operation: oh, yeah, it totally happened

[fixedpointintime]

WHO: Jack Harkness, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff, and open options coming
WHAT: the three watch news of the riot be suppressed, and do something about it
WHEN: daycycle 127 & 128
WHERE: the clubhouse, the Teela show, other places

Jack watches, waits, expecting to see something about the riot. Nothing comes. So he continues to wait. He asks around, vague enough to keep himself off the radar. He hopes. No one is talking about it. Not really. He waits through two days of nothing, and then he reaches out. To Clint and Natasha. Which... all right, they could blow him off, they have no reason not to. They don't, though. They meet with him, listen to his idea, and are actually game. Which is one of the best silver linings Jack's had in a while.

They work out a rough plan, take the next day to perfect it, and then it's go time. Ready or not, they need to move. Every day that passes, the riot gets closer to being something no one will care about, the violence against them gets closer to being something no one will care about.

It's a pretty solid plan, he thinks. Well, it's the best they can come up with, and it might actually work.

OPEN OPTION

On Daycycle 128, Jack is to the hospital after he collapses during the interview with Clint and Natasha. When his doctors insist on knowing what's happened to him, he will begrudgingly admit that the injuries he sustained during the riot turned out to be more than he could handle and he was too embarrassed to seek treatment. His doctors patch him up, and he's sure that some version of his story is being relayed to Friend Computer. He just hopes he's thought of every angle, that it holds water, and that he'll be able to keep CLint and Natasha from getting into trouble if it doesn't.

From about 1400 on, he's given a positive prognosis and cleared to be able to receive visitors. Given that most of the Specials have no idea that he did this all to himself, he's prepared to field some concerned friends and already thinking of ways to assure them that he's all right. Morgana in particular. Part of him wishes he could have told her, but a much larger part knows she's safer not knowing. He still hates to do it to her. She deserves a better friend than him. Clint and Natasha may stop by. It was supposed to be a surprise to them, too, after all.

[[OOC: If you have any questions about what went down, as it's still being written out, feel free to ask them here and I will get right on that. Also, if your character would come to visit Jack, please let me know what time they would get there so I can figure out the timeline. Thanks!]]

Comments

[missromanova]

At Clint's reassurance Natasha gives him a smile, one filled with affection that, ironically, she's only given to Clint and only when they're performing in this sort of situation. "At least you're here, I don't know if I'd be able to do it alone." No, really. She feels sick.

She follows Jack to hair and makeup with Clint, sitting in the chair that she's guided to, and when Jack gives that glance (obvious… it's so obvious to her what he means) there's a slight touch of heat to her next smile. She doesn't need any more information than what was just given; Clint split his lip, he's probably responsible for the eyebrow as well and the very slight change in Jack's gait. The idiots worked together to give Jack a proper beating. She isn't sure if she's more angry at the stupidity of it, or proud of the underlying brilliance.

It isn't hard for her to play her part, Natasha's played this game dozens of times before. She gives Clint an excited little tap on the arm when she 'realizes' that she's about to get a full makeover, and she lovingly scolds him every time he makes weak protest or face while their makeup is being applied. It doesn't take long for her to reach over, her hand resting on Clint's arm to 'relax' him, and it stays there as her eyes move to look at Jack in the mirror. "I think that it looks alright," she comments hesitantly, eyes then moving to the woman doing her makeup. "Is it more obvious on camera? I barely noticed it."

[fixedpointintime]

Jack hums his agreement. “That sweet girl, Prim. She got cut off from the exit. I didn’t have enough free hands.” He looks at Natasha in the mirror, smiles. “You’re sweet to say so. I thought it was getting better, but I fell asleep face down.” He speaks to the two of them as though they aren’t surrounded by people he knows will gossip. “Better me than her, but I could have done without the whole thing.”

[missromanova]

The entire process is relatively painless, although Natasha would have done her makeup and hair differently, and she properly sells how excited she is to look so good despite the fact that this is the first time since the dance that she's even managed to get makeup and it's all wrong. "How do I look?" She looks at Clint directly with a playful wink before her attention turns back to Jack. "What now? Do we go to the set?"

[fixedpointintime]

It’s good banter, Jack and Clint and Natasha, idle chit chat that sounds natural and in no way like they’re planting ideas in the minds of their audience, ideas that will take root, grow, spread like ivy.

