Takeing in a stray (Quinn)

Their tumblr feed was full of graphic posts and other things they weren’t proud were there. It wasn’t like they wanted those things there much; most of the things on their feed were from their internet friends. Deleting them to get rid of the unwanted posts meant losing contact with them and most of them were pretty cool people to talk to. After a few minutes of scrolling, they grew a bit bored of looking at their phone, going to look through their closet at most of the clothes they had. Nothing really caught their eyes besides a regular t-shirt and some pink pajama bottoms. Totally forgetting that Jack could walk out at any moment, Quinn began to undress, quickly putting on the T-shirt which seemed to be a bit too big for them. The bathroom door started to open and they fell forward into the closet, hiding behind the doors. “O-On the door.” Trying to ignore the almost embarrassing moment, they quickly pulled on the rest of the clothes before moving back to their original seat on the bed.

Huh... Quinn seemed a little flustered for whatever reason... and they were pokeing their head out from their closet... Huh... Well this was a tad odd, perhaps Quinn enjoyed hiding in their closet and pretending it was the cockpit to a giant Mecha. Making all sorts of battle sounds and lazer noises untill his dad came storming in and shouted "Jack! It's four in the god damned morning! Go to sleep or so help me god i will tan your hide!".... Huh... or maybe that was a suppressed memory.... ether way Jack would shrug and exit the bathroom and grab the clothes sitting on the hook. If Quinn was still looking at him they would notice two things about Jack. One, that for a teen his age he was rather lean. Persumably from the "crime fighting" and two, and more pronounced, the numerous scars that crisscrossed his torso. Most were small with a few that looked like they had come from rather serious stab wounds. The largest however, was on his left shoulder. The large circular scar was big enough that it almost looked like he ad a chuck of his shoulder blown off at one point.

"I'll get dressed, then we need to have a little chat about you... "knowing my secret"..." With that said Jack would flash a friendly smile to Quinn" And I see you decided to slip into something more comfortable. Nice hearts heh" Jack would chuckle at the pink hearts on the PJ bottoms before turning to go back into the bathroom.

They would look down, noticing that the bottoms they chose weren't the ones they intended on wearing. Though they did fall down and almost get caught changing by Jack, so they might have grabbed those when they thought the coast was clear. Hearts weren't their thing anymore, pink wasn't really their thing either, but it did look nice on them once and awhile. As soon as Jack shut the door, Quinn would move towards the closet, closing the doors after picking out the next thing that was comfortable. A plain red pair of pajamas, though these ones were intended for a female unlike the ones Jack was putting on. Once changed, they would dive onto the bed, feeling the bed for one last time. As Jack would exit, they would sit up, patting the bed. "So I'll sleep on the floor, you can sleep in my bed."

"Not a chance Quinn," Jack laughed as he adjusted the shirt. It was rather tight across the chest and really didn't seem to fit him at all.... But it was better then the shirt he was wearing... especially sense the shirt he was wearing couldn't really be called a shirt after the thing it had seen... If some one somehow turned his shirt into an anthropomorphic neko girl... All she would do is scream in an attempt to end the madness....

"This is your house and my heroic heart won't let me steal your bed.... and my broken back won't let me sleep on the floor for another night... So I guess that means we're sharein for the night. I can go get a sleeping bag tomorrow. But first things first." jack would then walk to the bed and flop down on it, taking care to enjoy every fiber of the lush and plush comforter. "You need to tell me everything you know about my 'secret'... "

They would move over as he laid down on their side of the bed, plopping down on the bed, they'd look at the ceiling while listing to him. "Persona... I still don't understand it. They all obviously don't work the same... My friend Mae's can use fire and heal people, but all mine can do is make attacks harder to miss and tell what an enemy's weakness is; plus she's almost always laughing." Quinn would stop looking at the ceiling, turning to face Jack. "What can yours do? I don't really know much about your secret, only that you have a persona, you did kind of mention it to me in the cafe..." It wasn't even eight in the afternoon, but they already felt tired, as if they had done more than enough today to make them tired early. Still laying down, they'd continue to stare at Jack, not even realizing that they were doing it in the first place.

"Oh than god! Heh You're just a Persona user! I thought you might be an evil intergalactic mage come to destroy me and conquer the earth. You had me worried there for a moment. Glad to see that I'm just being silly again." Jack would run to look at Quinn, not quite realizing how close the two were on the surprisingly small bed."And you met Ranger Pink? Cool! Glad to see she's already helping people out. As for my persona.... Golem mostly hits stuff... Just.... punches it... Heh. He tends to babble on about Honor and what it means to be a true hero and ranger... It was cool at first but now he just kinda gets on my nerves." Jack would lay on his side to face Quinn and smile. He didn't feel to tired... but he could feel it coming on. "Thanks again for taken me in. I can't tell you how appreciate this."

They heard everything he said, but it took them a few seconds to come up with a response to give to him. Once he rolled over, the two were almost inches away from each other, but Quinn continued to stare even as they spoke. "Mae is a ranger too? How many of you are there?" They had really hoped to find other persona users to join, but Mae was obviously on a team and so was Jack, so they would have to look some place else. "You know, I've always wanted to be Blue Swan, but if I had to go with colors, I'd probably go with Rainbow. The Rainbow Ranger sounds fun anyways." They'd smile at his last comment, feeling a bit of blush coming on since they were a bit too close. Turning back to face the ceiling, they'd try to avoid eye contact with the Red Ranger. "It's no trouble. I really couldn't leave someone as cut-" They'd stop themself, not really knowing how to finish it without sounding like a total idiot. "As nice as you, on the street..."

