Taboo was bored.
She was often bored to be honest. A lot of her life was following Jackie around and making smart comments or sleeping. Don't get her wrong, she loves Jackie, but interesting things rarely happen. She was born in battle, fighting was what she was supposed to do, she just didn't get the opportunity very often.
Now though, something interesting had happened, Jackie had a new power.
Taboo had been looking forward to watching this, maybe giving some observational pointers, but no. Jackie had deemed it 'too dangerous' for any observers, so Taboo was often back in the apartment, trying to doze. She was also doing that now, but was getting bored even with that.
A bad start to the day.
She stood up from her dozing position and shook herself off before padding through the flat, seeing what everyone else was up to.
Jackie was in the kitchen and sounded like she was chopping something. Jackie rarely cooked, given that it really wasn't safe for her to be anywhere near an active cooker, oven or microwave, so food was usually Jamie's department.
Curious, Taboo wandered in. Jackie had her back to her and was chopping up vegetables.
"What are you doing?"
Playing the bagpipes. Jackie responded in a deadpan manner, but Taboo could see the smirk.
"I thought your dad was from England, not Scotland."
He always said most Americans couldn't tell the difference.
"No need to stereotype. So what are you making?"
Hopefully, gazpacho. Jackie started chopping again, and Taboo noticed the tomatoes, cucumber and red pepper on the counter, that were quickly being dispatched by Jackie. Knives were not her main weapon, but she was still good with them, and it showed as she chopped the healthy ingredients into swift submission. She even twirled the knife every now and again, just because she could.
Taboo rolled her eyes in amusement before leaving her to it, deciding to look in on Jamie.
Not for the first time she found him on his laptop on the couch. Although, for once he wasn't doing work, but was watching some old cartoon. Taboo put her paws up on the back of the couch to look over at what he was watching. It was some old cartoon, what was it called? Stephen Universe or something like that, she didn't really care.
She tilted her head to one side and huffed in amusement as the short purple character suddenly changed shape to look like an abstract piece of art. The huff startled Jamie, who had been watching with headphones, and he turned to face the ice tiger. After a second of just slight confusion, he offered and ear plug to the ice tiger, who wrinkled her nose at it. Jamie shrugged and got back to watching.
Despite this, Taboo kept watching, out of not much else to do, watching the oddly coloured humanoids (because there was no way they were actually human) change shape, mainly the purple one.
"Okay, I guess that's quite cool changing to more than one form." Taboo mused, not that she had an issue being a tiger. Lithe, powerful, sharp claws, razor teeth, the only thing missing was opposable thumbs, but her tail made up for that, because it was fairly prehensile.
Said tail was now curling around her head as an idea floated in her consciousness. She drew in some of the ambient air moisture and concentrated it around the end of her tail. A ball formed there, which was fine, but could be better.
"Hey, Jackie!"
Yeah?
"How do you form shapes out of ice?"
...What brought this on?
Taboo paused for a second. "It's a surprise."
I can see inside your head.
"I know you don't like doing that, and vice versa. So, how do you do it?"
Jackie was silent for a few minutes, although Taboo could hear her mind whirring. She even chuckled to herself as she imagined Jackie stopping in her chopping tapping the point of her knife against her chin. Although, she probably wasn't doing that, but it was funny to imagine.
I, sort of visualise it, and move the ice to match. The ice has to be moulded at least the first time, the more you do it the quicker it will be.
"How do you mould it?"
I... I can't really describe it. There was a note of frustration in Jackie's mental voice. I think for less than a second and it happens.
"So, you've forgotten how you started to learn?"
...Pretty much. Jackie admitted. That's great for teaching newcomers isn't it?
"Memorise the Bergland books." Taboo suggested. "Thanks anyway."
Jackie went back to cold Spanish tomato and vegetable soup making and Taboo turned her attention back to the rounded end of her tail. Spikes seemed like the best choice, so more air moisture was drawn in and formed into cylinders on the ball of ice. She had hoped to just draw spikes from the already existed ice, but wasn't sure how to do that. Once there several cylinders she began to draw away some of the ice, carefully sharpening the spikes.
It took about half an hour in total, but finally it was done, and Taboo couldn't be prouder.
She grinned widely (which looked quite disconcerting on a tiger's face) and swung her tail around to rest on Jamie's shoulder, who was still engrossed in the cartoon.
Jamie looked over, not fazed by the cold, and yelped in surprise as, what was looked like an icy mace was resting on his shoulder and Taboo was baring her teeth at him.
Taboo let out a rumble that he recognised as a laugh, got down off the back of the couch and walked off, tail held high.
Jackie was leaning against the table, reading while she waited for the vegetable and bread mix to marinate.
"Jackiiiiiiiie."
Hmm? Jackie didn't take her eyes off the book.
"I've got something to show you." Taboo continued in a sing song manner. Jackie looked up and saw the spiked tail hanging in front of her face. She looked round it at Taboo, seeing the ice tiger grinning broadly, which Jackie returned.
"Nice." she said aloud. "How long did it take you?"
"The ball, seconds. The spikes, half an hour. I had to whittle down cylinders."
"Hmmmm." Jackie was thinking. "We can work on that. I'll put together some ideas."
"Well, thinking was always your strong point." Taboo commented with half sarcasm, as it was true. "But, I was kinda hoping I could work on this alone, like you and your Nightlight thing."
Jackie blinked, and Taboo got the impression that she wasn't too happy with that idea, but that was the control freak in her.
"Okay. That's fine. But I'm open if you want to bounce ideas off someone."
"Got it. Thanks." Taboo paused. "And, if you really want to make a list of ideas, I won't stop you."
Jackie couldn't stop the small smile on her face. "Thanks, but I won't force them on you."
"I will bite you if you do." Taboo responded, half joking.
"Duly noted."
Pokemon themed title, sue me :)
Also, I'm not dead! Cue Monty Python!
No, this is not the Sandman one shot, still working on that, but it should be up later this week.
Now, I should probably explain my absence.
I've been moving away a little from ROTG as of late, and falling straight back into Young Justice, given that a new season is finally in the works! I can't wait! So, I started looking at YJ fanfiction, because of course, and I find one called 'A Jester Among the League' (it's in my Favourite Stories tab if you're interested)
Which then inspired me to write to YJ fanfiction, and that's what I've been working on for the past two months or so. It's not done, not even close, despite being (at time of writing) 239 pages long, but I do plan on putting it on DA and FF when it's done.
That being said, I'm not going to stop with HOG and Jackie! I still love this series, it's just I've been working on it for about 3 or 4 years now, and I need a break. Not to mention this collab seems to be taking a million years