abraxaslogs | Smart men are always looking for loopholes.

Abby spotted Jesper doing his thing from her spot on a nearby roof, selling to anyone who will buy. Someone she's never sad to see, someone who makes her feel like she might actually be worthwhile. If only for the moments she buys into that delusion.

She surveyed the area, spotted an archway just the right height for her purposes and wandered on down. "Never actually had you at face level standing up. It feels weird."

Abby's standing on the small archway which does put her head at the same level of Jesper's. Of course, Abby's upsidedown which might have something to do with why it's weird. Or she's just very used to him being a pretty mountain and her being short.

Naturally a tiny girl standing on a surface people don't stand on gets her some weird stares. But she is very much not giving a fuck about that.

Jesper never minds company when he's out there, some days are pretty boring, and he plans on going in semi-soon to go through plans with Sam and Mag about the inn upgrades. They're still in the very early stages, but since he'll have to focus on that for a time and not sell, he's trying to get the hours out of what he has now. He'll likely make Wylan merchant for him during those days, his big sad eyes do wonders in the right audiences.

For now though it's his flashy smile and casual comfortable nature that makes him pretty popular, not only with customers, but the other merchants tolerate him too. He glances up at her and chuckles at her statement, reaching over to tousle her hair although since she's upside down it only fluffs a little.

"You've become very spry lately. Killing monsters from roofs, wandering upside down. You could probably take spy lessons from Inej." Inej can do all of that too but it's because of her background. Jesper's known her for years and he still doesn't know how she does half of it.

Abby's hair works exactly as normal, played with, and falling 'down' her back. Of course 'down' her back is actually up. Everything a matter of perspective. And gentle contact works the same as normal, Abby leans a little into the touch, content like a cat being adored.

"She wants me to go rooftopping with her. I assume it's pretty much what it says on the tin." The name was pretty straightforward after all. Jesper is one of the few people who can praise Abby without her desire to refute the attention. She knows it's fruitless to try, and he's really fucking good at it. "Between the monster and this, I think falling into a wall was a little more surprising. Even if the monster was a little more terrifying."

Abby makes healthy life choices, of course. Like said 'dive bombing a monster' when she had no idea how well that'd work.

"It is, it'll be fun. It takes a bit of fearlessness to jump across the tall ones, but it's a rush." Jesper's done it more than a few times himself. He doesn't have the grace that Inej does and sometimes in the past he stumbled, but not nowadays. He's not surprised that Abby gets along with the other Crows. Inej misses Nina so much, it's nice to see her bonding with another girl.

"Cadens isn't like Ketterdam though, not as many buildings in as cramped a space." He sounds a little wistful. While he's been here for a year and a half, he does still miss Ketterdam, which has always felt like his true home. From the moment he stepped there, fleeing the farms for a better life, he loved it. Cadens is decent but it'll never be the same.

"Don't feel bad if it takes a bit to get used to it, no one's as good as Inej. She's been running on tiptoes since she was little, in a circus family and everything."

"Well, if I miss it just really hurts to roll across a wall." It didn't kill her, but she was practicing jumping across the nonsense Escher geography she built into the back yard of her Horizon. Floating mountains and chaotic waterfalls she could leap across and worst she does is sink into the ocean.

All she had to do was make enough of the gap to hit the wall on the other side, so she was a little more at ease with the idea of rooftopping now. Plus- she can't be afraid of jumping from rooftop to rooftop after jumping from rooftop to monster. Which, you know, was a stupid thing she should have been more scared of.

If she thought about it.

"Getting used to things is pretty much all I have to do here." She's been here long enough to know she's got no idea what the hell is next.

"It's true, we've had to adapt to just about everything, yeah? Though it's a bit easier for us, this is our usual level of technology."

The Free Cities reminds him a lot of Fjerda, and that's not a compliment, but in terms of military and technology first. That makes Thorne Ravka, also not a good thing, so they're all trying to deal with it the best they can. Jesper can still acknowledge that it's more work for the futuristic people to go backwards than those of them used to this type of lifestyle.

"The people from the spaceships have it the worst. I'm surprised they haven't gone mad by now." Shepard, Garrus, and now Finn and Kirk. To be able to explore an entire galaxy and then be grounded here, it must be very confusing. "That would be fun, though. Exploring the stars. Going to different planets. I've already told Shepard that I'd have joined her crew in a second if I could."

Abby walks her way from the arch toward the wall and makes her way back to 'ground.' Stopping and leaning against the wall because she wants to and definitely not because of the vertigo involved in her new powers.

"It's the boredom for me. Having access to near infinite music, videos of cats being dumb, and bullshit humans make is hard to just- not have." This isn't to say she's never been bored, she's been bored all the time at home. But she could do things about it. She just didn't want to. "I guess being stuck on just one planet is the same deal."

