itinere | Network + Action

Entry tags:

original character: jill leighton

Network + Action | OTA

VIDEO POST;

( For a long while, Joy goes back and forth deciding whether or not to do this as a video rather than text. She hates her voice; it's embarrassing. Joy Shapiro-Krushelevansky was born prematurely and moderately deaf due to a fall her mother suffered in her third trimester while pregnant with Joy. The teenager has had hearing aids for what feels like forever and she'd had speech therapy when she'd been little, so she's learned to read lips and if she's got her hearing aids in, she can hear all right, but when she talks, her voice sounds deep and gravelly like it belongs to a woman in her late forties who spent the better part of her life smoking a pack a day of cigarettes.

Being fourteen means being self-conscious and she hates, hates, hates when people she doesn't know can hear her talking. Once she gets used to a person and knows that they aren't going to judge, she's fine.

Ultimately, in spite of her own discomfort, Joy decides to go with video instead of text because it's just easier to talk than it is to type when Charlie's awake, because he's a little fussy these past couple of days. If she's not holding him and he's not sleeping, he's screaming. )

Um...so...hi, I'm... ( She shifts a little in her chair and the infant in her arms stirs, which makes her take pause. He doesn't awaken, so she continues, but lowers her voice a little. ) I'm Joy and I just, um, wondered if anybody knows whether we can call home from here or no. I can't, anyway, I don't have a cell phone, but if it's a thing that's possible, I wondered if somebody would, um, mind if I borrowed their phone to send my mom a text once in a while just so she knows that me and Charlie are still okay and she doesn't freak out ( and do something humiliating like show up here. ) but if not, then that's okay. I just thought I would ask.

ACTION;

Ever since her dad died, life has been tough for Joy. It's always been complicated; her mom used to be a famous writer and she's a total Smother. Joy herself is the product of her mother hooking up with her ex for a one night stand at, of all things, a funeral. Joy's biological father, Bruce, is a jerk and his wife is even worse. Joy has a newly gay grandma, a complete jerk of a grandfather, and an Aunt Elle who is literally the coolest person she's ever met.

And last year, just before Joy's bah mitzvah, her dad had a heart attack and died. Joy hadn't known that he and Joy's mother had been planning a new baby via a surrogate before he died, but she found out after the fact. Several months after her dad's death, Charlie was born. Joy might only be fourteen years old, but she's been taking care of him ever since. She decided it was better to give her mother some time to pull herself together and for Joy not to have to juggle school on top of everything at home, so she packed up Charlie's diaper bag after a month of the struggle at home and stepped into Itinere. So far, it seems okay.

She waits until it's warm to dress Charlie for the weather before heading out to check out the town, wandering down the streets, in and out of stores just to see what's there. They've been here about a week and the past several days of it, he's been fussing. Maybe that's just what one month old babies do. Fuss. And it isn't like Joy knows how to make him stop except that she's learned that he likes to be held. The problem is, Joy's sick of the same four walls, so maybe she can keep Charlie happy while she also explores. It seems like the best of both worlds, so what could possibly go wrong?

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[ have a sixteen year old on the other side, looking interested. ]

I don't know what a cell phone is, but if it helps, time stands still on the other side. If the doors ever let you back through, it'll be just like you left it.

Charlie's really cute, by the way.

Edited 2017-04-03 23:14 (UTC)

[ She looks a little surprised by that. This girl looks like a total Amber Gross; she's probably one of the cool girls, so how the heck doesn't she know what a cell phone is? Are they called something else here and Joy just missed the memo? ]

...wait, really? She won't even notice we're gone?

[ Joy can't decide if that's good, bad, or both. She supposes it's probably both, considering the point of coming here was to give herself a break but also to give her mom time to grieve properly so that she could take care of the baby instead of Joy. ]

He's cuter when he's sleeping. [ She pauses then adds quickly, as if realizing how it might look, ] He's not mine. He's my brother.

