closed starter for @rabbitbled set in the s3 springtime in a jackie lives AU
The worst part of all this is, now even if Jackie wanted to help, she couldn't.
Well, she could. Probably, if she wanted it that badly. But there's still a part of her that's frozen in place, left with the snow that had turned to slush a week or two ago. She's lost track of the days out here, but the others say it's springtime. They don't really say it to her, but they say it.
Ever since Lottie had dragged her in from the snow for some unseen purpose, Jackie has been trying to understand her place in all of this. She wasn't good, or strong, or brave like the others. And while her deadened nerves and blackened skin were recovering from severe third degree frostbite -- thanks for the diagnosis, Dr. Quigley -- there isn't much she can do to really help with the chores and the reorganization of everything after the cabin fire.
They have her hanging the wash on the line to dry. Simple enough task to do with hands that can barely tie her shoelaces anymore. Actually, Jackie's not sure whose shoelaces these started as...
She notices Shauna approach, but says nothing, trying to build up words like walls in her mind to defend from criticism of her laundry skills -- or lack thereof.
v: it's not evil - just hungry, available for shauna/jackie/misty/nat
note: full background/social and timeframe setting for verse/threads is flexible dependent on plotting with partner
Cast: Shauna the psychopomp, Jackie the siren, Natalie the dhampir, Misty the hag-touched.
Shauna Shipman: Psychopomp
A psychopomp, or in essence, a reaper, is a melancholy and misunderstood figure. Associated with death but never the cause of it, Shauna is feared all the same. She arrives at the site of death and quietly begins the work of preparing the soul for its next stage of being. She does not judge or condemn the dead, but simply makes the transition to the afterlife a little easier, perhaps a little kinder. Her hunter's knife is the scythe by which she severs the threads to the mortal plane, whether or not there is a body left to carve. It is somber, solitary work to clean up the place where a life once was, but she dutifully does her work no matter how many believe her to be a butcher.
Shauna often does not know those she is tasked with ferrying, but if she learns anything of them, she writes down details of who they once were in her journal. Much of a life is lost to time, but she tries to remember the ones she helps.
She sometimes takes the form of her young self, and sometimes she is older, but Shauna exists outside of linear time and most frequently appears to be her teenage self (even if she never really was a teenager). She can also manifest in animal forms, occasionally a deer or a flock of birds waiting just beyond the body.
Shauna doesn't appear naturally to the living, unless they have some connection to the otherworldly -- the killers, those who have had near-death experiences, and others who have witnessed a lot of death may be included in this, but there isn't an exact science to it.
Jackie Taylor: Siren
What she lacks in skill and acuity she makes up for in influence. Sirens have that sort of hold on people, after all. For the longest time, Jackie never really understood why she always got what she wanted -- she just knew the universe conspired to make it happen. It wasn't until she told a guy in high school to "go fuck himself" that she finally realized there was something more to her words and her voice. That said, not everything she says is compelling -- Jackie has learned to hone "the voice" she uses to influence and beguile. In the meantime, it doesn't hurt she's gorgeous and well-liked. And that wasn't because she forced anyone to believe it... right?
Contrary to popular belief, she's not the type of siren that people think should be related to mermaids. They're more classically bird-women, but Jackie doesn't manifest any avian traits (apart from sometimes getting really sharp manicures, but that's purely aesthetic).
Jackie is skilled in vocal mimicry and even if she's not the world's best singer, her influencing abilities can be dangerous to weak-minded individuals. If she's swapped spit with you too, she's likely to have a stronger hold. If she's silenced, gagged, made to bite her own tongue, or deafened, her powers lose their effect.
Jackie also has synesthesia and can clearly see and distinguish the source of sounds (granted that they're not overpowering -- she can be prone to overstimulation).
Natalie Scatorccio: Dhampir
A cursed child often born of a vampiric father and a human mother. A mix of both worlds, belonging to neither. Natalie has always been an outcast in every sense of the word, right down to her very biology. And as she slowly learned the truth about her parentage, things began to become clearer. As vampiric offspring are wont to do, Nat was responsible for the death of her father, but it didn't do anything to solve her own affliction. It did, however, free her mother from his thrall -- but her mother still resents her daughter for what she did, even if it was ultimately a good thing.