There's a small smirk on Abby's face at the idea of Jesper joining a space exploration crew. Because the vibe she'd always gotten from nerd spaces was that a lot of them really wanted to fuck aliens. "See the stars, escape dangerous places, see what weird sex things hot aliens are into?"

She's not judging, she is just using what she knows to have a little fun.

Jesper checks his trinkets on the stall and reaches over to fix the clasp on one of them. All he has to do is touch it, it's also how he sometimes changes sizes on things so anyone can wear them. His scarves have sold out for the day, he makes very colorful ones that people like to get for the sand in the hair to stay out.

"I get that. I used to be a part of a gang, we always had things going on. Kaz kept me constantly on jobs and working so I wouldn't be bored." He was a good leader that way. He could tell Jesper was jumping out of his skin at times and needed the distractions. They didn't entirely know that the lack of Grisha power using was responsible for it, only the symptom.

"Absolutely!" He grins. "To all of the above." See the stars, escape danger, sleep around. His kind of future. "I really want to hook up with a turian, that's what Garrus is. Shepard won't share so I'd have to find another one down for a human mix."

There's a little bit of pain to Abby's expression at the word 'gang.' Other than rhyming with the not-word for Abby and her friends, it just kind of brushes up against a wound that seems a little less healed this month. A little more open to being irritated.

Jesper doesn't have all of his people, as far as Abby is aware. But he has some of them.

She shakes it off as the topic moves forward, smirking at how brazen and candid Jesper is about his interests. She liked sex, it was nice, it felt good. Jesper loved it, in all its forms. She may be willing to throw herself off buildings and run into danger, but she was not nearly as adventurous as Jesper was.

He was about as adventurous as she got, after all.

"You'll have to write to me about your adventures," She finally moved from the wall to peer over all that Jesper was poking and working on at his stall. Now that her head is a little more settled into her current (normal) gravity, "I'm sure out there has the same assholes as down here, just further away and the sign for the bathroom won't be in eng- whatever the fuck the language is here."

Abby doesn't know either Shepard or Garrus, so it really isn't her business and she really shouldn't ask- like that's ever stopped her before, "Why the curiosity, Shepard tell you something fun about Turian sex?"

Jesper is lucky that Inej has always been here, before him even, and when Kaz came, the triad was complete. He never expected Wylan, not so long after he accepted his love would never show up, but he doesn't take it for granted at all that he has his Crows. They're still a gang, only missing a few dozen or so people (or really, just two).

He leans back so she can see what he's doing since she seems curious. If she looks closely enough she can see the metal altering under his touch, bending in a way that most people can't do. His Durast abilities don't seem very popular/widespread and he knows it's not very well-used in the Free Cities in particular. They interrogated him once to figure out how he did one transformation, and he knows if they get wind of some things he's doing, he'd be snatched up. But for his friends, they can always see.

"Eh, probably, but I have a skill for surrounding myself with good people." Like Abby herself, and Shepard, and everyone else who has become his friend since he arrived here. Jesper's sunny temperament helps a lot in that regard, it's not very easy to be an asshole to him, in his experience. People can try but he shrugs things off too easily.

"No, it must be decent for them to be so committed though." It's difficult for him to imagine being in a relationship with either no sex at all or bad sex. Nope, impossible. "I'm curious about the lizard plates he has, it seems like there'd be a lot of chafing. I just like to know things." And experience things. Nothing wrong with that.

She can't really look over the mountain that is his shoulder, but she can slip herself in next to him under his arm. Always curious about the nature of people's powers, here or otherwise. Th new-ness hasn't worn off. It isn't the way her magic works, or maybe it is? She would need to like research shit wouldn't she. Ugh. Homework. But right now reshaping matter is outside her talents. "Here or home?"

She shoots him an awkward look, she wants to disparage herself but since he is one of the few people so certain she isn't the worst it makes it very hard to do it. Kind of like arguing with a wall that compliments you. So she just awkwardly looks at him.

"Some people don't have sex," it seemed worth mentioning. Abby didn't really care for romance, and as much as her friends were just- perpetually in bed with each other, she knew that that wasn't the truth of the world. Just- the truth of her frinds. And her, a little bit. "Some people can fall in love and just- find comfort playing scrabble or baking or space exploring. Others just don't care about love at all. People are weird like that."

"Both. You'd think I'd be wrong, since I'm a criminal and all, the Dregs were the better end of criminals. Besides, everyone in Ketterdam is, the merchants were just as bad, they had more money." Someone was taking advantage no matter what. Maybe for most people it would sound like an excuse, but Jesper isn't excusing himself, since he loves the Dregs, he believed his life was the right one for him. The merchants had all the money and power so they got away with all their crime.

