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+---- Thread: don't sell your heart (/showthread.php?tid=10254)
don't sell your heart - Flora - 10-19-2024
When sleep finally releases its hold over the captain, he'll find his bunk empty. Whether or not this immediately rouses his curiosity or concern, should he look to
Jack,
I know I said that I only wanted to have you for a little while, but lets make it as long as we can, okay? Find me and your surprise down by the bay.
xoxo Flora
If and when the captain did as he was invited, he'd be treated to a misty morning with low-hanging clouds that blurred against the slate-grey sea. The sky overhead was a nothing shade of faded teal, though the stark contrast of the black sand bay against the glacial mountains nearby certainly made everything look a good deal more cinematic than it had any right to. Near where the water was lapping against the dark shore sat Flora, bundled in several blankets, her hair in a messy knot atop her head and a few thermals of coffee in a basket at her side. 45ft behind her (roughly, anyway, she'd had to literally count out the feet using her own as a guide), was a prettily wrapped box with Jack's name on it.
To fight against the anticipation and nervous energy, Flora had brought a book with her, though despite the rather salacious scene currently being portrayed, the queen found herself re-reading the paragraph several times, unable to concentrate on the words.
RE: don't sell your heart - Jack - 10-19-2024
Flora will know by now that what Jack lacks in appetite when it comes to lavish spreads of food or even the chance to drink until the world spins to nothing, he more than makes up for with a propensity for sleeping. It's true that his slumber is usually quite light, but he's liable to stay put in his bunk if there's no immediate need to rise. Add in the bitingly cold nature of the region they're currently visiting, and she'll find it very easy indeed to escape without his notice.
And when he does rise, note or no note, it still takes a little while for him to peel himself out of the warmth towards the deck. Flora is a blanket-clad speck on the bay in the distance, but since she'd insisted (even if she's gone as far as to use the word surprise, which naturally puts him on edge), Jack makes his way off the ship towards her.
His boots crunch through the black sand, and the misty morning and the distant glaciers can keep their fucking cinematics; still sleepy and bundled in a heavy coat with gloved hands jammed in his pockets, Jack arrives at the pretty box and all but pouts across at Flora. [say]"You couldn't have done this on the ship?"[/say] he calls out as a good morning, before crouching before the box to open the gift.
RE: don't sell your heart - Flora - 10-19-2024
Jack won't be able to feel it given the distance she's intentionally placed between them, but as soon as she hears the sound of his boots crunching across the ice, her heart begins to hammer and her thoughts pound with the reverberation of every single step. Pursing her lips and snapping her book closed, the Doubletake twists around, grinning at the captain across the beach.
[say]"—ship isn't big enough."[/say] She calls, her voice filled with laughter. By no means was the Ark small, but a 40ft radius around the captain ate up a good portion of places the queen could safely be on board the Ark while keeping Jack's fingers out of her thoughts.
Nibbling on the inside of her lip, Flora's eyes narrowed as if she might better see the captain's actions. The box, predictably, was placed within a heart she'd drawn on the sand, and within, also predictably if not quite rare, was a revivify feather.
RE: don't sell your heart - Jack - 10-19-2024
Narrowing his eyers right back at Flora - because of her cheeriness if not because she's dragged him out onto the beach in the cold, whilst she makes a good point regarding the range of his telepathy these days, it doesn't mean he wants to give her credit for it. [say]"Don't talk about her like that,"[/say] he snips back, his voice gruff with as much amusement as she might expect from him right now, before he's crouching in the heart in the sand to see what she's gone and done now.
Only what she's gone and done is nothing short of outstanding. It takes a lot to make Jack speechless, but as he carefully lifts the feather from the box and straightens up, his expression (not that Flora will be able to see it properly at this distance) is one of genuine surprise. Twirling the feather between his fingers, he glances from Flora to it and back again. Why the fuck are you giving this to me? lies right on the tip of his tongue, the captain biting it back and clearing his throat to gaze at Flora again.
[say]"...Are you sure?"[/say] he calls.
RE: don't sell your heart - Serendipity - 10-19-2024
Congratulations! You probably just wandered into a breath snatch!
Yeah, that glittering cloud of glittering frost wasn’t friendly either. Who knew?
You’ve encountered a Breath Snatch. This counts as an uncommon creature encounter for the purposes of levelling, but does not count as a Random Event for levelling or MP. There will be no further admin/re intervention. If you choose to follow this creature, you do so at your own risk, however, just having it in this thread is enough to satisfy your levelling requirements. (You may not kill this creature without admin permission. )
Breath Snatch (uncommon) - A minor Halo nuisance, the Breath Snatch is a small elemental spirit that lingers in open areas on cold days. They're easiest to notice on bright days, a concentrated cloud of glittering frost lingering in the air, but if not noticed and walked into, the elemental will disperse in a puff of freezing air, often freezing the breath in the lungs of whomever was unlucky enough to come across it. It doesn't seem to possess enough sentience to be truly malevolent. Large groups of the spirits are rare, but potentially deadly if walked into unknowingly.
