walking with a ghost

Kate was only vaguely horrified. He didn’t even have her bow, that she trusted only with Clint (don’t tell him that). “Yeah, no. That’s a terrible idea. Stick to arrows unless you are really in a bind.” She had heard worse suggestion about what to do with a bow. Not all criminals were creative with their banter and insults. “Are you going to finish that thought or?” It wasn’t that Kate had ever had negative feelings about Gerry, at least beyond whatever her possessiveness over her status as Cassie’s best best friend has inspired. It was just the two had never really clicked. At the time, her friend group had been limited mostly to the Young Avengers and other young heroes. She had never cared much to expand it no matter how friendly she had always been. She rolled her eyes. “No one’s good at archery right away. It’s something you learn to do, not something you naturally good idea.” Even the great Hawkeye had had to practice with a bow the first few times she picked it up. “Just aim and shoot.”

“aim and shoot, sounds simple.” but it wasn’t, oh how it wasn’t for gerry. he reminded himself that he was trying to build a relationship with kate for cassie’s sake. cassie, his best friend. they who had faith in him to clean up his act, to be better. he wanted to be the best partner possible for cassie. he looked at kate once more, and then he took aim. he drew back, lined up with the sights, and SMACK- the arrow breezed by the target and hit the wall. “look at that, closer than last time, eh?” kate would be unimpressed, probably. usually he would go into a funk over that- but remembers why he’s here, and he can’t be all things for everybody. not gonna be great at archery on his- eighth time ever trying it. “so kate, how’d you get into archery?”

“aw, no, come on,” there’s a frown on scott’s features as he watches a line of ants get disrupted on their way back to their colony. he knows the world isn’t very kind to the effort of ants but his empathy for them after spending so much time working and living with them is pretty high. “don’t bother them, they’re not bothering you. look, see, that one’s carrying like, half a cookie. that’s super impressive, isn’t it?”

“wow. look at that.” gerry had bypassed whoever scott had originally been talking with to get a closer look for himself. he was crouched, looking at these ants. amazed, he turned back to the spectator and in reference to this person bothering the ants said, “yeah, what the hell man. don’t be such a dick.” gerry looked back at scott and gave a thumbs up before returning to observation. “ah scott, look at that one. i think that’s a part of a sour patch kid.”

“my apologies-” it was a POOR offering, at this point. she had dropped the ball, so to speak. it wasn’t a usual occurrence for someone like ziva, but she wasn’t infallible - the well disguised switch blade had fallen from her bag when it had taken an unfortunate tumble, and now… well. NOW the little knife was on full display, clutched in the hand of an unsuspecting seventeenth doll patron. “that would be mine.” the repercussions of a situation such as this could range from ‘found in the nick of time’ to ‘disastrous’, ziva knew. and this… verged on the latter. “i can explain?”

“a person trying to protect herself.” he told the finder, shrugging off an attempt of an explanation on ziva’s end of things. “no biggie.” gerry plucked it from the other person’s hands, took it upon himself to open the blade, spin it between his fingers, gave it a toss between hands, tossed it into the air (3 spins), caught it, closed it, and handed it back to ziva. the third party in this scenario, perhaps thinking that gerry was attempting to show off (he wasn’t, he’s just obnoxious), had grown disinterested. “worse things could have fallen out your pocket you know?” he handed it back to ziva. 

          Tired eyes reflect a rather disturbed sleep the night before , plagued by nightmares and whispers of the dead that Salem can’t do much to drown out. So he’s taken to indulging himself in the only available comfort out in the quad , normally relishing in the quietness of the studio but today finding the walls closing him in , to the point where he feels trapped. Canvas is covered by a plain sheet as he finds a table , eisel in a bag hanging from his back - but unable to find a spot alone , he sets his things near another. Meeting wandering eyes , there’s only a second of silence before he comments , ❝ It’s a OUIJA board. You in the mood to talk to some ghosts n’ demons ?? ❞

perhaps if he had been making the effort that he paid so much lip service to- gerry would have healthily said no thanks and continued on about his day. but he hadn’t really. he had- one step forward, but then took two steps back. and now he was a bit day drunk and presented with the opportunity to speaks with his dead pals? sick. wicked. let’s go. “the only demons that i believe in are the green, shape shifting kind- and that’s figurative and selective.” and not necessarily true. He ran his fingers along the edge of the board. “do we get to pick who we talk to? i’ve got people to catch up with since we’re here. i’m gerry by the way.” he extended his other hand. 

“Do you want anything to eat? You’ve been laying on the couch for a while.” Carol sat across from him on the coffee table. “I’m fine, not glowing anymore so that’s an improvement.” She tried to lighten the mood. “I’m sorry for what I said, I didn’t mean any of it. I am so, so sorry. You are not a fuck up, okay? I love you. You, your sister, and your mom are the three best things in my life.”

oh, how convenient is that? she could say whatever she wanted under the influence of..essentially a truth serum (it wasn’t), and now change her tune. Gerry sat up, twiddled his thumbs, looked around for his other mom (or anyone, anything but carol. any distraction). and then he sighed, looking down. “mom, you were thinking it, it went through your head, and you said it. and that’s fine- my actions and what you think of them do not negate your love for me. it’s what it is.”

if there was one thing cassie was feeling lately, it was unsure. there was the standard confusion that the young hero had accepted was part of life since coming back from the dead. things never really stopped being confusing. but this was different, and cassie didn’t know how to fix it. in fact, they barely knew how to get in touch with gerry at the moment, but it didn’t mean they wouldn’t try. when he opened the door, their smile perked up: nervous but hopeful. they clutch finding nemo in front of this chest ( which they by chance had in their bag halfway through walking to his door– but it’s not like he needed to know this wasn’t planned ) “that’s okay. i can go, but i’m going through disney withdrawals,” cassie was quiet, though a little smile peeked through hoping he wouldn’t shut the door or something.

