[se] disclosure

flora

Flora knew better than to ask Jack the specifics of why they were going to any place in particular, and for all her endless curiosity, today she just didn't care. Having seen the manifest via the delivery boy who had arrived at the Hanged Man asking for a crate of booze, the Doubletake had made note of the captain's plans before later inviting herself along.

Determined to shrug off the feelings of desperation and wholesale rejection she'd felt as of late, Flora breezes her way up the gangplank and onto the ship with an extra bottle of aged whiskey tucked in her jacket pocket for good measure.

Despite her intentions, the queen's thoughts were abuzz with inadequacy and self-doubt such that every time she tried to push these thoughts from her mind, they seemed to double. Even so, Flora could fake it with the best of them.

"You know, I've never actually been to the Peep Holes." Flora says leadingly as she swans over to Jack once the Ark is well on her way. "But I had a bit of business for you and I to go over so I thought why not?"

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

Whilst it wouldn't be entirely accurate to say that Jack has been missing lately, the good captain has been rather wrapped up in his own affairs. With Starfall lurking on the horizon, the world becoming increasingly nibbled at by void flora and fauna, and a big fat tournament taking all the attention in Torchline, what decent smuggler wouldn't capitalise?

And so whether or not he's been present, he's certainly been productive, and now as the Ark is on her way to the Peepholes and he's allowed one of the crew to take the wheel, he finally lends his attention to the queen of Torchline.

"A bit of business," he repeats through a drawl, the words muffled by the cigarette between his lips. Having been forced to all but lock out Flora's thoughts whilst he got the Ark underway (unsurprisingly, being flooded by feelings of inadequacy and rejection does not make for good decision-making), now the captain starts to let his telepathic walls down, welcoming her thoughts to mingle freely with his own.

"Do tell," he continues, exhaling a smoke ring that takes a rather complicated shape that heavily suggests it's influenced by air magic. "The Peepholes are worth knowin', if you ever want to hide anythin' special." Granted, it's more and more difficult these days given how much void shit keeps appearing. Not that Jack plans to let that stop him today.

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

flora

"Oh?" Flora raises an eyebrow, feeling once more like the young girl she'd been when she'd first met Jack and how hard she'd worked to try and earn his approval. Reaching out for his cigarette—at least now she could manage a puff without spluttering and coughing—Flora took a deep drag, not bothering to attempt any of the shapes the good captain's lips were capable of creating.

"Two things, actually. One has to do with an advantage that you might actually have over our good friends over yonder." Nodding her head in the direction of Starfall, Flora's thoughts fill in the details: an orb had been brought, magic tested, air proved exceptionally potent. "The other is...something I need your help with. As your queen." Powerful items to be placed across Torchline for use if any void nonsense should interfere, but Flora needed help protecting them from sticky fingers.

"Where would you like to start?" She wondered with a sly grin as she handed back Jack's cigarette.

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

Where once Jack would have balked at the theft, these days the golden spark of Flora's intention hits soon enough that his fingers are loose to allow it, and he instead focuses on the steady approach of the jungle in the distance. "Mmhm," he confirms. "I used to use the Boondocks for shit like this, but then some Frey demigod fuck moved in and turned it into a marketplace." And he and Sunjata have never spoken about it, but Jack will never forgive him regardless.

"For hidin' shit and droppin' off, though, this is a decent enough place." Which is the point of today's journey - to pick up a few things promised to the captain in days and weeks past.

Two things is still a bit of business as far as Jack is concerned, and as the cigarette is put back into his hands, he flicks the ash over the side of the boat and hears Flora out. "That's a bold way to say you want to put my ass on the line for a bunch of demigods an' leaders of other regions," he drawls - because Flora absolutely knows Jack well enough now to know that's not really in his wheelhouse to do.

"As your queen?" he repeats with a debonair grin, shaking his head and angling himself more to face her. "Better start there then, hadn't we? Starfall ain't standin' in front of me lookin' all coy, but you are."

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

flora

"He's probably going to be my stepdad one of these days." Flora purrs in reference to the Frey demigod fuck as she grins at Jack from behind her own cloud of smoke.

Letting her stare grow flat, Flora raises an eyebrow as her gaze finds his. Flashes of the times they'd fucked flashbang through her thoughts, along with other moments of similar weight: being attacked in the Fingers, the pirates they'd taken down aboard another ship, the muffins she'd thrown at his head. "Or," Flora counters, turning to press her back against the railing of the ship so that the cool ocean breezes might pass over her neck instead of her face. "I'm letting you know that if the Ark is ever attacked that you won't be at quite the disadvantage you might otherwise believe." Bouncing her eyebrows at him, Flora gives her head a little shake. "Come on Jack, I know you better than asking you to go play hero just because you have air magic."

Pressing her lips together prettily, Flora lifts her chin just so, neither confirming nor denying whether or not any coyness on her part was intentional. It was though; of course it was. Walking her fingertips up Jack's chest, the Doubletake lowers her gaze to where her fingers smooth out a wrinkle in his jacket. "Well, given how close Starfall is to our shores, Hadama and I were thinking of having caches around the city of items that could help our citizens out if those assholes decided to pop in." No doubt the captain would know where she was going even without access to her thoughts, but Flora spelled it out just the same.

