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+---- Thread: when i'm up here higher than god (/showthread.php?tid=10423)
when i'm up here higher than god - Jack - 12-03-2024
Deepfrost has come early to the Greatwood. That's what some of the Fae are saying, at least, especially when passing by one particular little cabin nestled at the foot of the steps that lead to the Observatory and the Skyport high above. The roof of said cabin has been covered in thick layer of snow for the best part of a day and a half, and frost can be seen coating the inside of the windows. They see people come and go from it sometimes too - people from the ship still moored high above, people dressed like they're on their way to Halo - but the cause of the impromptu blizzard hasn't yet emerged.
And the joke's on them, thinks Jack, because he can't walk right now, so they'll be waiting a while.
He wishes he could put the cold and ice down to a flair for the dramatics, but in truth (and it's a truth he can barely admit to himself, let alone anyone else) since returning to the land of the living, it feels as though he has little to no control over his magic. His telepathy comes and goes and ice, wind and ozone all vie for control; it's only bone deep exhaustion that has kept the fury of those talents contained to minutes at a time.
Just because Jack can make ice, though, it doesn't make him immune to the cold, and so within the dinky little cabin, the captain shivers in his sleep. Someone has been kind enough to stitch his wounds (the magical healer the Fae had offered had almost lost a hand to frostbite) and to sedate him, so things are, for now at least, reasonably calm.
RE: when i'm up here higher than god - Flora - 12-03-2024
Flora's breath was shaky as she made her way through the Sidhe Village, her eyes scanning for a cabin covered in ice and snow. Bassian's words still echoed in her ears from when she'd spoken to him aboard the Ark, her heart twisting with a mixture of relief and longing to hear where and how the captain had holed himself up. Wearing her father's sweatpants, an oversized sweater that swallowed her, and with her curls unruly, having tangled and knotted on the flight over, Flora felt out of place, raw and exposed. But for all of Flora's vanity, none of it mattered.
Reaching out, her fingers brushing the doorknob, Flora flinched back at the icy burn. It was frozen, stiff under her touch. She twisted it, but it wouldn't give. Her strength, already drained, wasn't enough. Jack, she thought, his name rising like a whispered plea, a prayer that echoed in the cold space around her. Her fingers curled around the frozen metal again, her heart pounding as she tried once more to turn it, her desperation seeping into her thoughts, filling the empty spaces between her breath. I’m here. Let me in.
The exhaustion settled over her again, like waves crashing and pulling her under, her grip loosening as tears welled up. Her mind was a garden that had weathered the storm—battered, but alive—and now she could practically feel the warmth from the sun—from Jack—just on the other side of the door.
RE: when i'm up here higher than god - Jack - 12-03-2024
Overhead, though he might be difficult to see, a large, pale shape patrols the skies; rest assured that if Pierce appears a second time, or if anything comes to trouble The Ark or the Greatwood, Ronin will have more than a few things to say about it. All appears clear for the time being, at least - it's just the door that Flora needs to contend with. And then the man behind it.
Fitfully asleep on the bunk set up at the back of the cabin, the medicine in Jack's system makes clawing towards wakefulness a diffcult thing, but the featherlight touch of Flora's gilded thoughts against his magic are enough to send ripples into his subconscious. Beneath her fingers, however momentary, the ice releases its grip on the door handle and the frame locked around it, reducing it to moisture that pools and soaks greedily into the earth below.
I'm here, let me in, she says, and gods if he could get up he would. Glazed blue eyes peel open, glassy with fever, and it's with a shivery breath formed around her name that he tries and fails to call to her.
RE: when i'm up here higher than god - Flora - 12-03-2024
Sipping in a shivery breath, Flora could feel her thoughts shifting and flinching as her mind became a more and more wild place, fraught with the idea that after all the hours that she'd had to endure in order to get back to Jack, that a stupid door was going to be the thing keeping them apart. The frustration flared as something like a scream rose up in the back of her throat, the pressure of it nearly unbearable. Leaning against the door, her eyes squeezed shut, it was pure chance that had her opening them again just in time to see a trickle of water weeping from the lock.
Straightening, hope fluttering faintly within her, Flora reached for the handle again. Though it was still cold and biting against her palm, it turned easily this time. [say]"Jack?"[/say] She called out, her voice small in the thin quiet, as she stumbled uncertainly into the cabin. The interior was dark, pitch-black for the way her eyes failed to adjust. She blinked stupidly for a moment, her gaze struggling to make sense of the shadows until she saw the shape of a cot against the back wall and the huddled figure upon it little more than a heap of trembling blankets. Having been healed any number of times by Ronin while she slept, Flora was farther along than Jack was, so she might have guessed that he'd not be in a position to be mobile the way she was, but nothing prepared her for the smell of sweat and ice and lingering death that coated the inside of the cabin just as surely as snow coated the outside.
