→ Breaking It In - Open to NPC only cw: gory injury description
His arm still hurts.
Having a creature tear into your arm will put anybody in a bad mood, but Jake looks especially grumpy in this meeting. He keeps playing with the edges of the bandage that wraps around his forearm, but it's still obvious that he's listening intently one what's being said.
He misses Jenkins and the Library more than ever now, and mutters the word kelpie incredulously to anyone who's sitting next to him. Not because he doesn't believe in kelpies. He's more annoyed at the term being flung around when they hardly knew what the creatures were. Did they really do their research on kelpies? Once people start getting up, Jake makes his way over to Bonnie. He's smiling except it's more pained and annoyed than not.
"Hey. Hi, I have a question. Or...well. Questions."
→ Curveball A. - OTA -
Okay. Okay, so things could be better.
Honestly, it's going about just as well as a typical Library mission so there's that, but still.
Jake mutters under his breath, trying to work his wrists free of the ropes. His arm isn't in the best shape and it's slow-going. He stops a couple times, trying to work through the pain of the awkward position and the ropes cutting into the bandage. He's not Ezekiel--damn, what wouldn't he give for Jones to be here right now cause he's pretty sure he'd have been out of these stupid things already. He stops struggling when his eyes finally adjust and he sees what's really going on.
The kelpies. (Yeah, okay, he's calling them kelpies too, now.)
Dragging a seal, taking a knife and--
"No!"
He knows he can't do anything but the word escapes him anyway. And then suddenly there's a woman. Who came from the seal skin. That--he's not expecting, but he also knows what she is. Or at least, the closest equivalent from his world.
"No way. She's a selkie?"
→ Curveball B. - OTA -
They throw the seal skin on him and there's a moment of sheer terror when he realizes what's going to happen before it happens.
And then it happens.
It's like the answer to a question he never had. How do selkie skins actually work? Well. Now he knows. He really wish he didn't know. The next thing he knows he's lying face down in the mud, somehow feeling just as tied up as he was moments before. But not because of the rope, but because he's just...stuck. He can't move his legs and he feels like he's trapped, like something's squeezing around him and--
--and his arms are flippers.
Fantastic.
Jake tries to say something, but all that comes out is a confused bellow and something glitters in his sight. Water.
Suddenly nothing else matters except water. He has to get there, he has to before it's too late! The kelpies are getting closer and he can hear them--
It's difficult to move, his body feels all wrong, but the fear drives him more than anything else. He has to get out. He manages to wiggle and pull and slide through the mud until the cool water draws him away from danger and into relative safety. He's kind of bad at swimming--how does this blasted tail even work!? But his instincts fortunately settle in the driver's seat and he manages to resurface, his little head sticking out of the water, looking worriedly around for the people who were with him.
→ Below the Belt - OTA -
There are boats.
There are boats and with those boats might be help. And man, does he need help right now. They all do.
Jake swims around, a little frantically, trying to circle the nearest boat he can find, or try to get the attention of another seal to help him get the boat's attention. Sometimes he'll bark or making noise, sometimes he'll try to jump out of the water--he's not very good at it.
If he can get close enough to a boat, he'll start tapping on the hull with a flipper or his nose in Morse code.
Three short taps.
Three long taps.
Three short taps again.
S.O.S.
→ Sticky Wicket - Set before Curveball, open to one only pls! -
This should be an easy enough mission, right? Just like his missions at the Library. Find an artifact, bring it back. He doesn't anticipate any problems.
Which means there's probably going to be problems.
Or maybe it's just because he's been on edge lately. He can't quite put his finger on it at the moment, but there's something...unsettlingly weird going on. And not just because of the injury to his arm earlier, or any of the other weird things going on at ADI like how he actually got here, but just...something that he can't quite see.
And it's driving him up the wall.
He needs to know what it is, and while he wasn't unused to a mystery--hell, he liked mysteries, this one was like an itch he can't scratch, a rock in his shoe, a starchy tag on his t-shirt. Or something.
Maybe he was just overthinking things.
Either way, now he was at the Docks with his partner and headed towards a locker.
"What do you think's in it?" he turns to ask them with a smirk as they make their way there.