As a dhampir, she has a weakened mix of the strengths and vulnerabilities as a vampire (though of course, stakes to the heart and decapitation will do the trick). Natalie is prone to sunburns and is sensitive to light, but is slightly stronger, faster, and more durable than humans. Religious iconography does still impact her, though she does not need invitation over thresholds and is not weak to running water.
Her blood and bile are toxic to full-blooded vampires, and her own appetite for carnage can mostly be suppressed, but she does still need to drink blood every so often, especially when injured or weak. (This is a mix of dhampir lore sources, I don't love when they're just All Vampire Awesomeness with No Weaknesses.)
Natalie will stop aging on a human timescale when she hits adulthood, if she lives that long. In the meantime, she indulges in nightlife, intoxicants, and other experiences to try to numb the pain and distract from the fact there's nowhere she truly belongs.
Misty Quigley: Hag-touched
She wasn't born a witch, and she's not innately magical. But Misty saw the sorts of powers that existed just beyond the fingertips of most normal lives and wanted some of it for herself. For those who aren't lucky enough to have natural magic, well, there's always a hag coven. Misty found a gathering of powerful women who were willing to make a bargain and bring the blonde into their society. And Misty prefers this type of wicked handiwork to simply waving fingers and casting spells. Just... don't leave strands of hair or fingernail clippings where she can find them for her "experiments".
Inspired by various hag folklore and D&D depictions, Misty's magic is based in exchange and component value -- she excels in curses, inconveniences, and changes in fortune, but she's not entire malevolent. She isn't wholly benevolent either, extracting some sort of price from those who seek her aid. And if they don't, she just has fun making whatever mischief she can -- often targeting individuals to whom she later proposes the solution to their woes.
Also, not all hags are old and ugly -- Misty resents that idea, thank you!
adult Jackie verse (aka "Jackie Survives") information (concurrent with my #v: small town weirdos verse for 2021 timeline)
(Adult FC: Robin Tunney)
Everything is canon up through the ending events of S1. Episode 10, except that when Jackie stubbornly goes to sleep outside, she begins to experience the effects of frostbite. She hallucinates being welcomed inside, not by Shauna, but by Lottie. Pulled back into the cabin and given warmth, and hot cocoa.
Except, it wasn't a hallucination -- Lottie wakes before the cold snap has truly settled its blanket hold over the wilderness and brings Jackie inside. The cocoa is actually some of the team's "tea" with Lottie's blood as a prayer and offering to the wilderness. Jackie doesn't wake immediately, but she slowly comes back from the brink -- but suffers permanent nerve damage in her left arm due to the necrosis of the frostbite. Lottie declares that Jackie has been given a second chance by the wilderness, and that it admired her bravery to face the cold, but wolves are stronger in a pack than alone. Almost as a sign, a lone, weak wolf is found frozen and used for meat in place of the girl.
Despite being saved and having a change of heart (she owes Lottie her life), Jackie can't bring herself to do excessive hard labor due both to her prior refusal to learn and her weakened arm. But she helps as best as she can. When Shauna's baby comes, Jackie offers her damaged arm to her best friend because she isn't bothered by the girl's vice grip while in pain.
Jackie waits until some time after Shauna has recovered from at least the physical trauma of the baby to admit to her that the night of the Doomcoming, after having sex with Travis, she realized she might not be attracted to men. That she might have been controlling and overbearing on Shauna as a way to distance herself from her lesbian attractions. She doesn't want to pressure her best friend in any way, but she wants to get closer to Shauna in this new context, if she'll allow it.
When the girls get their first opportunity for cannibalism with the hunt and Javi, she is reluctant but overwhelmed by her hunger. Jackie continues to survive, mostly by the grace of her peers, but also she falls along the line of believing in Lottie's abilities while trying not to let that alienate Shauna. In fact, she tries to help protect Shauna and keep her grounded in their new reality.
{future survival details TBD by series updates}
After the girls are rescued, she returns to Wiskayok and breaks up with Jeff. Jackie also does her best to stay friends with Shauna, but the return is too difficult, and the realizations about herself, her sexuality, and the way she's changed make her eager to leave Wiskayok. She goes to college and eventually drifts apart from all the other girls. Jackie eventually attends law school and becomes a full-fledged lawyer. And when Charlotte Matthews is released from her psych hold, she reconnects with Jackie, who becomes a legal advisor for Camp Green Pine.
