinguishes the flame before she opens it, not wanting to alert who’s on the other side. It opens easily and she crouches, silently slipping out.
This room isn’t much bigger. There are plenty of TVs in here, all stacked up on top of each other, and as she watches, she can see the picture changing, switching between cameras. The garbage here and there makes it clear that the same somebody who’s been living in the other room has been here too. There’s a half-finished tin of corned beef sitting on the control console, right beside some stale looking bread.
There’s papers too and she steps forward, bringing her hand close to them so she can read them. They’re financial records for Fontaine Futuristics and a dozen other names she doesn’t recognize. Somebody’s been pouring over them, making notes in a funny sort of scribble. She leans in closer to read them, going still when she hears someone step on the grating behind her, not nearly as silently as they mean to.
Jackie whirls around, ready to light up whoever’s there. It’s not a splicer, just a large man with dark hair and a crooked nose. He’s got both hands up in a hold-your-fire gesture, and before he speaks, she knows exactly who he is - the only person in this place who wouldn’t kill her when he came across her body, aside from Tenenbaum.
“Would you kindly not use your plasmids in here? I don’t need you setting everything on fire.” Atlas says, but his voice is different. Jackie’s almost embarrassed to realize that’s because she’s hearing him in the flesh, and not through the static of a radio. She snaps her hand shut and lets the flames die away. He steps toward her, lowering his hands. “I wasn’t sure how much longer you’d be asleep. How do you feel?”
“Fine.” She feels wary letting anyone so near her, but this is Atlas. He’s been helping her since her bathysphere docked. “Where are we?”
“Somewhere safe. I won’t bore you with the details. Go on, sit down love.” He gestures to a chair and she feels the tension slip out of her, replaced by relief that she’s here with Atlas instead of somebody else. Jackie sits and Atlas sits across from her. Even like this, he looms a bit over her. She’s not a short woman by any means, but she feels short next to him. Still, she feels very calm with him sitting across from her. He’s the only person in this place who isn’t planning on hurting her. “Is that your blood?”
“No.” She touches the damp stain. Her sweater will never be the same. Too bad. She really liked this one. Jackie glances towards the TVs. There’s still work to do, little girls to save, and Andrew Ryan to murder for what he did. Her mouth pulls into a line as she remembers that Atlas lost his wife and son less than a day ago. “Sorry, about your family. I tried to get to them.”
He ducks his head a little, seemingly at a loss for words. Atlas reaches out and sets a hand on her knee, squeezing it slightly. It makes her feel a little uncomfortable. “I know...I know. You tried. Don’t think I don’t appreciate that. Moria and… and Patrick… we always knew it was a long shot out of this place. I just never thought that I’d be left alive without ‘em.”
Atlas’ hand is very warm. She presses her thighs a little closer together, even though she knows her skirt’s long enough to hide anything. Jackie isn’t sure how to ask him to remove his hand politely. He’s in mourning, she doesn’t want to make it worse for him. But. She has to say something. “Atlas-”
“But… at least you’re alive love. At least I’m not alone.” His head comes up and the look he gives her makes her feel a little like a teenager again. He’s so handsome… she hadn’t noticed that before. Jackie feels her cheeks flush a little. “Sorry for interrupting. What were you saying?”
“I was going to ask-” She pauses. Jackie’s not sure why she wanted him to remove his hand from her knee. It’s so nice having it there. What was she thinking? She clears her throat instead. “Um. I forget. Sorry.”
“No apologies sister, I’m sure it’ll come back to you.” His fingers rub against her skirt. It’s very distracting. Jackie has a hard time forcing herself focus on the conversation. “So tell me, now that there’s no one listening in on us, is there somebody waiting for you on the surface? Your family, a husband-?”
“Family. Mom and dad, cousins in England. No husband. No… anything.” She settles on. Focus, she tries to tell herself. Focus. There’s a job to do. She can’t get flustered about this... “I need health, EVE, then I can head out, take on Ryan, get us out of here.”
“And you will, once I’m certain you won’t pull that fainting act when you’re trying to break into Rapture Central Control. Ryan’s smart enough to know that killing you brings you back in the Vita Chambers, so he’ll find some other nasty way of stopping you without stopping your heart.” He’s right, though she still finds herself doubtful that anything could stop her at this point. After all, she made it out of Fort Frolic without becoming another of Cohen’s plaster stage pieces, and nothing she’s seen yet has been more terrifying than that. Atlas gives her a squeeze, tugging her out of her thoughts. “I’m not letting you leave until I’m sure you’re ready to face him.”