Jacob Stone | The Librarians - NPC Requested for Breaking It In
cw: gory injury description
His arm still hurts.
Having a creature tear into your arm will put anybody in a bad mood, but Jake looks especially grumpy in this meeting. He keeps playing with the edges of the bandage that wraps around his forearm, but it's still obvious that he's listening intently one what's being said.
He misses Jenkins and the Library more than ever now, and mutters the word kelpie incredulously to anyone who's sitting next to him. Not because he doesn't believe in kelpies. He's more annoyed at the term being flung around when they hardly knew what the creatures were. Did they really do their research on kelpies? Once people start getting up, Jake makes his way over to Bonnie. He's smiling except it's more pained and annoyed than not.
"Hey. Hi, I have a question. Or...well. Questions."
→ Curveball A. - OTA -
Okay. Okay, so things could be better.
Honestly, it's going about just as well as a typical Library mission so there's that, but still.
Jake mutters under his breath, trying to work his wrists free of the ropes. His arm isn't in the best shape and it's slow-going. He stops a couple times, trying to work through the pain of the awkward position and the ropes cutting into the bandage. He's not Ezekiel--damn, what wouldn't he give for Jones to be here right now cause he's pretty sure he'd have been out of these stupid things already. He stops struggling when his eyes finally adjust and he sees what's really going on.
The kelpies. (Yeah, okay, he's calling them kelpies too, now.)
Dragging a seal, taking a knife and--
"No!"
He knows he can't do anything but the word escapes him anyway. And then suddenly there's a woman. Who came from the seal skin. That--he's not expecting, but he also knows what she is. Or at least, the closest equivalent from his world.
"No way. She's a selkie?"
→ Curveball B. - OTA -
They throw the seal skin on him and there's a moment of sheer terror when he realizes what's going to happen before it happens.
And then it happens.
It's like the answer to a question he never had. How do selkie skins actually work? Well. Now he knows. He really wish he didn't know. The next thing he knows he's lying face down in the mud, somehow feeling just as tied up as he was moments before. But not because of the rope, but because he's just...stuck. He can't move his legs and he feels like he's trapped, like something's squeezing around him and--
--and his arms are flippers.
Fantastic.
Jake tries to say something, but all that comes out is a confused bellow and something glitters in his sight. Water.
Suddenly nothing else matters except water. He has to get there, he has to before it's too late! The kelpies are getting closer and he can hear them--
It's difficult to move, his body feels all wrong, but the fear drives him more than anything else. He has to get out. He manages to wiggle and pull and slide through the mud until the cool water draws him away from danger and into relative safety. He's kind of bad at swimming--how does this blasted tail even work!? But his instincts fortunately settle in the driver's seat and he manages to resurface, his little head sticking out of the water, looking worriedly around for the people who were with him.
→ Below the Belt - OTA -
There are boats.
There are boats and with those boats might be help. And man, does he need help right now. They all do.
Jake swims around, a little frantically, trying to circle the nearest boat he can find, or try to get the attention of another seal to help him get the boat's attention. Sometimes he'll bark or making noise, sometimes he'll try to jump out of the water--he's not very good at it.
If he can get close enough to a boat, he'll start tapping on the hull with a flipper or his nose in Morse code.
Three short taps.
Three long taps.
Three short taps again.
S.O.S.
→ Sticky Wicket - Set before Curveball, open to one only pls! -
This should be an easy enough mission, right? Just like his missions at the Library. Find an artifact, bring it back. He doesn't anticipate any problems.
Which means there's probably going to be problems.
Or maybe it's just because he's been on edge lately. He can't quite put his finger on it at the moment, but there's something...unsettlingly weird going on. And not just because of the injury to his arm earlier, or any of the other weird things going on at ADI like how he actually got here, but just...something that he can't quite see.
And it's driving him up the wall.
He needs to know what it is, and while he wasn't unused to a mystery--hell, he liked mysteries, this one was like an itch he can't scratch, a rock in his shoe, a starchy tag on his t-shirt. Or something.
Maybe he was just overthinking things.
Either way, now he was at the Docks with his partner and headed towards a locker.
"What do you think's in it?" he turns to ask them with a smirk as they make their way there.