Stark Industries, Wednesday

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

It started with a trip for coffee. Jessica got her coffee and told the clerk that she was using the gift card Nick Fury of SHIELD gave her for her troubles when an assassin somehow crossed dimensions to try to kill her.

That was a sign. On her way over to Stark's, she wished a random passerby a good morning while noting that it probably looked nicer from a rooftop and, against all logic, admitted that sometimes instinct kicks in and she makes her way to the men's room. She had NO IDEA where that came from.

So by the time she got to Stark's, she ran a finger along the inside of her lips to web her mouth shut from the inside. She was determined not to talk at all today if that's what happened when she did.

Now she just needed to find a straw so she could drink her coffee through the small, unwebbed bit in the corner of her mouth.

[OOC: I decided to stay in bed today, so I'm technically around for once! Granted, I may be asleep. But still!]

Comments

[ultron_junior]

Victor, meanwhile, hadn't noticed much of anything odd yet. Sure, he'd been a little more detailed in his response than normal when somebody asked how he was, but sometimes you just felt chatty, right?

"Hey, Jess," he said as he leaned against the counter. "I feel dumb asking this, but is there a gopher in here? I can't find Topher. Figured he might have made a break for this place."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

Jessica gave a little wave 'hi' and hoped REALLY HARD that she'd be able to get through this without raising suspicions about her, you know, not talking.

She gave a little look around and shrugged. Nope. No gophers here!

[ultron_junior]

"Fantastic," Victor sighed. "I hope he didn't wander into the preserve and hide or something. Nothing against Topher, but there's a reason I don't have a pet, you know?"

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

Jessica shook her head sadly and reached over to give Victor a pat on the shoulder. She knew how these things went, buddy. There there, he'd find... Wait, did Victor say 'Topher?'

She looked intrigued. She apparently missed an animal transformation.

[ultron_junior]

Victor smiled, also a bit sadly. "Yeah, he's been stuck that way about a week. Fat little guy, chews on stuff. And Gert Yorkes is a chameleon. And my roomie is ... something or other. I think it's going around."

Fun, wasn't it? He shrugged philosophically.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

That was definitely strange, and Jessica tried to make that clear with a raise of her eyebrow. And then she gave a slight shrug. At least the two of them were still regular people, right? Well, give or take a few biological modifications, of course.

[ultron_junior]

"Um ... no offense, but is there a reason you aren't saying anything?" Victor asked cautiously. "Because it makes me worry I'm just annoying you and I think you're cool."

He hadn't meant to add that last part.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Mmmph mppph mmmph," Jessica started before using her coffee cup, the universal hand gesture for 'a person who keeps on talking,' and a series of hand motions meant to describe how she webbed her mouth shut so she didn't say anything incriminating.

There was pretty much zero chance most of that made any kind of sense.

[ultron_junior]

Not much, no.

"You ... burned the inside of your mouth on the coffee so you put a bandage in there and now you can't talk?" Victor guessed, clearly trying quite hard to keep up. "I didn't know that was even possible."

Which was saying something, given he'd come in the shop to look for his fake big brother, who was currently a gopher. Plausibility wasn't a big thing in Victor's world.

"Are you gonna be okay?"

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

Jessica started by shaking her head to indicate that Victor misunderstood before waving the whole thing off and giving a big thumbs up. She'd be fine!

[ultron_junior]

"Okay, so ..." Victor chewed on his lip. "I'm going to go. Because this is just weirding me out but I'm pretty sure you aren't, like, actually in danger or anything. See you later?"

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

Jessica gave an understanding head tilt and waved goodbye. She didn't really want to freak Victor out or anything, but this was much better than the alternative.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Tony hadn't spent too much time... socializing so far today. So, it wasn't really on his mind that he was being more truthful to himself than usual.

Because the island hated him.

"Hey, Jessica."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

Jessica gave a salute to the boss. Because if she was going to burden herself with nothing but non-verbal communication, she was going to have some fun with it.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Coffee?" He lived off it. It's true.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

Jessica pointed toward the shop's coffee maker. Just because she was his employee didn't mean she had to get him coffee.

Okay, maybe it did. But she and her straw were slightly resentful toward coffee today.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Well, that made perfect sense!

Tony shot her a confused look before heading back to get himself a cup. "You okay?"

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

Jessica nodded. She was just fine! Except for the not talking thing, which she again tried to explain with hand motions. This time she just used her hand to do the 'talky' hand motion, pointed to it with her other hand, and shook her head.

No talking today!

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"....riiiiight. Sick?" Look, if you wrote it in binary, he could figure it out. Hand motions don't help.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

Jessica shook her head and then tried to indicate that she was preventing herself from telling too much truth since she was apparently just blurting things out.

To be honest, that was a little too detailed to express with hand motions even if Tony was really on the ball with that stuff.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"...okay, you've gone insane. Now I'll have to talk to Mr. Rogers because you're going to try to kill me because everyone always does."

What.

"What."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Mmmph?" Jessica asked. The confused look on her face probably got the point across that she was parroting Tony there.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"People really don't like Tony Stark." If you hadn't noticed before, Jessica. "He got Captain America killed. Oh god, what."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

Jessica pointed to TOny excitedly and then to her mouth. THAT WAS WHY HER MOUTH WAS GLUED SHUT, TONY.

Lord knows how that came across in the context of 'you're going to try to kill me because another version of me got Captain America killed.'

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Why am I saying any of this?" HOW DID SHE HAVE THE SELF CONTROL TO KEEP HER MOUTH SHUT?

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

Jessica gave a big shrug. SHE DID NOT KNOW WHY THINGS HAPPENED.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"I'm going to go hide in the back and pretend like this doesn't bother me at all," Tony informed her with all the dignity he had.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

Jessica gave a sympathetic thumbs up. Shed be out here continuing to not talk at all.