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+---- Thread: the corner I haunt (/showthread.php?tid=10141)
the corner I haunt - Flora - 09-13-2024
It had only taken the fleeting sight of Jack sitting in the dusk-dim corner of her bar to set Flora's heart racing.
She hadn't expected to see him in the Hanged Man, had assumed he'd avoid it (and her) until he was ready. How had he put it before, on the beach? That he would have invited her to talk? She assumed she'd get word from him or that he'd otherwise pop up in her orbit as he so often did, but this? Seeing him had cold waves of panic and dread sloshing at her feet, and it was all the queen could do to finish the conversation she was engaged in before darting through the hallway and slipping through the door which led into her guild.
Thankfully it was empty, dark and quiet, and the silence that fell upon her as she pressed herself against the cold walls was welcome. Unaware that she was shaking, Flora did her best to try and soothe her worried heart, though the tremble in her fingers or the way her breath caught in her chest refused to be calmed.
RE: the corner I haunt - Jack - 09-13-2024
Flora watches him and Jack watches Vesper leave, though the onslaught of the Doubletake's thoughts is something he can't ignore, even with the hasty attempts to block her out. They spark and prickle along his skin as if he's hit a funny bone somewhere, except nobody's laughing. By the time he knocks back the rest of his drink, though, wincing at the burn, Flora is gone, and were he not who he was, it would have taken a lot longer for Jack to find her.
Rising to his feet and taking a purposeful moment to call over a waitress and get another round in for the crew - and for the raucous bunch who have just walked in through the door - the resulting celebration and uproar is plenty enough for the captain to slip away unnoticed. He heads down the corridor to the familiar door and, knowing the correct way to open it, is soon able to slip inside as well. [say]"Flora?"[/say]
RE: the corner I haunt - Flora - 09-13-2024
In the days that had passed since Flora had last seen Jack, she'd replayed the minutes on the beach over so often in her mind that they'd begun to blur together until all she had left were snippets of conversation and the overwhelming certainty that she should have just taken his hand. Whatever he had to think about, whatever they had to figure out, it could have been done together. Why her hurt had felt like it rooted her to the spot such that she couldn't leave the beach, she both knew and didn't all at once. If she'd taken his hand, it would have been to acknowledge that she loved him, but he didn't love her back, and gods in the few seconds he gave her to decide, she just hadn't known what to do.
Flinching at the sound of her name, hiding away in the dark like some child, the queen quickly clears her throat, wiping her fingers against her cheeks before flicking the lights on. [say]"Uh..hey."[/say] It occurred to her to pretend to have been looking for something, but of course such a ruse wouldn't go far with Jack so instead she just edged herself behind the bar Asta had built. [say]"Drink?"[/say]
Surely he couldn't sink the S.S Situationship if he had a drink in his hand, even though she was already taking on water.
RE: the corner I haunt - Jack - 09-13-2024
Having assumed the S.S Situationship to be all but dead in the water since that meeting at Aumakua when he'd left by himself - don't make me walk away from this stupid lighthouse without you, he'd pleaded, and even now the weakness and vulnerability in the words make him mildly queasy - Jack steps properly into the guildhall as if it's any other meeting. He does at least take a second to button his shirt, still left open as Vesper had seen him earlier in the day, but he doubts Flora wants to stare at the snake nestled against his ribs, and nods at the offer.
[say]"Somethin' with a mixer,"[/say] he requests, having had quite a bit of neat liquor in the past hour, enough to stick to his bones, but he'd quite like to slow it down a bit now. Sidling onto a barstool opposite where she's stepped behind the counter, he leans an elbow against it and fishes in his back pocket for his cigarettes and matchbook. [say]"Sorry for bargin' in here without warnin'."[/say] The Hanged Man, he means. [say]"Arranged a meetin', only realised after where it was."[/say]
RE: the corner I haunt - Flora - 09-13-2024
[say]"Sure."[/say] Finding it easier to do something than to wait in uneasy waters for whatever the captain might have decided—that he'd fit himself into her life the way same he wanted her to fit into his, that he felt the same way about her that she did about him—Flora busies herself making him a drink. Having recently had Sunjata and Mel in for a taste test for her mother's engagement party, she has quite a bit lying around, though opted to go simple for Jack, mixing him up a dark and stormy and sliding it across the bar.