RE: don't sell your heart - Flora - 10-19-2024
[say]"She won't mind."[/say] Flora calls back cheerfully. [say]"No woman likes being called big."[/say] Not even ships.
Watching as Jack reaches into the box, her breath held as if she too was waiting to be surprised by what was inside, Flora's smile runs away with her as the captain lifts out the feather. His question has the sunny smile on her lips faltering ever so slightly, and were he in her mind just then, he'd feel little more than the crackle of static followed by whatever the Caido equivalent of a 404 error was.
[say]"...yeah?"[/say] Blinking, Flora shuffles somewhat to get to her feet. Entirely shapeless beneath all the blankets wrapped around her, as she began to make her way across the sand now that she wasn't at risk of revealing the surprise, the air in her lungs was suddenly all but stolen as what felt like fingers of ice reached down her throat. Gagging on the effects of the breath snatch, unlike when she'd been with Amhran at least she didn't panic. Stumbling a few steps back toward her basket and coughing into her blanketed arm, Flora did her best to breathe through the ice that felt as if it'd created a mesh net at the back of her throat. Reaching for a thermos, she let hot coffee pour down her throat to try and soothe the feeling away, before rising and trying once more to go to the captain.
[say]"Sorry, breath snatch."[/say] She explains without context, knowing he'd be able to pull the information from her mind within a few feet.
RE: don't sell your heart - Jack - 10-19-2024
Now Jack isn't so sure he agrees with that, but luckily the gift Flora has left out for him on this black-sand beach completely blanks his mind out, his blue eyes flicking up towards her just as she starts to make her way across to him. A process that's hindered, granted, by something, and it's only as Flora backtracks and walks forward again that she comes into range for the captain to understand what it is. [say]"This place gets better and fuckin' better,"[/say] he grumbles about the breath snatch, unable to help himself.
But all of that doesn't change the fact that he's holding a fucking revivify feather in his hands, and as Flora draws close enough, the captain is reaching out to all but snatch her against him - it's clumsy at best given all the layers they're both wearing, but the thought is there. [say]"You don't want it for yourself?"[/say] he asks slowly, and it's only because of who Flora is to him that he's being stupid enough to clarify twice. Anyone else and he'd have already stuffed the feather into his coat without second thought.
RE: don't sell your heart - Flora - 10-19-2024
Chuckling at that, Flora shrugs in agreement. [say]"Yeah. Then again...I bet you could create something like that if you ever wanted to. I can tell you from experience it's fairly effective."[/say] Imagine the surprise some thief might feel when instead of Jack's hands around their throat or his knife shoved against their belly, they found their tongue and teeth suddenly encased in ice and their lungs frozen solid.
Stumbling against him as Jack reaches for her, the hard-packed sand both slippery and dense beneath her feet, Flora nods without hesitation. Though her smile hasn't faded, the confusion she feels is still there, if receeding somewhat. [say]"If something got me...I think Mort would find me pretty hard to hang onto."[/say] The queen says with an almost bashful shrug. Her reluctance didn't come from the fact that she was certain her family would find a way to bring her back the second her voice chimed in Remi's mind, but from the fact that they'd not do the same for Jack no matter what he meant to her.
So, if they wouldn't, then she would.
[say]"Besides, it only seems fair if I keep dragging you to all these stupid places, right?"[/say] Trying to make light of Jack's reaction, Flora nods her head over her shoulder back toward where she'd been sitting. [say]"I have coffee and whiskey if you need some warming up."[/say]
RE: don't sell your heart - Jack - 10-19-2024
Flora needs to do him a favour and stop thinking about things, giving Jack a second to wrap his mind around all of this. It doesn't help that the Doubletake has a habit of firing off a flurry of thoughts when she's nervous, or that her breath snatch idea happens to be a very good one, and the captain's fingers squeeze against her a little as he's forced to wall her off at least slightly in order to gain some breathing room. [say]"Yeah, no... that makes sense,"[/say] he says of Mort and the god of death's tenuous hold on her, given her heritage.
Which makes the fact that she's extended such a gift to him practical, yes, but Jack can no longer block out the underlying meaning behind it all. [say]"What the fuck, Flora,"[/say] he mutters, still holding the feather between his fingertips as he uses that same hand to reach out and tilt her face up towards his own. Much as he'd have cared about the coffee and whiskey even a minute ago, now the warmth all seems to radiate out from Flora, and as he leans in to kiss her it will be with cold lips and a body hidden under layers, but he doubts she'll misunderstand his desire for her beneath them.
RE: don't sell your heart - Flora - 10-19-2024
It did make sense, and while no maybe Flora didn't need to be so dramatic about giving Jack the feather, certainly she'd wanted to. That he didn't like surprises was only because almost all of them had been bad experiences for him over the years, and as with her unfettered declarations of love, the Doubletake was intent on trying, where she could, to try and overwrite some of Jack's memories with better ones.
