Survival Of The Fittest

Jack contemplated for a moment. He wasn't the fastest thinker on his feet, and his past record of half-baked idea's going tragically wrong was a fine example of how this was true. Nevertheless this situation, he knew, called for the rapidest thinking he could achieve without merely resorting to throwing another tray of food at the back of Elizabeth's head, which he probably would have ended up doing if only he had only had one to hand. How had he found himself in this position? Jealously stewing atop a dumpster, putting the moves on a girl he had only just met whilst viciously eyeballing Elizabeth as she did the same thing only to some random foreign kid. How had they come to this, when only about an hour ago it seemed like they were going to get back together again?!

These questions bombarded the edgy young Jack like a torrent of hail catching him completely off gaurd. He set them aside as best he could, such thoughts were to be dealt with at a later date, once the current issue, he decided, had been resolved.

He could sense dissapointment in Mariavel, a loss of the more upbeat, hopeful and almost childish nature he had sensed in her before and become so intrigued by, those things replaced by an odd tone of despair as she asked him:

"You wanna go and talk to them?"

Jack flipped a coin in his head, not literally but the entirely random selection of his response by his overworked brain and the blunt manner in which he blurted it out suggested he had in fact only chosen it on the call of a coin, and upon seeing the result had immediately cried it out without really registering it first:

"Yes!"

Was his mindless response, and no sooner had he blurted it did he wish he hadn't, for he couln;t justufy it in any way. He couldn't say what he wanted to talk to them about, or why he wanted to talk to them about it, but he couldn't retract his answer and so instead he rapidly jumped down from the dumpster and began to move towards the couple.

Jack's feet had hit the ground hard and with a resounding smack that reached the ears of Panom and Elizabeth, causing them to turn bout and see him standing, mere feet away, having apparently just fallen down from the top of one of the dumspters. Elizabeth looked to Jack, and he looked back for a moment, then looked to Panom, who was apparently staring up into the sky. Puzzled, Jack did the same.

Shit, he thought and made a mental note to kick himself later. I've left her up there. Mariavel was still seated atop the dumpster, and in her high heels it seemed unlikely she would be able to jump down without help. With a cautious glance at Panom, he rotated on his left foot, stuck his right out before him and held his arms out in front of him:

"You want some help getting down?"

"Yes!"

Mariavel wached as Jack jumped off the dumpster with great rush.

"Um, Jack? A little help?"

Mariavel could NOT jump down! She'd probobaly break her legs! It didn't seem as though Jack had heard her though, until He turned around and held out his arms saying,

"You want some help getting down?"

Mariavel smiled and said, "Yea, thanks."

She slowly lowered herself down the dumpster and blushed when he grabbed her waist and set her down.

"Thank you Jack." she said with a blush.

OOC: Okay this is going to be a big one guys. Just to let you know the reason I have been RP’ing quite a lot of with just my own characters, and presenting everyone with what is almost a fan fic about Liz, Jack and Panom is because I really want to set the characters up as broadly as possible so everyone can use what I post in this thread to refer back to in future in order to fully understand the complexities of each character. Also, fortune willing, the situation I am about to set-up will set the relationship for the characters when they go into V2, something I will be unlikely to highlight in their character profiles as they are meant for highlighting the personal attributes of a single party, not of that parties relationship with other parties. So this post is pretty important to the development of my characters relationships with each other prior to V2 getting started...I just hope that when the official pre-game thread begins it won't screw it up!

IC: Jack nodded to Mariavel, in response to her thanking him for helping her down.

'Don't mention it, hun.' He tried to put return to his flirtatious demeanour that he had so far maintained whilst interacting with Mariavel, but this time his heart was just not in it. His lack of interest in her showed in both his voice and his face. Both were lacking the affectionate definition he had till this moment bestowed upon the young girl. Both were lacking that tone of intrigue he had thus far shown in the fair teen. Both were just generally lacking, Jack's whole attitude towards Mariavel had become once of complete apathy. The 'hun' was so flat and forced it only highlighted this, rather than shadowing it as Jack had hoped it would and he could see in the eyes of Mariavel she had felt his loss of interest and it had been with a feeling of pain and dismay.

Poor girl, he thought. Yet the thought did not remain for long, as he remember exactly why it was he had lost interest in the pursuit of knowledge about her in the first place, his discovery of Elizabeth and him.

Where it not for Mariavel he would not even know his name, Panom. As Jack once again about faced and met with the eyes of this boy he could not help but scowl. It began as a mere curling of his upper lip which developed into a full on pout, which seemed to draw down his forehead, causing his eyebrows to furrow until he looked thoroughly unattractive as he viciously glared at the boy. He only did so, however, for a matter of seconds, and injured Mariavel and the empty headed Panom did not appear to notice at all. Elizabeth however noticed it immediately.

She gave Panoms arm a light tug to turn him back to facing her,

"Come on Panom, let’s carry on walking, yeah?"

Her eyes were both demanding and pleading at once, like ashe were commanding a stubborn puppy to return to her after it had spotted another young dog only a little way off.