[ prim shrugs a little. ]

Well... it might be different for you, but that's how it was for me the one time I went back through my door.

[ and then she got stuck for three years of awful. ]

I'm Prim, by the way. Do you have everything you two need?

Is it usually different for everybody?

[ She's got a general idea of how this place works, but only a general one. Joy hasn't really had a chance to dive too deep for information. As it turns out? Taking care of a baby is not easy. ]

Hi Prim. I'm Joy. And...I think so? I mean there's, like, food here and formula for Charlie and stuff, so I guess so?

[ The thing is, Joy is still kind of new to this whole being on her own thing. ]

It might be? Honestly, not a lot of people talk about the details. You'll hear about them going home and coming back sometimes, but not always... what happens.

[ she nods at that, knowing that sometimes having what you need is the most important thing. ]

Do you need any help with your brother? I know it can't be easy by yourself.

[ There's something about that response that rubs Joy the wrong way and she can't quite put her finger on it. She supposes it's that it makes her very badly want to ask why while at the same time making her feel like why is an inappropriate question, which is confusing to her. ]

Oh...

[ She decides to leave it at that for now. ]

Oh, um...I don't know...if I should.

[ Because the answer, here, is yes. Yes, she needs help; she has no idea what she's doing. This was a lot easier at home when, if things got too hard, she could call her grandma or Aunt Elle. But...stranger danger is still a thing. ]

Help like what?

[ on the plus side, prim is probably one of the better, more honest options to ask that sort of question. though anyone from panem would understand stranger danger very well and prim herself feels hesitant at offering. she probably wouldn't if there wasn't a baby involved. ]

Well, someone to help watch him to give you a break.

[ or someone to help at home, but prim isn't naive enough to offer that without knowing the other girl much better. even if it would be nice not to have an empty house when katniss stays with matt. ]

Obviously, we'll have to get to know each other. I wouldn't ask you to just turn your brother over to a stranger. But it might help when you're tired later on.

[ Joy is quiet and considers that for a moment. Obviously, the idea of someone to help her out while she's right there is more appealing than the idea of handing Charlie off to a stranger, which...no. Just no. But then on the other hand, there's still the fact that she doesn't know if it's safe to trust these people yet. She'll have to get to know them first. At least, she realizes a moment later when Prim keeps talking, this girl is willing to proactively address that. That makes Joy smile a little and she nods. ]

That would be nice. I mean getting to know you first.

[ it will be interesting to see how prim's ptsd deals with the baby, but she thinks it won't be a problem. shouldn't be. none of the children who died that day were as young as charlie. though, if it does, there's no better way to find out than with someone else around. ]

I'm almost always at the Apothecary, since that's where I work. It's a good neutral location. You can come by anytime.

Okay.

[ Joy has learned that she's not very good at making or keeping friends; she looks for the wrong things in people, attaches to people who don't actually care about her and let down the ones who do. She's fourteen, though, and she thinks maybe that comes with the territory. She just hopes she makes good choices when it comes to Prim and doesn't alienate someone who could be a good friend or misplace her trust in someone who wouldn't be. ]

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Prim.

[ Jill isn't the kind who can fight monsters. She doesn't have any special skills or powers. But this is something she can do. This is a way she can help. She can answer questions since she's been here so, so long. She thinks she's becoming a font of information about this place.

So when the new face appears on her phone screen and asks a good question, she's quick to flip to the video function and try to help. Of course, the sight of the young girl holding a baby is odd. Jill doesn't do well with babies, if just because she sometimes barely takes care of herself. Taking care of an innocent and literally vulnerable something is just... no.

But she offers a small smile. ] Hi, I'm Jill. Nice to meet you Joy. You can't phone home, sorry. But I do know that time stops on the other side of the doors. If or when you can go back you can pick up right where you left off.