"And I was hoping you might put the word out that anyone caught messing with those supplies would lose more than just their fingers."

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Another demigod added to the family?" Jack raises his eyebrows, and though his expression never changes, of course the cogs of his mind are already hard at work in deciding what that really, truly means about the Doubletake. "That makes what... four godly parents, now?" Drawing deeply on his cigarette and letting the smoke spill from his lips only for it to be carried away by the breeze, it doesn't take a genius to realise how important Flora is by proxy alone. It's something Jack has known for years, but what he hasn't counted on is that importance growing, on her own merits and by the actions of her family.

Flora's stare grows flat and the set of Jack's shoulders tightens ever so slightly. He tilts his head, watching as she leans back against the railings of his ship, all curves and wind-tossed curls and effortless authority, and he samples the flavour of her thoughts like a man at an expensive restaurant trying different wines.

"I see," he rumbles, and a crooked smile curls up one side of his mouth as he offers his cigarette back to her. "Information like that is very valuable. I expect you'll want somethin' for it? Or is that what the rest of this conversation is for?"

Granted, as his queen the trade-off is hardly necessary, and the captain listens while raising a hand to let the Ark know to start putting down the sails so they might head for the Oerwoud in the near distance. "How very clever you've become," he drawls, raising a calloused hand to seize her own as it walks mischievous fingers up his chest. "Providin' one of those caches also happens to be on this very ship, it would be my pleasure to intimidate any idiot who tries."

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

flora

"Mmmhmmm." Flora agrees. "And now that Seren is back, a demigod sister too." She adds casually, though the mischievous gleam in her aqua stare is in clear conflict with her tone. That she wasn't particularly close with that particular branch of her family tree hardly seemed to matter. From what she knew of her newest (to her) sibling, Safrin's daughter was the type to put family above all else, Flora included.

Accepting the cigarette, the queen considers it—and the captain's words—with a slightly raised eyebrow. "Can't I just want to keep you informed?" Pursing her lips together before taking a drag on the cigarette, there isn't much the queen can do to emphasize her curves given the heavy jacket she's wearing, but still she tries in the way she pushes her shoulders back slightly and shifts her hips. "You aren't much good to me dead, Jack."

Even in moments like this when Flora felt like she had the upper hand, she was never quite sure when it came to Jack such that the press of his hand against hers was neither a comfort nor a warning, but something in between. It felt equally likely that he might raise it to his lips as painfully clasp her fingers, and in the not knowing she felt her breath catch slightly in her throat. Drawing a measured breath, the Doubletake took a moment to pretend as if she had to consider the captain's request before nodding. "You know, given how dangerous the seas have become I think that only makes sense. I'm sure Hadama will think so too." Either she'd ensure that he did, or...well, there were plenty of things her co-ruler wasn't fully apprised of.

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Oh, and a sister," Jack adds with a smirk. "How silly of me not to connect those dots." It doesn't matter to the captain either, whether or not Flora and Seren are particularly close. What matters is that, as the Doubletake rightly anticipates, the demigoddess and the rest of her family are likely to drop everything to help one of their own. And being one of their own is beginning to feel oh-so-tempting. "I suppose it won't be long before you also join those illustrious ranks."

Tilting his head - because the captain can never imagine a time where he'd just like to keep someone informed - Jack nonetheless manages an indulgent smirk for Flora. "So you're sayin' I'm good to you," he rumbles. "Nice to know."

As the Ark bobs and slows and the crew begin to assemble the rowboat that Jack will take to shore, he considers the Doubletake's words as much as her thoughts, and it's with a deliberately slow smile that he does, eventually, raise her hand to press his lips against her fingertips. "Then we've got a deal," he murmurs, before nodding promptly to the boat. "Hop in."

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

flora

"There are so many." Flora agrees with a crooked smile of her own. "I can make you a flow chart if you want?" Maybe she could embroider it on a handkerchief for him so every time he had to wipe the blood from his face he could remember her and all the allies at her disposal.

"Or maybe not. Then I'd be at the beck and call of every asshole who'd put a little work into being an Accepted." And having channelled her fathers away from their breakfasts and their beds, no part of Flora wanted to be similarly yanked away from her own private moments. "Worse still, I'd have to be one of those annoying hero types that gets forced to deal with Caido-level issues." It didn't seem to Flora that it was short-sighted not to set her sights on becoming a demigod. Rather, she was quite content to be the biggest fish in her corner of the ocean.

"Nooo, good for me." Flora corrects, and just as she's about to tug her hand away, the captain goes and does that damned thing he so often does, and completely surprises her. Doing her best not to look too twitterpated by the gesture, though with all the nonsense surrounding Koa as of late, gods but the smallest gestures seem to go a long way, Flora offers the captain a tiny roll of her eyes before stepping into the boat.

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Do I seem like the sort of man who keeps and consults with flow charts?" Jack drawls; it's only funny because Flora has seen the inside of the captain's cabin and the contents of his desk, and the reality is yes, yes he does seem that sort of man indeed.

