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+---- Thread: all out to sea (/showthread.php?tid=10729)
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all out to sea - Jack - 02-25-2025
Jack appears on the doorstep of Flora's little house in Haulani in clean clothes and smelling of fresh peppermint and cedarwood, even if a large part of him still feels as if he's bathed in whiskey. Grumbling his agreement to Mateo's terms, whatever they are, when the botanist opens the door, Jack is already stepping past him and pulling his hair up into a hasty topknot as he heads right for the stairs.
He knows Flora's brother isn't going to be far for this conversation, and that's with or without his magic; with eyes red-rimmed and seeming subdued and yet quietly fierce, Jack sees Mateo for the first time with that same steel in his spine that he shares with the Doubletake. Speaking of which, Jack shrugs out of his coat and folds it over the banister before pausing outside Flora's bedroom door, reaching out to rap against it with his knuckles rather than simply bursting inside.
(One of Mateo's terms, wouldn't you know).
[say]"Flora?"[/say] he calls. [say]"It's me."[/say]
RE: all out to sea - Flora - 02-25-2025
Flora isn’t sure what she’s supposed to feel.
She’s washed, at least. The warm water had done little to clear the fog of exhaustion, but she’d gone through the motions anyway, scrubbing at her skin until it felt like something had been rinsed away—grief, guilt, confusion, maybe all of the above. But she hadn’t bothered to dry her hair properly, hadn’t reached for the usual kohl and gloss, hadn’t done anything more than climb back into bed, pulling the blanket up to her chest like it might hold her together.
She should be angry with Jack still. Maybe she still is, but the emotion is muddled beneath layers of heavier, sharper things. Jack was an ass—and given that he was always an ass, really, what was she even upset at him for?—but right now, Flora doesn’t have the energy to care. Her sister is dead. The sister she barely knew, the one who belonged to Safrin and Ronin in a way Flora never would. And yet, it still aches, settling in the hollow of her ribs like something jagged and raw, and she can't help but wonder if her sister died the same way that she had.
When the knock comes at the door, the queen doesn't move at first. She hears it, but it's only after a beat that she shifts, turning her face just slightly toward the sound. She should get up, but it isn't like the door is locked, so...Flora exhales, curling all the more tightly beneath her blankets. [say]"Come in,"[/say] she murmurs, knowing Mateo would have already given him a talking to, knowing that even if she said nothing at all, he’d feel her waiting.
RE: all out to sea - Jack - 02-25-2025
The thunderheads in Flora's mind break and rumble against Jack's magic, letting him feel the brewing storm there, and he silently opens the door almost at the same time as she invites him in. Stepping inside and clicking it shut again, he glances around a room he knows well by now that nevertheless feels darker for the endless night outside the window. [say]"Hey,"[/say] he says, crossing the space to sink down and sit at the side of her bed where she's curled up.
[say]"No one knows what happened?"[/say] It's a guess, mainly because Flora hadn't mentioned it in her letter and the thoughts he'd plucked from passers-by en route (he hasn't had a chance to see Remi's message at the notice board just yet). With eyes like flint, the captain glances back at the window and the bible black sea beyond it, as if the waves might hold some of the answers. [say]"I'm sorry. I know you weren't close, exactly, but..."[/say] But it still sucks.
RE: all out to sea - Flora - 02-25-2025
Flora shifts just enough to glance at Jack as he settles on the edge of her bed, his presence familiar even in the dim light. He’s not a comforter, not in the way most people are, but he’s here without having been asked, and that's more than she might have expected given how they'd left things.
Flora shakes her head against the pillow, a small, weary movement that has her curls bunching recklessly around her. [say]"No,"[/say] she murmurs. [say]"No one knows. She was just...there, on the beach."[/say] If she'd reached out to Remi after she'd died the Bastion hadn't said, only that her body had been found completely untouched but lifeless and silent, hidden away from the stars which had been her birthright.
Flora exhales sharply, tilting her head just slightly toward the window, following his gaze toward the sea. Unable to help the way her mind selfishly twisted her thoughts until came back to her own brush with death, the queen shrinks even more beneath her blankets. [say]"I keep thinking about when we died,"[/say] she admits, voice quiet, raw at the edges. [say]"And wondering if..."[/say] Swallowing, Flora tenses, the riptide of her thoughts suddenly stilling into something impossible calm and black.
[say]"If I hadn't brought Maea back that day in the desert, Seren wouldn't be dead right now."[/say]
RE: all out to sea - Serendipity - 02-25-2025
You've encountered the OG random event! This allows you to skip one levelling requirement with the character in this thread. (Unfortunately does not count for characters over level 10, how sad.)