Panom, obedient as he had in youth been trained to be, turned to his new mistress and nodded subserviently. Exactly what Panom had seen in Elizabeth when they had collided in the hallway was not clear to anyone, least of all the air-headed young Thai boy himself, yet whatever it was it was something special for it was clear that now he would follow her to the ends of the earth it she requested it off him.

Jack, however, would never be so easily dominated. He sense Elizabeth’s uncomfortability and drew strength from it. He eye-balled Panom once more, getting a good measure of him, and decided, based upon his being distinctly challenged vertically and horizontally (he was short and thin), that he would not be particularly aggressive should Jack decide to March up and whisk Elizabeth away from him.

Thinking, as best he could, Jack said to Mariavel:

"I have to speak to Elizabeth about some work that I missed out on last period, you know, whilst we were talking, she's in my English class, yeah?" He nodded to her without waiting for a response and jogged up to Elizabeth and Panom, who had walked a few feet further away in the few moments Jack had used to offer his explanation to Mariavel.

Elizabeth closed her eyes in mild forlorn as she heard Jack walking up behind her. In truth, she wanted to speak to him as much as he did to her, but she wouldn't openly admit it like Jack, and she also wouldn't abandon Panom to do so. She truly liked him, she saw in him the innocence she had once seen in Jack, when they had first met. Since then she had seen a darker side to Jack which added complexities to their relationship which she despised but she couldn't help but retain feelings for him despite this black aspect.

What Elizabeth did not want was Jack corrupting Panom. She knew in her head the two had to remain apart. She knew that if she had possibly found a person who could her leave her past mistakes behind, the last thing she needed was for that person to meet the one person who most embodied those past mistakes.

It was hopeless. Jack had already reached Elizabeth and Panom and had walked up right between them, separating them from once another. Panom looked at him confusedly, Elizabeth looked at him pleadingly:

“Jack, please leave us alone, we are talking, yeah?”

Jack smiled indignantly:

“Well I want to talk to you now, so you this guy can just leave us alone for a bit, until we heave finished.” Jack turned to Panom, who wore a face of confusion and surprise, as though he was sure what Jack had said went against the etiquette he had been told to follow whilst in the US, but doubted his own cultural knowledge too much to address his theory. “Are you gonna go away for a bit then mate?” Jack was not really asking a question at all, but was giving an order, and this Panom did understand.

“No.” He very bluntly stated, and matched Jack face of indignation with his own, far sterner.

Elizabeth remained forlorn as she saw the two facing off. The animosity between them had suddenly escalated and in a second they had become like two fighters in a ring staring each other down before the first bout.

“Kid,” Jack Chuckled “Leave us alone, now.” It was not like Jack to behave in this fashion, almost anyone that knew him, besides Liz, would be shocked no end by his attitude, but she had seen this many times. His violent side, his jealous side, his possessive side, the side he reserved for her, the side she left him because of. The side a person had almost suffered irrevocable injury because of. The side she soon feared the minute Panom would also suffer because of.

“No.” Came the response again.

Jack looked positively livid. His true self had left him, all control had left him. The innocent, goody-goody was gone, suddenly here was the Jack Elizabeth had always feared seeing again, in full dominance over his actions.

“Kid, get lost!” Jack thrust his arms forward to push Panom away.

Time stopped. For a half a second, everything froze. Whilst the two girls looked on in horror Jack tried to assert himself over Panom in the only way he knew when he fell to this depraved state of being, with violence. For half a second, he was striking out at Panom and everyone held their breath. Then timed started again, at triple pace. This time, no one seemed to see what was happening until it was over. Panom gripped both Jacks wrists and turned then pulled them violently, causing Jack to stumble forward, and as he did so Panom released his grip and swung his left elbow into Jacks unguarded face.

When time finally regained it natural pace, Jack was on the floor, bleeding from his left eye and nostril. Panom was standing above him, smiling. Elizabeth was frozen in horror. Mariavel remained where Jack had left her, watching on.

As Panom raised his eyes to Elizabeth he saw her expression and his smile left him, he opened his mouth to explain but couldn’t find the words in any language. Jack attempted to stand but collapsed again, thoroughly dazed. Shaking her head, Elizabeth ran away before anyone could say anymore. The evidently heart broken Panom turned and stormed away in the opposite direction, tears in his eyes. Jack remained on the floor, cursing himself, for he had lost Elizabeth again.

Mariavel was heatbroken.

Jack had left her to talk to the girl Elizabeth.

Jack was talking to Panom.

Then something happened and he pushed Panom. Then without warning Panom attacked Jack. Mariavel was Frozen. She was Crying. She was angry. She was sad.

After the other two left she ran over to Jack's side.

"Jack! Jack! Are you alright?! You need to see the nurse!" She yelled as she helped him up, supporting him.

He was hurt, and she didn't like that. Panom was in for it, as Mariavel's dark side came into veiw...

OOC:I'm going to stop RP'ing here now the official threads are going.

IC:Jack looked furious and marched off clutching his bleeding face. (Into lands unknown...)