"But here, for sure." He smiles over at her, ruffling her hair playfully since she's one of the people he cares for here. "I have friends, lovers, found family. I'm a lucky guy." So Jesper's content wherever he goes. Back there, he has something like it, here, he found the same thing.

Jesper shrugs. "I don't think it's weird if it makes them happy. I love sex, I couldn't live without it, but that's me." He has yet to meet someone who didn't want sex at all, or at least they haven't told him if that's the case, but he probably would shrug. He'll just have enough for everyone.

Edited 2023-11-01 20:46 (UTC)

It takes Abby a few moments to figure out where the miscommunication happened. As he was answering a question, but no what she was trying to ask. She smiled, listening anyway. It was nice to hear him talk about his life, and that his thing was just finding people of value. And almost believing she fits into that list. Her life was so sheltered by comparison, of course, that comparison played with basically the entire population of Summoned.

But at the end her smile is a little awkward, "I meant your little trick, is that from home or is it from here?"

Of course, asking two nearly the same questions just means she can listen to him talk about a life she'd never experience herself, and she can take that.

Abby shrugs, calling people weird, for Abby, is the same as calling the sky blue. Just a truth of the world. Normal, whatever the fuck that means, isn't. Nobody is ever as boring and same as normal implies. Abby ran her finger over one of Jesper's scarves on the display... accidentally adding an array of glitter to it. (Oops.) Her magic acting up is a general sign her mind is somewhere else. She draws her hand away from anything else her magic might decorate.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I think I could live without sex. It just- it's feels good, but I definitely don't need it the way you do." Abby generally looked small in the moment, but her needs were just to be understood. To be noticed and shown any sort of kindness. A hug did as much for her as anything else, and peeking past all her initial walls would make that clear. She knows Jesper won't take what she said wrong, or she trusts he wont.

She prays he won't. "...I'll buy the scarf I fucked up."

"Oh!" Jesper laughs. "Home. I'm a Grisha, born with supernatural abilities, we all do different things. I'm from a group called Durasts, we manipulate matter, so I can turn solids into liquids, and vice versa, or create pretty jewelry from metal scraps." That's his secret to why he can do such incredible turn around, where he seems to somehow have replenished his work the next day with no problem. Jesper gets cheap materials and uses his gifts to make it look beautiful.

"It's also why I'm a perfect shot. I use telekinesis on the bullet, I can make it go anywhere. I am a near-perfect shot in reality, I usually just need a little oomph to be perfect." Jesper doesn't need his gifts to be lethal, he would be able to hit his targets 9/10 times without them, but they work to give him that edge. He realizes he's never explained that to her, so he's happy to answer. "I hid it back home because they make Grisha fight for the army, or kill us, so it's only here I got used to them."

He's looking forward to a decade from now being quite the expert, like his mother was. Jesper's already pretty decent now that he uses it every day, but it takes precision to get to a higher level. He raises an eyebrow at her and reaches out to take her hand, kissing her knuckles sweetly.

"I don't take it the wrong way, love. Everyone feels differently about it. Nothing is right or wrong in this area." Personal taste. He smiles at the glitter. "Nah, it looks good. Unless you want it, you can keep it."

Well, that explained the whole crime thing. And the whole 'I can throw daggers and shoot guns with equal accuracy' thing. The charm and kindness didn't needed explaining, that's just Jesper. "With great power comes great government telling you how they want to use your power."

If her world had magic, what were the odds it'd just slot into the same landscape of abuse and 'get ahead' hustle mindset. The same abuse, a new capital to hoard.

The kiss and affirmation he got that she was talking just about her, and nothing about how good he was with her, got a smile out of the small ball of unease better known as Abby.

She'll respond, at first, by just leaning against Jesper, not quite looking for a hug, but not saying no to one either. As she inspects what she's done to the scarf. She traces her finger over it some more. Making the awkward line into part of greater whorls and loops of glitter. "Maybe you can get more selling it like this."

"Exactly. I had no interest in being one fodder for their wars." That is what the Ravkan army more or less used Grisha for. They threw them into wars to use their powers and probably didn't care how many of them died in exchange. The Grisha themselves cared and they made a community, but they still weren't the ones in command. "A Grisha is now queen over there so things have gotten better, but I still don't plan on going."

Technically in his real world Jesper isn't experienced at all in his gifts. He spent too much hiding them. He's an amateur at best. But he's been spending all this time in Abraxas using them, so he'd be someone the army would want. Joke's on them, he's hiding out in a rich boy's house for the rest of his days.

He picks up the cue and puts an arm around her so she can lean into his shoulder more, in a side-hug. Jesper is also very touchy with his friends so he can always be counted on for affection. He watches her modify the scarf with her glitter and smiles. He knows personally what it's like, seeing your gifts turn something more beautiful.

"I bet I could. I love glitter." Jesper's work is very colorful, always. "How are you doing, my dear?"

Smart men are always looking for loopholes.

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