RE: all out to sea - Jack - 02-25-2025
Jack's eyes darken at that, the captain frowning as if the sparse details about Seren's demise are worse, if anything, than knowing for certain what had taken her life. Because all he knows right now is that something exists - apparently lurking in their region - capable of killing without leaving a mark or a trace of its presence. And he doesn't like it.
Blinking as he feels the black tide of Flora's thoughts recede around herself before falling as quiet and still as The Maw, Jack glances over his shoulder towards her. [say]"If you hadn't brought Maea back that day, someone else would've shown up in need of your father's skills,"[/say] he corrects her softly. [say]"This ain't on you. It's on whatever the fuck killed her, Flora."[/say]
Letting out a long sigh and shifting enough to kick off his boots, he nods towards her as if asking her to scoot up in bed so he can join her there under the blankets.
RE: all out to sea - Flora - 02-25-2025
Jack’s words grind against something jagged inside her, something raw and unresolved, that has Flora immediately wanting to argue with him if only to do something with everything that she's feeling. But he isn’t wrong, and that’s the worst part. If it hadn’t been Maea, it would have been him, actually, and if it had been Jack, then Remi would have still had his feather. Which would mean—
Flora clenches her teeth, her jaw tightening as she squeezes her eyes shut against the dizzying spiral of cause and effect that twists and knots itself through her mind like a whirlpool. [say]"I’m never bringing anyone to Ronin again if I would trade them for the life of someone in my family,"[/say] she mutters, her voice thick with conviction and bitterness alike. Because in the end that's what it came down to: every slot Ronin used on someone was a slot he didn't have to save his family.
The bed shifts beneath her as Jack moves, and normally she’d have something to say about it—some quip about how he was making himself comfortable awfully fast after being such a bastard—but tonight, she doesn’t. Maybe she isn't marrying material, but Jack could easily have found a thousand excuses for why he hadn't been able to come and see her before the funeral, but instead he'd come right away. And so, Flora shifts, making space for him without hesitation, lifting the blanket just enough to let him slide in beside her. When he does, she tucks herself against his side, curls spilling over his shoulder, her fingers slipping over the fabric of his shirt as she presses against the warmth of him.
[say]"Did you ever meet her?"[/say]
RE: all out to sea - Jack - 02-25-2025
Wincing at the bite of pain that lances through Flora's mind and into Jack's, the captain doesn't block her out so much as he muffles some of the conflict he can sense; it won't do to have everyone tying themselves in knots in this conversation. (And look how easy it is for him to be logical when he's not drunk on birthday liquor). [say]"I wonder if he'd bring 'em back even if you did, after this,"[/say] he says quietly, though the scrunch of his nose suggests that the Knight would absolutely be that selfless, even to his own detriment.
The subject of his being a bastard or Flora not being marriage material both skirt the line of Mateo's Forbidden Topics, and so Jack, perhaps wisely, doesn't mention them, instead letting his arm stretch around her as he settles on his back against the pillows, frowning up at the canopy of her bed. [say]"Hm? Not directly, no,"[/say] he says with a shake of his head. [say]"In passin', at events and meetings and shit like that. I don't think we ever spoke, though."[/say]
RE: all out to sea - Flora - 02-25-2025
Flora exhales slowly, shifting just enough to rest her cheek fully against Jack's chest. [say]"Remi said he was afraid to leave Ronin alone for too long,"[/say] she murmurs, the words curling at the edges with something close to resignation. [say]"So who knows what kind of mindset he’s in."[/say] Because the thing about Ronin was that when he loses someone, he doesn’t just grieve. He destroys. And if Remi is worried about what his husband might do if left to his own devices, then it means he’s already seen the cracks forming. Not that Flora needed to tell Jack that; Jack, who'd actually been there when Remi and Ronin had first come to Torchline after Aoife's death.
[say]"I'd only just started hanging out with Seren again,"[/say] she says, and gods, doesn’t that feel surreal? How do you go from sharing drinks with someone one week to planning their funeral the next? Flora licks her lips, absently twisting the blanket between her fingers.
[say]"Do you think it was the Void or the Family?"[/say] She asks, twisting enough to peer up at Jack. As a sister, the question is dripping with vindictiveness, but as a queen, it is pure, ice-cold strategy. Because if it was the Void, then Torchline wasn't as secure as they thought, which meant the other regions were absolutely fucked. If it was the Family, then this wasn’t just an attack, but likely some sort of statement. But saying what? Another warning to the Taliesins? Something to do with Safrin? Something Seren had done?