“I’m ready.” No hesitation on her part, at least not out loud anyway. Jackie squirms a little in her chair. She feels safe here, but she also feels on edge, like something’s not right and if she could just figure out what was wrong, she could stop it now. “Atlas, I feel fine.”
He gives her a look that makes it clear he doesn’t believe her. “You’re staying here for another hour or two, then we’ll hit Ryan hard. Let him think you’ve gone and died, then we’ll hit him harder than before. But until then, we should do something about your clothes. Speaking as kindly as I can love, but you’re a right mess. I think I’ve got something to fit you… maybe one of Moria’s dresses.”
“You don’t have to. I’m fine in this.” She says and it’s true. Yes it’s a bit grosser than it was when she boarded the plane but it’s held up pretty well. No rips or tears, just an assortment of stains. He just pats her knee and rises, walking into the bedroom she came out of. Jackie frowns to herself. The last thing she wants to wear is a dead woman’s dress, even if it is from that woman’s husband. Is this his way of dealing with grief?
She’s itching to get back out there. If she’s honest with herself, this is the most alive she’s ever felt. There’s something about this place that she almost likes. Before the plane crashed, she would have never imagined herself to be the kind of woman who could swing a wrench hard enough to cave in somebody’s skull, much less the kind of woman who would enjoy it. What would her mother think if she saw Jackie now? What would anybody think if they knew that after years of mediocrity, she’d found something she was truly good at: killing people.
“Jackie, here we are. This should be around your size.” Atlas offers the dress to her. It’s nice, if a little old-fashioned. That’s not really a surprise when she thinks about it. It’s not as if the poor would have access to any current fashions, not down here anyway. “Do you need any help getting out of your things? Moria always needed a hand with the zipper.”
“No, I’m good.” She takes the dress. Jackie gives him a grateful nod, even if she doesn’t really want this, and steps into the bedroom to change. He’s turned the light on in here, and she can actually see what it’s like. Lived in seems to be the best word for it. The cot doesn’t look terribly comfortable but after seeing the rest of what Rapture has to offer, she imagine it’s like heaven. There’s also a chest she hadn’t noticed before, right underneath the bed. Jackie quickly peeks in it and finds her weapons there, breathing a sigh of relief. Good, she was wondering where they got to.
There’s no point in digging anything out just yet, not while she’s got clothes to switch out of. She works her sweater over her head, dropping it on the floor. Jackie didn’t realize how wet it was until she hears it smack heavily on the floor and feels the chill on her shoulders. A dress might not be enough to keep warm down here. Maybe if she can, she’ll rinse her sweater and wear it out instead. Jackie starts on her skirt, and much to her irritation, she finds her zipper’s stuck.
Some Beauty - Jackie/Atlas [noncon, mind control] 1/3
“Where have you holed up, sister? I can’t spot you on any of the cameras.” That’s Atlas. Oh good. She hasn’t heard from him for a while now. Jackie washes down the pep bar with a little stale coffee as he prompts her for an answer. “You reading me?”
“Yeah. I’m in a vent.” She radios back, scooting close to the opening and sticking her arm out, waving a little. Jackie’s not quite willing to come all the way out, not when she’s nursing a few wounds here and she knows there’s a spider splicer in the next room. “I got cornered, found a med kit in here, some food. Give me a few minutes. Be out soon.”
“That’s fine love, take your time.” Jackie pauses, giving the radio a look. That’s a new one. She’s gotten used to sister, though sometimes the way he says it brings to mind nuns rather than comrades. Love, on the other hand, seems more like a pet name.
Jackie’s never had a pet name before and she’s not sure how she feels about it. She wolfs down another pep bar and finishes off the coffee, getting her items all loaded and sorted before slipping out of the vent and heading off to deal with that spider splicer, camera at the ready to get a snap of that hook-flinging jerk.
“Wait a moment there love.” Atlas says and Jack comes to a stop. Even though she can hear the splicer singing hymns in the next room, she finds herself very attentive to what Atlas is saying. “You seem to be slowing down. Are you feeling tired?”
“No. Just had three peps and a coffee. Got lots of energy.” She radios back, her voice soft to keep from drawing any attention. Jackie edges towards the exit, raising the camera. “Two secs.”
She ducks into the room, jerking it up and snapping a shot of the splicer as it clatters towards her. He shrieks, throwing hooks and she ducks and rolls to the side, filling a palm with fire and nailing him with the first throw. The splicer falls with a shriek and before he can spring away again, she’s got her machine gun out and filling him full of lead. The loud rattle of the gun dulls her hearing a little but when it comes to an end, she knows for sure there’s nothing left to hear but the dripping of water.