When they’re finished, Jack nods approval, looks the both of them over. “All right. We need to get you two something to wear. These jumpsuits, functional and sturdy though they may be, might not work to our advantage. I was thinking you two could teach me a dance move. Something I already know, but walk me through it like I don’t.”

[pretendtoneedme]

“That was brave of you. A lot of people got hurt there - good to hear you weren’t worse off.” He’s good. He’s definitely good, taking their cues, running with them like an utter pro. The fact that they’d had a kind of dress rehearsal the night before helps, sure, but in front of an audience? Clint is used to altering his apparent personality and actions to affect people’s perception of him, but he’s not an actor. Jack seems like he very well could be.

But Nat’s got that look in her eyes like she wants to kill them. He might not’ve specifically warned Jack about that, but it’s something he expected, and probably something Jack’s not unprepared for, though it’s really hard to be prepared for Nat. He uses the moment she reaches over to squeeze his arm to cover her hand with his and gives her a small signal, a squeeze of just the ends of his fingers in a simple “noted, received” gesture. They can talk about it later, because Nat will undoubtedly be talking about it.

But Clint’s grateful to be out of the jumpsuits for even a little bit; he doesn’t hate them like everyone else does since they’re practical and pretty warm, good for working in and even exercising if you like to sweat, but not having any other kind of clothing gets wearying after awhile. The expression of gratitude Clint manufactures at the mention of other clothes is real, though more exaggerated than it would be - and grateful, to play up the angle of them just being normal Alpha residents. “You mean we really get other stuff to wear? What kind of stuff?”

[missromanova]

"That riot was just terrifying," Natasha chimes in with a heavy frown, looking at Jack with a mixture of sympathy and awe which is surprisingly hard to do considering she just wants to hit him for getting beat up by Clint in the first place. Counter productive. She knows.

Her annoyance subsides a little when Clint sends her the signal, because they sure as hell are going to talk about that little twist later, and her face brightens a bit at the suggestion that they perform a dance move with Jack as if it's the first time that she's heard of such a plan. "Oh, that could be fun! We can pick something easy if you want, I don't know how skilled of a dancer you are but I'm sure we'll find something." Her joy, however, only seems to magnify at the possibility of wearing actual clothes, and Natasha only has to half-perform that part. "Are there dresses?" She blurts it out abruptly, and looks appropriately sheepish afterward. "I don't get to wear dresses a lot, but I love it when I do."

[fixedpointintime]

“There are dresses. In fact, there’s a sweet little number with a black lace top that I think would look sensational on you. Especially if we demonstrate a lift? Come on, I’ll show you. You can’t take them out of the studio, but it’s still fun to dress up for a little while.” He’s ushering them both out of their chairs, effectively saving them from the rest of the primping without looking like that’s his intention. “You two look fantastic, by the way. Good job, team.” He beams at the hair and makeup people, cutting off their protests that they’re not quite finished with his flood of praise.

When he gets there, instead of going in with them, he stops just outside the door and says “three minutes, start changing and I’ll come in and get things started” before practically shoving the two of them into wardrobe. “Go ahead. Pick something out,” he says in a much louder voice. “I’ll be back in a second.”

The rumour mill is already bubbling about the two of them, and they’ve all agreed that it’s a good angle. Jack will stir the pot a little bit in that regard. Nothing too obvious, and all within the framework of his larger than life joking personality. People need to feel like they’ve got something no one else has, or it’s not gossip.

[missromanova]

Then they're moving, and after Jack leads them to the closet and practically shoves them in before closing the door Natasha looks around to make sure that there's no wire or camera. After she's sufficiently convinced, she looks at Clint with the same look she gave him after noticing Jack's split lip, and this time there's no veil over it. "I'm almost glad you beat the shit out of him," she mumbles to him under her breath after they'd been locked away with the clothing, and it doesn't take her long to pick something before she's unzipping her jumpsuit with no hesitation in letting it fall to the floor with Clint in the room. They've had to change outfits in tighter spaces than this before, with much higher stakes.

"Do me a favor, next time I agree to do something for the good of the people? Just shoot me. Knee first, a warning shot should do it." She pulls her dress off of the rack, pointing at a shirt at the same time. "This one, try this one on. It'll fit you."