[say]'Ah.'[/say] Biting at the inside of her cheek, she watches his cigarette wink to life, the familiar smell of his tobacco making her stomach clench. [say]"We don't have to talk now...if...if you aren't ready to."[/say] She offers softly, truly unsure whether it would be better to rip the bandaid off now or to prolong things a few more days wherein the captain might realize he'd been missing her? That this was all worth pursing, no matter the messiness of it all?
RE: the corner I haunt - Jack - 09-13-2024
Offering a silent nod and a cheers with his glass as she slides it across to him, Jack takes a long and satisfying sip, relishing the burn of the ginger in his throat before he sets it back down. The cigarette soon replaces the drink between his lips, and he waves the match out once he's able to take a drag. [say]"Mm, no - it's... we can talk now,"[/say] he says, exhaling the smoke into the air over his shoulder. Dragging an ashtray across the counter and tapping his cigarette against it briefly, he shrugs his shoulders.
[say]"I mean, it's like you kept tellin' me. It would never have worked,"[/say] he murmurs. [say]"You said it with your thoughts so many times the past few seasons, and then out loud as well on the beach - I should've believed you and walked away, let you do what you needed to do. You were right, I was just..."[/say] Being stubborn? Feeling lonely after becoming freshly immortal? A fucking idiot? Take your pick, Flora. [say]"Sorry I put you through that. And... thanks, for everythin' you did for me."[/say]
He takes another long drag of the cigarette, following it up with more rum.
RE: the corner I haunt - Flora - 09-13-2024
Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, it feels as if there might as well be an ocean between the two of them for how closed off Jack's body language is. While he'd never been the most open, at least in the past few seasons Flora had known that if she'd wanted to she could tuck herself against his side so long as she was willing to pay the price of having him roll his eyes at her neediness.
[say]"No, that's...that's not what I meant."[/say] She interjects, swallowing hard. [say]"Or..well, it can't work with it being just like this."[/say] Though her fingertips vaguely gesture between them, Flora relies heavily on the content of her mind to clarify: With her loving him, him tolerating her, their lives completely separate save for the few times they crashed together.
[say]"I wasn't.."[/say] Rubbing one of her cheeks against her shoulder, Flora's eyes focus on the buttons of Jack's shirt, trying desperately to keep her composure. To keep her thoughts from flying away in the maelstrom that was building in her core. [say]"..after the panther, that second night, when you said you wanted to know what I was thinking...gods, I knew you wouldn't, but I couldn't help it. And then you said you didn't want to talk about it...and then after the lighthouse, you did, and I wasn't ready to admit out loud that I was in love with someone who didn't love me back."[/say] The words burn her cheeks, her throat, her eyes, but it's her heart that feels as though it's going up in flames.
Pressing her eyes closed, the Doubletake exhales a shuddering breath. [say]"You said if I wanted it, then you did too—and I should have taken your hand, I know I should have and I wished I had—I just needed to know that you actually wanted it. That it wasn't for me."[/say]
RE: the corner I haunt - Jack - 09-13-2024
Blinking quickly a couple of times, unable to help it against the sudden flare of Flora's thoughts and emotions, at least the Doubletake can be glad(?) at the knowledge that Jack hasn't walled himself up so much as to not act as though she knows the truth about his magic. Instead, dipping his head in an apologetic nod, he wrangles control over himself and exhales another long and smoky breath, leaving the cigarette between his lips and walking his fingers around the rim of his glass.
