for theatrical_muse

Worst quality as a significant other? Well, I’m impulsive, I guess. Impulsive and hard-headed, stubborn as anything. At least, that’s what my mom would say. But mom says a lot of things about me, and mom said a lot of things about Dad.

Everyone always said I took after my dad.

I want to hunt, see, and if I want to do something, I’ll do it. It doesn’t matter what people think about that, and if I ever find myself a guy, it won’t matter what he thinks either. He’ll have to accept. Actually, he’d have to do that to start off with if he’s ever going to become my significant other at all.

Anyway, I guess my worst quality is that I’m self-centred. Selfish, I guess. And that’s not looking like it’s going to change any time soon. Either a guy’s going to be able to accept that or he’s not.

So that’s either going to be my worst quality as a significant other or I’m not going to be a significant other at all.

~

Muse: Jo Harvelle
Fandom: Supernatural
Word Count: 176

for talking_muses

At school, it was always “Joanna Beth Harvelle, will you take a look at yourself? What a mess you’re in, child!” Mom would be called. And Dad. And all the other girls in class would flounce around in their little dresses, flipping their pigtails at her, pointing and laughing at the dirt on her face, the faded cut-off denim dungarees and scrappy t-shirt.

Mom would roll her eyes, put a shirt on over the top of the mess she’d made of her clothes, and then Dad would swing her up onto his shoulders and parade her home.

“What did my precious little girl hunt today?”

“It was a black dog!” She’d proclaim proudly, curling small hands in her father’s hair. Everyday it was something different; the school’s two cats, Labrador puppy and old sheepdog had been every monster imaginable. Not quite every monster because Jo had a lot of days left and a lot more playtimes left to fill.

“Was it, precious? Did you kill it?”

“Yes!” And Dad would start laughing, Mom too – and she always thought one day. One day she would kill one for real and then, instead of the soft, pleased and amused laugh her parents gave her everyday, she’d hear pride.

She was going to grow up and be a real hunter – a real life superhero. Just like her father.

~

Muse: Jo Harvelle
Fandom: Supernatural
Word Count: 225

for theatrical_muse

“And what am I supposed to tell your mom?”

Jo rolled her eyes and shouldered the bag. “That I went on a road trip to Las Vegas,” she told him with an exasperated expression. “I didn’t get you to lay the credit card trail there for fun, y’know.”

“Like that’s gonna fool her.”

She just smacked Ash lightly on the back of the head and turned him to face her fully. “That’s why you’re going to make sure she does believe it, right Ash?” She gave him a sweet smile, waited for him to nod a few times before she let him go and made for the door. “Remember, breathe a word of this to her and I’ll tear your balls out.”

The sound of the door closing behind her was the sweetest sound she’d ever known. To freedom and being able to do what she wanted to do with her life. To her case – one she’d found, one she’d researched – the one her mom had given to those boys so easily.

No way, she was one road trip to finishing off what she’d started. She’d finish this thing and honour her father’s memory. Make him proud.

Make mom proud too. Prove to her that she was worrying for nothing.

She hitchhiked to the nearest bus station and was on the next Greyhound to Philadelphia. She was on a road trip all right; a road trip to feeling that much closer to her father.

~

Muse: Jo Harvelle
Fandom: Supernatural
Word Count: 244

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed. - Carl Jung

The first time I saw him, I dropped a tray of drinks on the floor. I blamed it on Joshua getting up from a table at the same time I dropped them, but in reality, it was when I saw Rick walk in the bar. It was trite, it was cliche, but everyone around me faded and all I saw was him.

I would wait for him to come to the bar and so that I could listen to his stories of being a hunter. I wanted to commit everything he said to memory. Not just because he was handsome, but he was younger than most of the hunters in the bar and he had their respect. When he asked me to go on a hunt with him and Jake, I jumped at the chance. I knew I was a tag along, mostly an observer. It was everything I thought it would be and more. Rick was calm, intelligent and amazing to watch, and I learned so much from him.

Then the Fates smiled down on me and I got a chance to go on a hunt with him alone. An exorcism. It wasn't pea soup, revolving heads like I thought it would be, but it was enough to scare the shit out of me. This time, however, I kept my cool. I thought my heart would jump out of my chest but I didn't give in to it. I used it instead, and it was fucking awesome. I never felt so sure in my life like this was what I was meant to be. Rick and I worked in perfect synchronization, which lead us to see what else we did in perfect synchronization. Yeah, I won't go into that, that's a story for another time. Suffice to say, that hunting is not the only thing we did well together.

Strange as it sounds, my mom even noticed the change in me when it came to Rick. She liked it, and she liked him, which is a plus. It's nice that I have someone I can share everything with, and not have to explain why I have a book about ritualistic killings and how to get rid of demons. The drawbacks are when he goes on a hunt, and I don't hear from him for a while. I know he can take care of himself, but that doesn't stop the worry. It's probably a control thing. I know he'll be all right as long as I'm there to have his back. A month isn't a long time to not hear from someone, right?

Fear

I went on my first hunt when I was sixteen years old. It was with Gordon, a hunter that came to the Roadhouse and didn't treat me like a kid, patting me on the head. He took me seriously, and told me stories of his hunts. He even helped me write down legends for my own 'journal' and what to look for when I looked in newspapers.

When I approached him to take me on one of his hunts, he didn't laugh. He said it was about damn time. I think I fell in love with him that day. Well, as much as an impressionable sixteen year old girl can. We won't mention how I fell in love with Viggo Mortensen a week later when I watched Lord of the Rings.

Gordon took me to an abandoned factory just outside of town for a surveillance job. He thought a Rawhead was using it as his lair to bring back his victims and torment them. If anyone asks, surveillance is freaking boring. Even the excitement of my first hunt couldn't lift me out of the boredom. Four hours later, though it felt like four days, Gordon hears a noise in the far corner.

Finally... something to do. Except he tells me to stay put and out of sight while he goes to investigate. I was very tempted to ignore him and follow anyway, but I wanted Gordon to take me on another hunt so I did what he said. My imagination has always been inventive. In my mind's eye I saw Gordon valiantly fighting off the Rawhead. Did I mention I was sixteen years old? Yeah that's embarrassing to admit.

I tried to still my breathing, and not notice how the darkness seemed to be surrounding me. Then it happened. A noise right beside me. Every single bit of training that I'd had with my dad and the other hunters... Gone. I let survival instinct kick in and I ran like hell. Yeah I'm not proud of it, but let's see what you do in that situation.

Now? I wish I had faced the Rawhead because it had to have been less terrifying than what I did face. My mom. Yep, the great and powerful hunter Jo ran smack into her mother and got caught a) lying, b) on a hunt, and c) did I mention lying? See... a Rawhead would have been so much easier to face.

I thought I would never be that scared again when I heard that noise in the darkness. I was wrong. Every time I go on a hunt with the guys, I'm terrified. I just learned to use that emotion, channeling it into other things until I can give in to it. I don't know if that's how other hunters do it, but it works for me.




Muse: Jo
Fandom: Supernatural
Word count: 473