Frowning, Flora's brows pinch together ever so slightly before the captain is stealing her breath just as surely as the breath snatch had, and with lips nearly as cold. Trying and failing to stop the laughter that wants to slip from her lips, the queen lifts her arms like great warm wings, wrapping them around Jack's shoulders. [say]It's hard keeping secrets from you, you know that?[/say] Flora thinks mischievously, mindful of the feather in his hand as she lifts her chin slightly more in an attempt to deepen the kiss.
RE: don't sell your heart - Jack - 10-19-2024
[say]"Yeah, I bet,"[/say] Jack mumbles against her lips, spending a reluctant couple of moments slipping the feather safely inside the breast pocket of his coat, if only because it frees up his hands for what's arguably the real prize here. Appreciating the way her arms spread to fold around him with the blankets, Jack is already unbuttoning his coat and stepping even closer to Flora if possible, his gloved hands drawing her flush against him.
[say]"Managed it though, didn't you?"[/say] he says of her secret, the words muffled where his lips have dragged their way down to the side of her neck, growing warmer by the second. So what do you want in return? he almost asks, barely keeping the words caged behind his teeth. A formal declaration of love? Marriage?
Even as those treacherous thoughts fill his mind, though, clearly Flora's work at overwriting Jack's expectations have stated to take effect, because he considers, if only for a fleeting moment, that this - that he - might be enough for her.
[say]"I hate to interrupt your plans for the mornin',"[/say] Jack whispers roughly against the shell of Flora's ear. [say]"But I'm about to fuck you on this beach."[/say]
RE: don't sell your heart - Flora - 10-19-2024
[say]"Sure did."[/say] Flora purrs in response, this particular brand of arrogance learned almost exclusively from Jack such that the captain will no doubt see a sheen of his own reflection in the ruby cast of the queen's mind. Allowing him to tuck the feather away, only once it's safe does the Doubletake hastily reclaim the space between them, her fingers desperate to clutch at him but tethered to the blankets she kept wrapped around them.
Tilting her chin up, her neck exposed to the cold air and his warm mouth, Flora grins. [say]"Mmm?"[/say] All thoughts of coffee by the coastline and discussions of how the western sea differed from the Arclight in terms of sailing instantly vanished as Jack continued. Fireworks of heat sparkled up through Flora's stomach, her thoughts ringing like a struck bell as what felt like another breath snatch lodged itself in her throat. [say]"Jack,"[/say] she whispered into his hair, twisting in his grasp, her nose brushing against his as she fought to meet his gaze. [say]"It's freezing out here."[/say] Flora's laughter certainly doesn't suggest she isn't up for it despite the rather incredulous slant to her lips. Of course she's never been able to resist the captain (not that she's ever tried), and already the anticipation of feeling him reaching for her, of having her has her heart starting to race.
RE: don't sell your heart - Jack - 10-19-2024
The coffee and the western shores can wait, as far as Jack is concerned - with Flora's thoughts beginning to catch like dry kindling and with his own easy arrogance reflected back at him, it's a wonder that he hasn't already pressed her up against some cold boulder along the bay to have her. [say]"I don't care,"[/say] he whispers, of how cold it is - somehow he thinks they'll find a way to stay warm, and besides, fucking her doesn't necessarily mean removing any of their clothes, just... rearranging them accordingly.
Leaning up to kiss her again, need colliding with impatience, he trusts the Doubletake to keep her arms - and the blankets - around them enough that he might unbutton his pants (and hers, while he's there). Fucking standing up is a feat they've been able to accomplish more than once, though he's ever a fan of something to lean up against. Hopefully Flora isn't adverse to ice, though, because it's the only solid thing he can conjure with his magic, and a veritable wall of it rises up and out of the sand, hastily made and with very little care given to its creation.
RE: don't sell your heart - Flora - 10-19-2024
[say]"The...the.."[/say] Flora's mind gestures to the blanket on the sands near the basket and thermoses of coffee as her lips greedily seek his out, quickly forgetting what it was she was trying to communicate. If he wanted to fuck her here and now, who was she to argue?
[say]"Gods, how do you always do this,"[/say] she pants breathlessly, unhelpfully pawing at Jack even as he tries to rid them both of their pants, (hers are just a pair of leggings that would come down with hardly more than a tug). [say]"You make me want you so much with just a word."[/say] Okay, maybe more than just a word, but even so, the captain's effect upon her was instantaneous and electric that went over and above Flora's youthful libido.
With several blankets wrapped around her, the press of the ice didn't resonate as being cold, and even if it had, the fire it suddenly lit in her stomach was doing more than just keeping her warm. [say]"I want you,"[/say] leaning back somewhat, Flora tilted her chin up toward Jack, her gaze already half-lidded as clouds of white panted from her lips.