[ If there's one thing that can be said, so far, about the people Joy's talked to, both on here and in town when she'd first arrived, it's that they're all very friendly and they try to be helpful. Joy likes that. People back home are a little different, but maybe the shared experience of being in this place is what changes the way people act toward one another here.

So she smiles back and uses her free hand to tuck some hair behind her ear, getting it out of her face, only to immediately untuck it again when she remembers that she's got her hearing aids in — they're embarrassing, okay? — and she doesn't want Jill (or anyone) to see them. ]

Nice to meet you, too, Jill. It's okay, I just thought it would save my mom the worry, since I just up and took my brother and left. But, I guess if she won't notice we're gone, then it doesn't matter anyway. ...does it work both ways? I mean, like...when I go back, will time sort of stop here so I can pick up where I left off if I come back?

Gracie is out walking because the weather is beautiful. She's got an iced coffee in hand as she heads down the sidewalk. A pretty blonde is walking toward her with a baby; it's the baby that makes her stop, as well as the fact that Gracie hasn't ever seen the blonde here. It's not that she knows everyone (she doesn't) but she knows a good number of people. Itinere isn't that big.

"He's so cute," she says, smiling down at the baby. "What's his name?" Her eyes go wide and she gets a little pink. "Sorry. I didn't mean to just accost you and start demanding information about your baby. I'm Gracie. Have you been here long?"

Really, the longer she walks, the more Joy begins to think that a stroller is a necessity rather than a luxury. She needs to get one of those things. Like...yesterday. Charlie isn't heavy, but...when she has his weight in her arms for as long as she has, suddenly he becomes very heavy in her mind. It isn't like she can prop him up on her hip or really shift him around in her hold too much at all; he's too small. He can't even hold his head up, so she has to support that, too. It's not so bad when she's sitting on the couch, but while walking through town? Not so simple, as it turns out.

She's so distracted with that thought that it takes Joy a second to realize that the other blonde talking is talking to her. A small smile pulls at the corners of her mouth. "Charlie," she replies. "It's okay. And he's not mine, he's just my brother," she explains, because one thing Joy absolutely does not want is to be seen as one of those pathetic Teen Moms. She's not, she never ever will be.

"I'm Joy," she adds. "Just a week, I guess, what about you?"

She needs a baby front pack, or something like that. Definitely a stroller, maybe even a car to tote him around when he doesn't want to sleep. Of course, Gracie's experience with babies is very limited, and includes everything she's seen on movies and TV rather than any sort of practical experience. In any case, Joy is doing better than Gracie suspects she would in Joy's shoes.

Gracie bobbles a nod when Joy says that the baby is her brother. "That makes sense."

"Oh! You're still pretty new." Which also explains the lack of a fancy stroller or baby carrying pack. "I've been here almost a year, I guess." She thinks about it, astonished by the amount of time that's passed. She hadn't been keeping track very well. "So have you gotten all your questions answered? Why don't we go sit down? He's gotta get heavy after a little while. I would offer to help, but I have a cat...and I'm a stranger, which I'm pretty sure qualifies me for not baby holding duty, at least not right now."

Joy's eyebrows lift and her eyes widen a little at that response. She isn't expecting to hear anything more than a few weeks or months, she guesses, because it takes her off her guard a little. ...more than a little. "A year, really?" she asks, sounding caught between awestruck and horrified, if only because that seems like a really long time to a teenage girl currently in charge of her baby brother. Maybe Gracie decided to stay, though, and she isn't stuck or anything.

Her expression registers a blip of confusion, but she just nods and moves toward the nearest bench, sinking down into it and shifting Charlie in her arms a little. "...what's having a cat got to do with anything?" she wonders with genuine curiosity. The rest, sure, that makes sense and Joy wouldn't give Charlie to a stranger even if she felt like her arms were about to fall off, but she's sincerely interested in what cat ownership and baby holding have in relation to one another that would make Gracie think she shouldn't be holding Charlie.

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Network + Action | OTA

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