When the other Yellowjackets come to the compound, that's the first time Jackie reconnects with any of the others in those 25 years. She doesn't attend the school reunion. During the hunt at the compound, Jackie plays along for Lottie's sake but when Shauna pulls the Queen, she carries her hunting knife in her weakened hand due to her reluctance to kill.
In her spare time, she has also become very passionate about photography as a hobby. Jackie wants to help herself and others catalogue those fleeting moments that are taken for granted. She does a lot of digital photography, but also has a collection of film and polaroid cameras she uses for more unique occasions.
She's also a vegan and this is very important for reasons I'll explain in other posts as I develop this. Jackie has diagnosed anxiety disorders, has medication to manage it (thanks Mrs. Taylor for that inherited cocktail of bad brain vibes ("my mom's on like 10 types of downers")), and occasionally smokes to relieve stress from work.
{more details TBD as I work things out with other muns but this about covers it!}
The ghost of Jackie Taylor is haunting Wiskayok High and @ashesrebirthed {keiko} is here to investigate...
Some said they saw the Jersey Devil roaming the campus at night, particularly near the soccer fields. Others wondered where the creature got a varsity jacket.
Shauna's words echoed in Jackie's thoughts. Jackie's spirit, in turn, echoed through the halls.
[high school was the best your life was ever going to get]
Maybe because it was all she really knew, short of returning to her parents' home or the Sadecki household. But there wasn't anything there for her, not really. But the high school still held some semblance of her time there -- yellowed photos in frames, cheap trophies encased in gold paint. Her jersey number, retired in memoriam. High school was the best her life was ever going to get, because there wasn't a life to follow that.
Jackie didn't know exactly what happened out there after she died, but something was keeping her from resting. Perhaps a part of her still laid in the wilderness -- perhaps instead a part of the wilderness still resided in her. And while she mostly looked like the perfect princess who had died too soon, sometimes in the light of the moon, a pair of antlers draped in gossamer and twin shone through.
But tonight there were footsteps. And not just delinquent teens sneaking into the school (though Jackie sometimes liked to fuck with them, especially the boys staying late from sports). She willed herself through the walls, rattling a ghostly fist on the inside of the lockers just to see if they'd scare easily. There was a woman and two men, from what she could tell -- all unfamiliar. But this didn't look like a late night PTA meeting... they had equipment. Like, Ghostbusters chic. Okay, maybe not that intense but suddenly, Jackie was feeling a little more like she had company.
For better or worse.
"You shouldn't be here," she hummed matter-of-factly. Jackie didn't make a practice of proper 'haunting' but she wasn't exactly a peep show.
@scatcrccio gets a visit from the ghost of Jackie Taylor
"Jesus, Scatorccio. You're looking rougher than I remember, which is really saying something considering where we all left things."
Nice of Natalie to remember Jackie in her pristine, clean-pressed soccer jersey and bangs perfectly coiffed, instead of frozen dead or worse, whatever she looked like after everyone... Probably said something about her former teammate's fragile mental state while she practically melted off the motel room bed in whatever drug-induced stupor she'd put herself in this time.
Jackie sat cross-legged on the mattress near the headboard, a pillow propped behind her lower back. Did Natalie care about cleats on the bed? The ghost assumed not, given the state of everything else in the room. Especially considering they weren't even real fucking cleats. But whatever, that wasn't her problem. She didn't appear to Natalie often -- in fact, like, ever. She was more of a specter in Shauna's self-narrative, but this was an interesting change of scenery to say the least. Nat was absolutely on another plane of existence, either high as a cloud or drunk as shit. Her war paint eyeliner running down the aged lines of her face.
"I feel like I'm intruding on a bad moment, but... you're the reason I'm sitting here so I guess that's not my damage. Just, try not to need an ambulance. I don't think I can dial a phone, as much as I would love to help you out there."
@90svan pulled Jackie Taylor aside at the compound (S2 AU)
Camp Green Pine was a powder keg, and it only took a matter of days for the ammunition to be set.