[say]"Mm...?"[/say] Realising it as if for the first time (or rather, feeling the need to clarify for the first time, more like), Jack raises an eyebrow across at her. [say]"That was the first time I'd ever wanted to..."[/say] Hold you, he gestures. [say]"Afterwards."[/say] He remembers how he'd reached out for her in the dark in his bunk, tucking her tightly against his chest - the first and only time in his memory that he'd done such a thing voluntarily. [say]"That's what I didn't want to talk about. I thought you'd feel smug about it."[/say]
Even that had been a step too far, in retrospect, and he glances away across the guildhall and wrinkles his nose at the memory.
[say]"It was a stupid thing to say, and to do,"[/say] he mutters, of the beach. [say]"You're better'n this, Flora. Better than me - you know you are. Now you can go and make your happily ever after with that dragoon, or even Astaroth, if he can keep his fuckin' teeth to himself. World's your oyster."[/say]
RE: the corner I haunt - Flora - 09-13-2024
[say]"Smug?"[/say] The word is practically barked from Flora's lips, such is the immediacy of her confusion before the moment plays back and something like cold horror dawns on her face, casting an icy glow to her thoughts. [say]"I thought it had been what I'd thought...that you'd seen it in my mind.."[/say] Though her head shakes, her eyes remain on his, at least until he looks away. She'd thought I love you, and he'd held her closer.
[say]"Jack.."[/say] His words hit her like a whipcrack, the sound echoing out inside of her, pushing everything else away until the only thing strong enough to remain is the unrelenting kernel of love that no amount of darkness can dim. Not yet, anyway. [say]"You can't mean that."[/say] She whispers, her fingers tightening around the ring on her finger, begging it for it to flare with heat.
Flora feels hollow, then, as the silence stretches out, filled only by the smoke whorling from his lips. But I love you; did that mean nothing? Had she meant nothing, this entire time, that it was so easy for him to just shrug her off after so long together, boarding up whatever he'd been willing to give himself to on the beach so quickly?
RE: the corner I haunt - Jack - 09-13-2024
[say]"No, I asked to see that,"[/say] Jack says, as if they both might have forgotten that; Flora's mind might have been his self-confessed favourite place to be, but the captain is too much of a control freak to ask for something unless he really wants it, regardless of the pleasure that had been radiating between them at the time, turning logic into golden sparks of lust and starlight.
Taking the cigarette from his lips and flicking the ash from it before setting it down into the tray, Jack apparently changes his mind about taking things more slowly with his drinking, because he's reaching out to drain the rest of his glass almost immediately afterwards. He does mean it - that she's better than he is, that she can do anything with her life that she chooses, that things wouldn't work between them.
And she's still here, just as he is, just as they both had been up at the Aumakua. [say]"You make me so weak, Flora,"[/say] he whispers; not only is it the truth, it's not even meant as an insult. It's something that, as Queen of Torchline if not as someone who so often doubts herself, she ought to feel incredibly proud about. [say]"I might act like you're a nuisance, but I do the thing anyway. I might roll my eyes, but I didn't push you away."[/say] And if it had been something he'd absolutely abhored, Jack would have found a way around it; would have sent someone else in his place, would have made his excuses.
RE: the corner I haunt - Flora - 09-13-2024
[say]'I know, but...I didn't think you really wanted to.'[/say] Flora admits, though of course Jack knew that much already. [say]"How could you? You'd said from the start it wasn't what you wanted, must have seen the way I'd tried for weeks to hide the thought down where even I couldn't find it."[/say]
Flora's breath stalls on her tongue as her brows
[say]"I know."[/say] Dropping her eyes, Flora picks at a bit of varnish on the bar, her voice low. She was intimately aware of everytime he allowed her to be close to him, if only because he made it impossible to forget. Every roll of his eyes as he snagged an arm around her waist, every huff as he tucked her against his side, every terse kiss pressed to her hair to shut her up. [say]"And that's the part I can't live with being the same."[/say] She says after a moment, trying to shrug her shoulders down away from her ears.