But anyway.

"Oho, she's put some consideration into this," he continues with a catlike smirk, holding the boat steady for her to climb into it before following suit and muttering a few orders to the crew still on board. "We're in agreement there, at least. Bein' a hero type is very over-rated." And as a big fish in his corner of the ocean already, naturally Jack can understand Flora's line of thinking.

He even respects it, which comes as much of a surprise to him as it likely would anyone else.

"Good for you," he echoes with a private grin, turning to adjust the pulley that will allow the rowboat to glide down into the open ocean. Only once they are safely bobbing on the waves does the captain speak again, and rather than bothering with the manual labour of rowing, it's with a clever combination of air and water magic that he propels them smoothly through the current.

"So," he says. "Who is Koa?"

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

flora

Raising her eyebrows with a you don't want me to answer that look in her eyes, Flora just hmmps! under her breath and chooses not to say anything.

"Well obviously." It didn't take being born into one of Caido's most powerful families for someone to think about their future. At some point or another Flora would bet everyone in Caido had at least considered the possibility, even if they immediately decided it wasn't for them. "Honestly. And to be beholden to someone who can just...read your every thought?" Flora grimaces and shakes her head. Of course she's thinking about what it might be like to try and bluff someone like Safrin, not realizing of course who she'd been talking to all along.

Gripping onto the side of the boat and trying to sit the rise and fall as the little vessel falls into the water with some sort of grace, Flora exhales a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding as the captain begins to propel them magically forward.

Trying to think of some clever bit of gossip that Jack might like to hear to pass the time, the question he asks has Flora's stomach turning into a block of ice that sloshes painfully in her belly with every small shift of the boat. "Mmm?' Rubbing her cheek against the collar of her jacket as if to suggest that the sudden loss of colour in her face might merely have been from the cold, the queen fixed her gaze out across the water. "He's...a dragoon, from Stormbreak." Flora murmurs. "Why?"

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Beholden," Jack says with a scoff. "There's a word you don't come across every day." Of course, the good captain is privy to who Flora is speaking to, and he won't lie that he's considered as of late whether or not Torchline's queen might be a decent ally to have, were she to understand everything he's capable of doing. And one might expect the prickle of distaste in her thoughts to make him nervous in that regard; alas, that's just not Jack.

Letting his magic ease off as they enter the shallows surrounding the Oerwoud, he sits himself down in the boat as well and tilts his head at Flora; it doesn't take a mind reader to see her reaction as something abrupt and very negative. "Rumours abound," he drawls. "Especially when they involve our illustious Queen." It's a good enough excuse for him to 'know' anything and everything he likes about the situation.

"Do you want me to do something about him?"

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

flora

Grinning, Flora nods. "Maybe you'll think twice about ever asking me to play scrabble, huh?" Or whatever the Caido equivalent was.

Trying not to notice the way Jack had purposefully placed himself to look at her, it was with an air of feigned realization that she pretended to notice him. Rumours? Trying not to openly wince at that, Flora scoffed before trying and failing to keep her lips from twisting into cruel and ugly shapes. "He's definitely one of those wanna-be hero types." She says under her breath. If only she'd known what Jack was capable of, she might have tried to better direct the flow of her thoughts. Alas, the captain will bear witness to the tumultuous love affair between she and the dragoon: the highs of their couplings shoved up against the thoughts which had occupied her mind when Koa had picked Sohalia over her and then the pair had disappeared, aka run off together.

Lifting her eyes, she regards Jack solemnly for a moment. Unlike with Ronin, the captain absolutely would kill Koa without a second thought much less any reason other than Flora's say so.

But...

"Well, he has been hanging around Torchline an awful lot for someone whose a sworn Stormbreak dragoon." The queen says suggestively. And though she had absolutely no reason to believe it, Flora added: "And given that he's just come back from having been kidnapped by the Family? I wonder if he doesn't have something else keeping him on our shores."

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Is that what you call what we do when we get a spare moment alone?" Jack raises his eyebrows, gazing over Flora's shoulder towards the coastline growing steadily closer before his too-blue eyes return to her face. 

"He sounds delightful," he says of Koa, deadpan as you like. Meddling hero types on Torchline's shores who aren't demigods related to the leader of the region (and therefore someone he has to put up with)? Ew, no thank you.

As Flora gazes up to meet his eyes, she'll see the captain's expression still quietly thoughtful, as if he's merely waiting for her say so before making a certain Dragoon disappear forever. Which isn't untrue, but he's also busy parsing through the dirty laundry she's airing in her mind; only when the boat bumps up against the sand does he stir, rising to his feet in a fluid motion.

"Perhaps I'll have to ask some difficult questions," he says with a quiet laugh; those sorts of questions normally arrive on a knife point, but Flora knew that when she opened her mouth. "I'll let you know what I find out."

Using his magic to help push the boat further onto the beach, only once it's on land completely does he step out, holding a hand out for Flora. "If you change your mind, though, I'll happily go with my original plans." The never to be seen again kind, he means.

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!