“Gerry?” Carol softly called out to him. After the events of the mist, she wasn’t sure if he’d even want to see her. “How…how are you?”

@ofgerrys

“I’m fine mom-,” just crashin’ on his moms’ couch, hiding from everyone that he knew, hoping that if he laid still enough no one would notice him there. It hadn’t worked, obviously. “how are you?” he asked with caution, his mom hadn’t been in control. But like he feared an all out skrull invasion, as he had seen during the spring event, the thoughts of him truly being a fuck up existed in his mother’s head. She had verbalized it. And he had spent days telling himself that she didn’t mean it but he knew. 

“Is that bad?” She asked, genuine for a moment. She hadn’t thought it’d been that big of a deal, but maybe she shouldn’t make light of something she didn’t to live through. Gerry had always been a pretty good moral compass in her opinion. Despite his own struggles he’d yet to lead her wrong. Raya simply raised a brow as she waited for her brother to finish his trail of thought. “You always were a crap liar, Ger.” She smiled faintly. “You don’t have to do that, alright? If you’re feeling like shit you can say you’re feeling like shit…” The kryptonian trailed off, his last words finally catching up with her. “Hold up, you saw skrulls?”   

“mhmm. skrulls. yes. it wasn’t ideal.” Gerry, despite his struggles, sugar coated everything for his younger siblings, sibling-like figures, his fellow agents, and any civilians he met on a mission (so..everybody). In those situations, he was not always the best liar. Once panic set in on his face, it was difficult to hide it away (stressful situations brought out the worst in him). “they were everywhere. I even had one shape in to mom for a bit, convince me it was her. again.” He was speaking as if the skrulls had actually been real, and not just something that felt very real. “not ideal...not ideal.” 

“Interesting as that might be, fingers crossed she’s with us in the land of living. Ghosts don’t pay that well, and I’m hoping this assignment will cover my rent this month.” That was mostly the most of all of her more tedious jobs, the ones that involved tracking down cheating spouses and college kids that were partying for a few days too long and freaked out their parents, were the jobs that paid the bills, mostly. There were the jobs she cared about, mostly those that allowed her to help women, but they were few and far between. She raised an eyebrow, “Oh yeah, this’ll really speed the whole thing up.”

“oh, right. never known a ghost to pay.” Just haunt, linger in his dreams until he woke up and continued to see them on particularly rough days. He snapped his fingers and held up his pointer finger. “I’ve got it- I’ll go seduce him. It’ll speed up your day, you get the pictures, get you paid, we’ll deposit your check before it can bounce. That’s important. And then, I dunno, I’ll buy you a milkshake or something. Or you’ll buy me the milkshake, seeing as I am about to do you a big favor.” 

❝ it’s… makeshift. but… it works. ❞ xoxo from @ofgerrys

     she’s trying to not burst into laughter,  the edges of tightlip smile pulling only slightly away from each other – instead, trying to turn the humour into some weird,  half-baked form of anger.    ‘ duct tape.     your answer to my broken laptop is — duct tape?      can’t i just, you know, borrow yours?’

“what are those mutants that can control technology with their brains? you’d think we would have one of those in IT by now.” he sighed, putting the duct tape role down. He liked seeing Connie smile, a small indicator of happiness. Gerry was set that she wasn’t out in the field because of him, or her unwillingness to leave him. Her own decision, no doubt, but one made as a result of his own circumstances. “ANYWAY, you can’t borrow mine. Sorry. I got my security clearance update and, yeah, sorry- it’s illegal for you to use mine now.” Bullshit. 

cyrus was a rule follower, a goody-two-shoes as others might dub him so this whole clean up thing was something he would of done partnered or not. honestly he could of given a rats ass if this gerry kid showed up, he wasn’t naturally a team player outside of the navy. “ yeah, i’m cyrus. “ the man replied as the other finally arrived, late for that matter but he wasn’t going to be a dick and bring that up yet. he raised a brow at gerry as he put on sunglasses, inside. what a strange kid. “ i’ve seen worse. “ cyrus replied as he crossed his arms over his chest, a little psychosomatic mist wasn’t going to rattle him. “ did you have a place where you’d wanna start? “ 

“we can head outside, gotta save the sea turtles from the trash, you know.” Gerry’s default setting was dumb, party boy. It was not much of an act, that was the person that Gerry had been, had grown out of when he joined S.H.I.E.L.D. So it was believable when he had to return to it. In this case he did not have to do anything but cooperate with this guy, and then go back to his hidey-hole. But this guy was already insisting he’d seen worse. And Gerry had grown out of the toxic, alpha-male bullshit that was his past. BUT..the comment had him interested. “mass hysteria isn’t the worst you’ve seen? Wow. You must’ve seen some shit then.”

Raya hadn’t been back at the Paragon long, but it had been enough to hear about all the madness that had gone on here. Freak storms and a weird mist that sent everyone off the rails? Of course she’d end up missing that. “Typical the one time i’m away is when things actually get interesting here.” She commented with a faint smirk. “Everyone done tripping on gas? Was it fun? — Is there any left?”

“I’m glad someone can joke about it.” His sister was...the first person, that he knew, that he had spoken to in the last few days. Gerry fancied himself going A.W.O.L since the ordeal, and was finally somewhat ready to come out of hiding. “that shit was innnnsannnnneeee. Very serious, sure, but also wild. I would be surprised if you found anyone that wasn’t shaken by it. Good thing my noggin’,” he tapped his temple, “-is a little bit fucked already. so. we’re fine and good. swell.” overcompensating for..not being fully okay. But acting like it, as he does. “no Skrull seeing for you.”