RE: all out to sea - Jack - 02-25-2025
Frowning - because yes, Jack had indeed been around when the Taliesins had made their debut in Torchline, and it was not as the White Knight and the Bastion - the captain absently strums his fingers against Flora's side in a slow rhythm. Though both men had changed and changed again in the time since their arrival, he has no doubt that those seeds of darkness still have a few roots left, buried way down deep, and if anything is going to make them surface, it's this.
[say]"Where are they now?"[/say] he wonders, of Remi and Ronin - just in case they need to strategically play war-zones with two demigods in the near future.
As for Flora and Seren, Jack can only nod quietly, his hand curling up to tuck her curls behind her ear. [say]"You always think there's gonna be more time,"[/say] he mutters. And for a man who is functionally immortal, there always will be, if he's careful. Not so for anyone else, though.
[say]"I don't know,"[/say] he says quietly, of the void or the Family. [say]"But I plan to find out."[/say] He's scowling now, the cogs of his mind seamlessly whirring to life, and any plan he might have had to leave in Flowerbirth is evidently on the backburner now.
RE: all out to sea - Flora - 02-25-2025
Flora shakes her head, her curls shifting against Jack’s chest. [say]"I don’t know. The houseboat, I assume."[/say] Maybe even the Cordillera if things were bad enough, though she thinks based on the way the Bastion had recently apologized to her brother, Remi wouldn't have left without saying something.
But when Jack mutters his plans to figure out what happened, Flora blinks, her surprise flickering across her face and slipping through her thoughts like silk before she leans up onto her elbow, peering down at him. [say]"That sounds like all the more reason for the Ark to be anywhere but Torchline,"[/say] she points out, arching a brow. Not that she was in any way looking forward to Jack being gone during Flowerbirth, but if things in his cabin had taught her anything, it was that a man like Jack Barclay didn't just change.
RE: all out to sea - Jack - 02-25-2025
[say]"Least they can drag that out to sea if they are there,"[/say] Jack reasons of the houseboat, though if there's damage control to be had, it's probably a good thing that Remi is sticking with Ronin regardless of where they end up. Blinking himself back to the here and now as he feels Flora shift in the bed, her surprise splashing against the mental barrier of his magic until he lets it down, he raises his eyebrows up at her.
[say]"Whatever business I got can wait when there's somethin' in Torchline killin' demigods,"[/say] he says, tilting his head and moving enough to get his own elbows under him, the captain tilts his head towards her. [say]"Today it's your sister. Who might it be tomorrow? Mel? The Marin kids?"[/say] You?
[say]"I ain't goin' anywhere until this is figured out. Like hell am I comin' back to find out someone else is fuckin' dead."[/say]
RE: all out to sea - Flora - 02-25-2025
Flora's mind is still a bog of lingering unease, filled with sulky sludge that seeks to drag her thoughts down into the muck. With a soft sigh, she pushes herself upright, tugging the blnanket around her legs and absently adjusting the silk strap of the slip she'd tossed on after the shower. [say]"I wonder how much longer until Mel's immortal,"[/say] she mumbles. Vesper had to be eons away, though given that they were both members of Jack's crew—and thus his to order away for all of Flowerbirth—his words hadn't entirely chased her surprise away.
Rubbing at her eyes, Flora lets her shoulders round forward until she can rest her elbows on her knees. [say]"Hadama and I were thinking of some big gravity cannon aimed right at Starfall as our next regional quest, but now..."[/say] Gods, now they'd first need to figure out what was evening happening on their shores. She shakes her head, letting her hands fall heavily into her lap.
[say]"I wonder if Safrin even knows yet."[/say] The words are whispered, as if the goddess somehow might be listening, and though she doesn't, the urge to glance into the deep pockets of darkness in the corners of her room has Flora inhaling an unsteady breath.
RE: all out to sea - Jack - 02-25-2025
[say]"Any time that's not right now is too long,"[/say] Jack points out with a soft frown. [say]"Hard to know how that sort of shit works with demigods anyway. By all rights, Seren should have been."[/say] Though maybe her time away in the stars had negated that somehow. Of all the things that Jack does know, that certainly isn't one of them. Still feeling the lingering surprise in her thoughts, the captain can't help but glance up at her, especially as she sits herself properly upright.
[say]"...Do you want me to go?"[/say] he asks slowly, trying to wade through the mire of her thoughts to figure it out.
As for the gravity cannon, he cocks his head as if to consider it further. [say]"If it is void or Family related, might be better to keep that idea,"[/say] he says slowly. [say]"Unless there's a way of protecting against it better that we ain't considered."[/say] Sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose, Jack shuffles to lean back against the headboard.
[say]"I sort of hope not,"[/say] he says, of Safrin. [say]"I imagine it'd be worse, to know but not be able to do anythin' until the sun rises."[/say]