Jackie loots the corpse, taking $10 and an autohack off of him. Nice. While she’s reloading, the radio hisses back on. “Well that’s good to hear sister, but you’ll want to be careful. You never know when you’ll find yourself counting sheep.”
Odd thing to say and she opens her mouth to tell him as much when she feels all the energy drain out of her. Jackie’s knees almost go out on her and she ends up leaning against a wall just to stay upright, feeling like somebody’s tied weights to every part of her. All she can think about is sleeping even though she knows this a dangerous place to do it.
“Go on sister, it’s alright. I’ll take care of you.” That’s the last thing she hears before she slides down the wall and onto the floor, curling up in a ball. She knows she shouldn’t sleep here and she knows she should be much more worried than she is right now. But all she can focus on is shutting her eyes and falling asleep, right beside the corpse of the splicer.
She wakes up in a dark room, lying on a cot. Jackie goes from prone to upright in half a second, on the defensive as soon as she’s aware of how vulnerable she is. Her weapons are gone, and so’s the radio. There’s still EVE in her system though and she calls up a flame, lifting her hand to try figure out where she is.
Jackie doesn’t recognize this place. It’s easy to get turned around in Rapture but she feels certain that she’s never been here before. She attempts to estimate how long she’s been in here. While Jackie feels surprisingly well rested, like she’s been sleeping for weeks, though the blood on her sweater is still a little wet and sticky so she can’t have been out more than two, maybe three hours. She puts that aside and glances around at the rest of the room.
It looks like somebody’s been living in here for at least a few weeks, if not a few months. Not good. Whoever found her might be outside then, waiting for her to wake up. Jackie looks over the room in case there are any weapons, but all she finds are papers and a few spare changes of clothes for a man, and finally a door. It doesn’t seem to be locked and she extinguishes the flame before she opens it, not wanting to alert who’s on the other side. It opens easily and she crouches, silently slipping out.
This room isn’t much bigger. There are plenty of TVs in here, all stacked up on top of each other, and as she watches, she can see the picture changing, switching between cameras. The garbage here and there makes it clear that the same somebody who’s been living in the other room has been here too. There’s a half-finished tin of corned beef sitting on the control console, right beside some stale looking bread.
There’s papers too and she steps forward, bringing her hand close to them so she can read them. They’re financial records for Fontaine Futuristics and a dozen other names she doesn’t recognize. Somebody’s been pouring over them, making notes in a funny sort of scribble. She leans in closer to read them, going still when she hears someone step on the grating behind her, not nearly as silently as they mean to.
Jackie whirls around, ready to light up whoever’s there. It’s not a splicer, just a large man with dark hair and a crooked nose. He’s got both hands up in a hold-your-fire gesture, and before he speaks, she knows exactly who he is - the only person in this place who wouldn’t kill her when he came across her body, aside from Tenenbaum.
“Would you kindly not use your plasmids in here? I don’t need you setting everything on fire.” Atlas says, but his voice is different. Jackie’s almost embarrassed to realize that’s because she’s hearing him in the flesh, and not through the static of a radio. She snaps her hand shut and lets the flames die away. He steps toward her, lowering his hands. “I wasn’t sure how much longer you’d be asleep. How do you feel?”
“Fine.” She feels wary letting anyone so near her, but this is Atlas. He’s been helping her since her bathysphere docked. “Where are we?”
“Somewhere safe. I won’t bore you with the details. Go on, sit down love.” He gestures to a chair and she feels the tension slip out of her, replaced by relief that she’s here with Atlas instead of somebody else. Jackie sits and Atlas sits across from her. Even like this, he looms a bit over her. She’s not a short woman by any means, but she feels short next to him. Still, she feels very calm with him sitting across from her. He’s the only person in this place who isn’t planning on hurting her. “Is that your blood?”
“No.” She touches the damp stain. Her sweater will never be the same. Too bad. She really liked this one. Jackie glances towards the TVs. There’s still work to do, little girls to save, and Andrew Ryan to murder for what he did. Her mouth pulls into a line as she remembers that Atlas lost his wife and son less than a day ago. “Sorry, about your family. I tried to get to them.”
He ducks his head a little, seemingly at a loss for words. Atlas reaches out and sets a hand on her knee, squeezing it slightly. It makes her feel a little uncomfortable. “I know...I know. You tried. Don’t think I don’t appreciate that. Moria and… and Patrick… we always knew it was a long shot out of this place. I just never thought that I’d be left alive without ‘em.”
