The Ark is back in Haulani, Longheat is in full swing, and Nerissa is bored. Longheat and Deepfrost both leave her sitting, but at least the latter boasts a chill, boasts a solid week of darkness. The only thing she gets in the sun is headaches, and a cranky attitude.
Setting up the meeting with Jack had mostly been a whim, an excuse to see the new canals, the attempt by mouth breathers to lure mer in. It’s going to take her a while to really decide how she feels about the artificial waterways, and she can’t begin to make that decision without ever have tested the waters herself.
The sun is long set by the time they’re supposed to meet, but a pair of darkly shaded glasses protect her eyes anyway, a trinket found just off the pier and jealously guarded. Despite the darkness though, the water around Nerissa glows, her tentacles drifting gracefully through the waves and bathing her in a sickly light. Long hair clings to her where she’s risen out of the water, both hands fiddling with an ivory handled folding razor, something she’s debating gifting to the captain.
She supposed it depends how late he is.
Jack is punctual in that he just happens to be strolling along the canals at the precise moment that the sickly light fills the air and the sight of his favourite mer appears in the water. It’s dark and the streets are near empty - a result of the sickness plaguing Torchline. The smuggler feels fine, though, and he’s not going to miss out on an opportunity to meet Nerissa, for once, in the middle of the city.
Pausing at the canal bank, Jack spots her languishing in the still waters, and he lifts a dark bottle in greeting. A rich, sweet summer wine - for her, obviously - and in the paper bag he carries, some candied citrus fruits. Gotta treat his contacts well, after all. [say]”How are you finding them?”[/say] he asks of the canals.
Honestly, it’s a surprise to find Jack on time to anything, and this is no exception. Nerissa choses to believe it’s more than coincidence, chooses to believe that business is something Jack can be responsible about, though the bottle in his his hand doesn’t exactly fill her with confidence. Regardless, he’s here, and she’s here, and that’s all they really need.
Nerissa looks up, and around, tilting her head this way and that as she considered Haulani, a glittering jewel that had once been out of her reach, and the star studded canals that had given her access. [say]”They do their job.”[/say] She decides airily, her head tipping back towards Jack, though it’s impossible to tell if her eyes are still roaming. [say]”They do make things like this far simpler though, don’t they?”[/say] A hand reaches up and out of the water, a silent demand for something from him, though it’s left up to him to figure out if she wants the bottle or the pap r bag.
[say]”How was your voyage, Jack? Worthwhile, I hope.”[/say]
[say]”You can say that again,”[/say] Jack mutters, pleased to note that at least the canals are doing their job in some capacity. He steps forward so they might converse properly at the water’s edge, though by no means is the captain stupid enough to walk into the arms (er, tentacles?) of someone like Nerissa. It doesn’t stop him from reaching out to give her the paper bag, however, setting the bottle down on the side of the bank for her to get whenever she pleases.
He grunts a note of discord at the matter of his voyage, Jack huffing out a sigh and plopping down to sit. [say]”Attacked by a ghost whale. Sailed through the arse end of a storm. But it was profitable enough. Shame I can’t say the same for Torchline. Have the mers been affected by this sickness?”[/say] he asks.
Candies and wine, she really is being spoiled. A citrus candy is nibbled at experimentally before Nerissa devours it, setting the bag down and reaching to take a sip of the wine, eyes never leaving Jack. She wonders distantly if he knows what a show of trust it is, if this is a deliberate move in a complex game of chess, or if it’s merely good intentions, an attempt to curry favour.
Nerissa drifts closer to the edge of the canals, leaning against the wall beside the spot Jack plops down. [say]”A ghost whale and a storm? It’s never a dull moment for you, is it?”[/say] Her voice stays even as it ever does, though there’s something on the quirk of her lips, the somewhat vicious way she crushes a candy between her teeth, that belies some sort of quiet discontent.
Her head cocks to the side, just a little bit, at the mention of a sickness. Her eyes above the waves are apparently lacking.[say]”We don’t suffer from the same weak constitutions your kind seems to, I’m happy to report.”[/say] Reaching out of the water a little further, Nerissa brushes the back of her fingers along the smugglers jaw. [say]”Have any of your connections been affected?”[/say] She asks lightly. The answer had better be no. The reason she doesn’t know about this had better be because it didn’t affect her.
Jack can forever admire Nerissa for her facades. She is still water, is this mer, running deep and revealing nothing at all unless you know exactly where to look, and the smuggler slants a smile her way. [say]”I cause trouble when I’m bored. Better there ain’t a dull moment here,”[/say] he mutters, watching the hand that brushes along his jaw with the same amount of trust one would give to a venomous snake coiling around their arm.
[say]”That’s a mercy. The sickness causes fever and hallucinations, so I’d dread to think what the mers would do under a delirium,”[/say] he drawls, before shaking his head. [say]”None have been affected. But the Hanged Man got fucked by monsoons, so their usual waterin’ hole needs a renovation. I hear tell Raza might be kittin’ it out to suit the mers. Perhaps you and I can see even more of each other in the near future.”[/say]
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