Twenty-five years they'd all spent trying to move on from the disaster, crawling their separate ways out of the darkness. Coping in manifold methods, each carefully selected like a poison to numb, starve, and choke out the gnawing animals within them. Some of the team kept in touch, forming a vital support network for one another. Others separated themselves entirely (or were separated), and yet that bond they shared sunk deep in their flesh like hooks, claws, teeth.
And now the Yellowjackets were forced to face themselves as they were, once again. Jackie was privately reeling -- Lottie's well-meaning but misguided attempt to save Natalie's life had drawn the kindling to the compound. Misty, Taissa, Shauna, and Van. Each one a firestarter in their own unique ways -- except out of all of them, the lawyer perhaps trusted the redhead most to keep their cool. Not to light the pyre of Lottie's carefully constructed community, as she might have once accused Van in their varsity days. She and Jackie both understood the intentions of the other woman's beliefs.
A hunter and a butcher could feed the aching stomach, but theirs was a hunger of the mind, a shared sickness through which only Lottie could see most clearly. And Van had known it for longer than most of them, bearing the scars to prove it.
"They're planning what?" Her concerned question was hissed through whitened teeth. Of course the conniving Misty would likely be the one to leave the lawyer out of the loop -- though Jackie wouldn't put it past Shauna to hold a grudge after all this time. "They all know that Lottie's our best chance at actually working through whatever this is right now, right? I mean, even Natalie has stopped behaving like a feral cat after just a few days here. Her leadership helped us before, we just have to see this through."
Just as Lottie protected her, Jackie felt the need to protect Lottie in turn. But at this late hour, in this remote place, the law couldn't help her. All she knew was the rules of nature they had once abided by.
@perfectionreached is sleepwalking and the ghost of Jackie Taylor appears
"Tai. Taissa, snap out of it!"
Jackie had no idea what this whole thing was -- not like Taissa ever really told her much of anything when they were younger, going behind her back with Shauna in the woods, or with the plans to ice Allie out of the game. Seems like Tai was good at that, icing others out, lethally so. The dead girl could almost admire that ruthless ambition if it didn't frustrate the shit out of her.
But here, she didn't see the Tai with cunning in her eyes. Here, the woman looked older, stonefaced and lost in some other world. Was she... sleepwalking? Great, that's fucking creepy. Taissa was barefoot, wearing a silken nightgown and going... somewhere in the dead of night. So why, exactly, was this Jackie's problem all of a sudden? Not like she wanted to be here talking to a brick wall of a former teammate. And she was not playing a game of guardian angel if something dangerous went down...
"I admire this 'take back the night' attitude you've got going here, Tai, but seriously -- wake up."
@exjacket gets approached by Jackie in the wilderness...
Day by day, Jackie was losing everything. Everything but herself, it felt like.
She couldn't help but turn over Coach Martinez's words in her head. Do you know why I made you team captain this year? It's not because you're our best player. Shauna is faster. Lottie has better footwork by a mile. But you have influence. Yeah, some great influence, when she couldn't stop everyone from buying fully into this back to the land bullshit.
Yeah, okay -- Tai made a lucky call about the lake. And Natalie was shockingly good with a rifle. Misty was like a Girl Scout on cocaine going after medical merit badges that shouldn't exist. Even Shauna had turned into some knife-wielding badass who didn't even blink when skinning deer. Like, where the fuck did that come from, right?
But what scared her most was the way she was watching her best friend shrink away and hide secrets from her -- Shauna was going behind her back. Fucking her boyfriend and getting pregnant. And Jackie had always tried to protect Shauna, but this was a consequence the brown-eyed girl had to bear all on her own. She kind of deserved it, didn't she? And yet, Jackie wanted nothing more than for her friend to be okay. To still need her. That was the problem out here, wasn't it?
No one needed her.
And maybe it wasn't exactly charitable of her to imagine that she might find sympathy from Audrey in her downward spiral. She had a little more tact than to ask, "Hey, how did you cope with losing your role as team leader? Was that also the only thing that gave you any value to these girls?" She wasn't... mad at Audrey, per se, even if she felt a tension with the change in regime. How funny, huh? It wasn't Jackie's fault Audrey had to be replaced -- but now it felt like a concerted effort by the team to now displace Jackie.
"Hey, Audrey... can we talk? Captain to captain," she said, one of the two 'captain's having more weight than the other. "I don't feel like this is a conversation for the team, if that's alright with you."