Atlas’ hand is very warm. She presses her thighs a little closer together, even though she knows her skirt’s long enough to hide anything. Jackie isn’t sure how to ask him to remove his hand politely. He’s in mourning, she doesn’t want to make it worse for him. But. She has to say something. “Atlas-”
“But… at least you’re alive love. At least I’m not alone.” His head comes up and the look he gives her makes her feel a little like a teenager again. He’s so handsome… she hadn’t noticed that before. Jackie feels her cheeks flush a little. “Sorry for interrupting. What were you saying?”
“I was going to ask-” She pauses. Jackie’s not sure why she wanted him to remove his hand from her knee. It’s so nice having it there. What was she thinking? She clears her throat instead. “Um. I forget. Sorry.”
“No apologies sister, I’m sure it’ll come back to you.” His fingers rub against her skirt. It’s very distracting. Jackie has a hard time forcing herself focus on the conversation. “So tell me, now that there’s no one listening in on us, is there somebody waiting for you on the surface? Your family, a husband-?”
“Family. Mom and dad, cousins in England. No husband. No… anything.” She settles on. Focus, she tries to tell herself. Focus. There’s a job to do. She can’t get flustered about this... “I need health, EVE, then I can head out, take on Ryan, get us out of here.”
“And you will, once I’m certain you won’t pull that fainting act when you’re trying to break into Rapture Central Control. Ryan’s smart enough to know that killing you brings you back in the Vita Chambers, so he’ll find some other nasty way of stopping you without stopping your heart.” He’s right, though she still finds herself doubtful that anything could stop her at this point. After all, she made it out of Fort Frolic without becoming another of Cohen’s plaster stage pieces, and nothing she’s seen yet has been more terrifying than that. Atlas gives her a squeeze, tugging her out of her thoughts. “I’m not letting you leave until I’m sure you’re ready to face him.”
“I’m ready.” No hesitation on her part, at least not out loud anyway. Jackie squirms a little in her chair. She feels safe here, but she also feels on edge, like something’s not right and if she could just figure out what was wrong, she could stop it now. “Atlas, I feel fine.”
He gives her a look that makes it clear he doesn’t believe her. “You’re staying here for another hour or two, then we’ll hit Ryan hard. Let him think you’ve gone and died, then we’ll hit him harder than before. But until then, we should do something about your clothes. Speaking as kindly as I can love, but you’re a right mess. I think I’ve got something to fit you… maybe one of Moria’s dresses.”
“You don’t have to. I’m fine in this.” She says and it’s true. Yes it’s a bit grosser than it was when she boarded the plane but it’s held up pretty well. No rips or tears, just an assortment of stains. He just pats her knee and rises, walking into the bedroom she came out of. Jackie frowns to herself. The last thing she wants to wear is a dead woman’s dress, even if it is from that woman’s husband. Is this his way of dealing with grief?
She’s itching to get back out there. If she’s honest with herself, this is the most alive she’s ever felt. There’s something about this place that she almost likes. Before the plane crashed, she would have never imagined herself to be the kind of woman who could swing a wrench hard enough to cave in somebody’s skull, much less the kind of woman who would enjoy it. What would her mother think if she saw Jackie now? What would anybody think if they knew that after years of mediocrity, she’d found something she was truly good at: killing people.
“Jackie, here we are. This should be around your size.” Atlas offers the dress to her. It’s nice, if a little old-fashioned. That’s not really a surprise when she thinks about it. It’s not as if the poor would have access to any current fashions, not down here anyway. “Do you need any help getting out of your things? Moria always needed a hand with the zipper.”
“No, I’m good.” She takes the dress. Jackie gives him a grateful nod, even if she doesn’t really want this, and steps into the bedroom to change. He’s turned the light on in here, and she can actually see what it’s like. Lived in seems to be the best word for it. The cot doesn’t look terribly comfortable but after seeing the rest of what Rapture has to offer, she imagine it’s like heaven. There’s also a chest she hadn’t noticed before, right underneath the bed. Jackie quickly peeks in it and finds her weapons there, breathing a sigh of relief. Good, she was wondering where they got to.
There’s no point in digging anything out just yet, not while she’s got clothes to switch out of. She works her sweater over her head, dropping it on the floor. Jackie didn’t realize how wet it was until she hears it smack heavily on the floor and feels the chill on her shoulders. A dress might not be enough to keep warm down here. Maybe if she can, she’ll rinse her sweater and wear it out instead. Jackie starts on her skirt, and much to her irritation, she finds her zipper’s stuck.