[say]"I don't know why you do it."[/say] She whispers. Reaching for his glass if only because she needs something to do or else she's liable to turn around and smash every single bottle if only to feel like she can control over one single thing in her life, Flora shakes her head. He'd known that she was falling in love with him and he'd kept her at arm's length. Had tolerated her growing affections, and now here he was breaking her heart like her deserving better was the reason why.
RE: the corner I haunt - Jack - 09-13-2024
[say]"Right, because you're the only one who can change their mind or end up with feelings when you didn't expect to have them,"[/say] Jack quips, scoffing and rolling his eyes and turning on the barstool so he's side on towards her, as if it would make it easier to have this conversation. [say]"Oh, fuck off, Flora."[/say] He almost says it affectionately, taking another hasty drag of his cigarette before it burns to nothing without his notice.
[say]"Torchline - my Torchline, where I live and work, is a shark pit, and as soon as they got wind of anythin' between us that went beyond sex, they'd start circlin'. Maybe they couldn't get to you, not with how strong you are, with all the connections you have, but you'd find shit happenin' to the bar, to your brother, to anythin' you couldn't control. Because what hurts you would hurt me."[/say] And suddenly Jack is making deals to keep things safe, to do damage control, not because they're smart or wise or what's best.
Running a hand across his forehead and glancing back across at her at last, he shrugs his shoulders. [say]"That's why I do it. That shit scares me - bein' used like that, havin' things that I care about ruined just because they're mine. And I don't care if you think it's right or if it's not the way things should be - it's how it is."[/say]
RE: the corner I haunt - Flora - 09-13-2024
[say]"No, but I'm the only one who isn't a mind—"[/say] Snapping her teeth around the rest of the word, though they might be in the guild, she'd still not come right out and say it. [say]"You've always had the advantage here."[/say] Of being older, wiser, of knowing her thoughts sometimes even before she did, and most importantly: knowing how he felt. Something the Doubletake had never been invited to know.
Sliding another drink across the bar with trembling fingers that didn't even remember having made it, Flora grips the mahogany panelling Asta had installed with a firm shake of her head. [say]"Give me one reason to think that's true."[/say] Far as Jack had ever told her, he'd never been in love before. Had never let anyone in, and unless that was a lie, there was no precedent at all for what he was saying. He had no close family, no kids (well..); so who possibly in his past had been used against him the way he was alleging? [say]"Actually, before you do that, you look me in the eye and tell me who you think is both stupid and capable enough to try and hurt someone I care about."[/say] Her brother, her family? Untouchable hardly began to describe them. As for the Hanged Man? Fuck it. It could burn for all she cared; hard work could build her back up again. [say]"If what hurts me hurts you, then what protects me also protects you."[/say] Sure Torchline could be a shady cesspool, but it's the one Flora had chosen to pack up and move to, the one that had moulded her even moreso than the man who currently couldn't meet her gaze.
RE: the corner I haunt - Jack - 09-13-2024
[say]"That's what people are like, Flora,"[/say] Jack snaps, slamming a hand on the counter at the same time as he catches the drink she slides to him, and for a moment there's only years of distrust and anger on the captain's face, put there by decades of seeing the betrayal happen real time, poisoning him to the possibility of a relationship that isn't seen as leverage or blackmail. [say]"And you can't think that way - you can't think you're fuckin' untouchable and that you'll always be safe. The governor who ruled this place since before I was born thought that, and the fuckin' Apopo erupted all over him."[/say]
Hissing out a curse under his breath as if irritated at his own show of anger, Jack forces his hand to relax around his glass. She's not wrong, that his baggage and her contacts all but cancel each other out - and heavily skew in Flora's favour, truth be told - and the captain's shoulders sag as if under the weight of that knowledge.
[say]"Flora, I can only tell you that this won't work so many times before..."[/say] Before he remembers he isn't a good man, and he does what he wants and takes what he wants anyway, consequences be damned. Jack shakes his head. [say]"I'm not good for you."[/say] Or for anyone.