Now Jack might seem like an idiot. In fact he very well might be an idiot. In fact he was fairly sure he was in deed an idiot. But even though he was an idiot in every sense of the word, but he was not stupid. Jack turned a bit red as Quinn's little slip up set in."R-rainbow huh? I-Ill let you know if we need a "The Big One" heh... As for rangers we have a Blue, Green, Pink, Gold, and Silver Ranger... We... Had a black ranger but... Remember when I said some of us have already given their lives for this fight?...." Jack would turn to look at the ceiling as well as a single tear run down his cheek"Nilo gave his life for the earth..."

Someone had died to those things called shadows? "Ya know, some powers other personas have are cool, I saw them first hand... But mine is just boring..." Most of it seemed fun like a game to other people, but they barely felt that at all. At first, they did feel a sort of out of body experience, like they really were playing a video game and that entire battle was just like that. It wasn't until the middle of it all that they realized things could've gotten worse than the way it had already began to play out. If they hadn't been there, would those people have even survived without the information they had provided? "Nilo.... I think I heard about that... Didn't he die of unknown causes?" Come to think of it, the fire they had been hit with didn't burn them, it just seemed to make them a bit more tired than they were already. Using Genovfa also made them tired as well, which lead them to believe that everything was just psychological, which would explain the word 'persona.' Turning their face a bit, they would take a glance at Jack, sitting up and pulling another handkerchief from the side table near the bed. "Aww comeon, don't cry." They'd laugh a bit, it was just kind of cute, not that the friend dying was funny at all. They'd hand him the piece of cloth before laying back down on the bed in the same position they were just in.

Jack would jump a little at the handkerchief... It was the same one Quinn had earlier, he could see the minute amount of his blood staining one of the corners. It was small, white and very soft. Yet the corner had grown red and hard with his blood. Jack had no choice but to laugh at the irony. This color... Red... meant so much to him that he had claimed it as his moniker, his mantle. Yet now, seeing it stain the pure white of this scrap of cloth... it looked ugly, unwanted, hateful; and it was the color that stained his hands...

Even after his fight with Charles and his talk with Oki... He still saw Nilo's blood on his hands every night... He had always thought a leader wore red to hide their own blood should they be wounded. Now he saw that the true reason, was so they could not see the blood of their comrades stain them.

Jack would sit up and look at the handkerchief in his hand,"Quinn... Will... Will you promise me something?..."

There were so many things going on with the entire city, but they had just received their persona only a week ago. It all felt like they were in the middle of a show's plot and that's where they decided to enter. Of course they decided that they wanted to use their power to help anyone that needed it, mostly because they could do that now. Plus with their power, they had no need to venture to far into that place; the one that they had poked their head into for only a moment, since it already looked scary enough. The fact that they didn't have to go far made them feel a bit better, but also vulnerable. If they didn't go in with their allies, what happened if they were attacked with no help? They would probably find a way to deal with it when that happened. Pulling themself back into reality, Jack spoke out, say something about a promise? "Well of course, but what is it?"

"When I formed the rangers... I was just some kid trying to be like his heroes. It ws before I persona from a post man..." Jack would clutch the handkerchief in his hand and and turn to look at Quinn with a serious look in his eyes."Promise me that you will be careful... I can't ask you to not get involved... you were involved the moment you gained your persona. But I can ask that you don't put yourself at risk. I already lost Nilo.... If you got hurt to I...." Jack would look hurt for a moment before chuckling to himself and handing Quinn back their handkerchief. If they reached out and grabbed it he would linger his hand on theirs for a moment as he said his next part.

"Let's just say... I care about you. And I've never forgive myself if you got hurt."

He was trying to protect them, or at least he was trying to take the fun out of everything, though the first part felt more likely than the second one. Of course they were going to be careful, it's not like this was all fun and games, with murder involved it couldn't ever be. They couldn't help but blush slightly when he spoke, though he stopped and tried to hand the handkerchief back. When they sat up and reached for it, they felt their face burning like the sun. That was something they didn't expect, especially since they just assumed that Jack didn't like trans-people. Granted Quinn wasn't full on trans, but they were on the spectrum with everyone else. "O-Oh... W-Well don't worry about m-me. My p-persona isn't combat orientated, so I won't be in the heat of things." Slowly they felt their face turning back to it's original color, placing the piece of cloth back on the side table as they laid back down again.

Jack couldn't help but notice the blush gracing Quinn's face... Heh... they looked cute blushen... Wait... oh god no not again.... Seriously! Come on Jack! You can't keep doing this! sigh... alright let's just handle this just like last time. Push it down and never ever EVER let it bubble to the surface! Then just let it die cold and alone along with a good portion of the of his soul. Yeeeeeeeaaaaap and gone! Perfect!

Jack turned a slight shade of red as he smiled and laid back down."Heh...Thanks Quinn... You put my mind at ease. I'd hate for some one as cute as you to get hurt when I can do something about it..." He would turn so she wouldn't see his face turning a little more red.

They would sit up, looking at the clock before jumping out of their bed, trying to avoid looking at Jack. "W-Well look at th-the time, w-we should re-really get to bed... I'll go grab some blankets for the floor, I really feel like you should keep the bed tonight..." They'd laugh a bit, moving to their closet and pulling some blankets from the floor. "P-Plus, I'm fine sleeping on the floor. I do it sometimes for fun." Placing the blankets on the floor, they would arrange them into a sort of comfortable bed, grabbing a pillow from the closet before closing it and placing the pillow onto the pile of sheets. The rain would start to come down, slightly at the moment but the sound of it hitting the roof could be heard. All Quinn hoped was that there was no thunder, thunder and lighting weren't that enjoyable when it came to them. But as if they spoke too soon, a crack of thunder would rumble, the lightning following it lit up the room. They would scream a very not manly scream before jumping back onto the bed, landing on jack for a second before quickly hiding under the covers. "Actually, you won't mind if I sleep here will you?"