[say]"Jack,"[/say] she said, her voice breaking on his name. She shoved the door closed behind her, sealing away the rest of the world before stumbling toward the cot. Her movements were clumsy, her body aching, but she was careful of the captain's injuries too as she sank onto the thin mattress beside him. Every instinct screamed at her to be close, to reach out for him, but Flora forced herself to move slowly, mindful of the broken man she knew lay beneath those blankets.
RE: when i'm up here higher than god - Jack - 12-03-2024
You look great too, Jack might have quipped had he been in anything like his right mind. Alas, he can barely squint against the light that pours through the open doorway, haloing Flora in sunshine and the smell of the woods. Having been blessedly absent for her actual death, all he can register is that she's on her feet if not still hurt, and that she's calling his name.
The rush of emotion that charges through him is a mix of fury at the memory of when he'd last heard it from her lips (having just come back to life doesn't count) and something else, but either way the crackle of electricity that creeps along the walls is enough to put a hairline crack through the cabin windows. It's also enough to completely deplete any energy he's managed to put in reserve, but such is the vicious circle Jack has found himself in.
[say]"I want to go home,"[/say] he rasps, a cold hand slipping from beneath the blankets to seek hers out.
RE: when i'm up here higher than god - Flora - 12-03-2024
Flinching at the sudden jolt of electricity that flashes through the room, Flora blinks at the line of blue that lingers in her field of vision before chuckling weakly. Whether intentional or not, the reaction was about as Jack as anything else she might have expected. Immediately, she takes his hand, her fingers curling around his as if trying to anchor them both. With a groan, the queen lays down—more of a collapse than anything else—releasing a tense breath as spiderwebs of pain streak out from the once-fatal wound on her shoulder.
[say]"Well, just get better then."[/say] Flora suggests dryly, her voice coloured by a levity that is more an attempt to trick herself into thinking things are okay. That they both hadn't just died. The humour felt hollow, as brittle as the now-cracked panes of glass on the windows, but she clung to it, hoping maybe it would hold her together a little longer.
Lifting the blanket with a groan of effort, Flora slips her head beneath the covers rather than pulling them back, craving the closeness and warmth that she only wanted from Jack. Though she tried to keep her thoughts golden and light for his sake—anything to shield him from the darkness of what they'd both endured—the images of what had happened were relentless: His fingers pressed uselessly against his stomach, the blood staining his skin, the weight of his dying body slumping into hers. They flashed before her eyes, a sickening reminder, heavy and real, pulling and snagging at her thoughts like greedy thorns.
[say]"Jack,"[/say] she croaks out his name, biting at the inside of her lip as tears spill freely down her cheeks. The tightness in her chest unfurls in jagged sobs, each breath a struggle. She presses closer, her forehead against his shoulder, her fingers still wrapped around his. [say]"I'm so sorry,"[/say] she begins to sob, her voice cracking, the words falling apart as they leave her lips. Three small words that felt woefully insufficient against the weight of it all—of quite literally having gotten him killed.
RE: when i'm up here higher than god - Jack - 12-03-2024
[say]"Oh, is that where I'm goin' wrong?"[/say] Jack croaks; refusing to get better is what's causing the problem, noted. His fingers are cold and clammy in her hand, and there's no resistance as she gets herself as close as she reasonably can. Beneath the blankets the captain's torso is (of course) heavily bandaged, rosettes of red visibly leaking through in places, and though there isn't much warmth in him at present, whatever he has left, Flora is welcome to it.
Even so, he can't help but cringe back from the thoughts that flood his mind, raw and without a whisper of a filter or a barrier, and it's with a shuddering inhale that he shakes his head. [say]"Don't,"[/say] he whispers, the word a plea that falls from his lips. Don't think about it. Gods, please try not to think about it.
[say]"Sorry for what?"[/say] he whispers, trying to reach up to clumsily swipe the tears from her cheeks. [say]"You didn't stab me three times. Or strangle my magic."[/say]
RE: when i'm up here higher than god - Flora - 12-03-2024
The fact that he's well enough to make quips, however weak his voice sounds, isn't enough to fool Flora into thinking he's anywhere near okay as her eyes finally adjust to the blanket-darkness and the bloody roses blooming despite the bandages meant to keep them contained.
Don't think about the trauma they both recently endured while literally being reminded of it with every breath; no problem, Jack. Flora could work on that while he worked on just getting better. She does try though, for him, but gods if it isn't impossible to keep the sharp edges of fear and pain from cutting through her attempts to hold them back, flowing into her thoughts like an ink stain spreading across the page.
Leaning into the press of his fingers, Flora's thoughts pulse with a velvety sort of desperation as she painstakingly tucks herself against his side, her movements slow, cautious, but full of need. She had watched him be stabbed, had seen the blade pierce him, and now every shift, every touch, was careful to avoid those wounds. Her fingers brushed his chest with a greedy kind of gentleness before her palm rested there, feeling the faint, fragile thud of his heartbeat beneath her fingertips.
[say]"I'm the reason he was there."[/say] She mumbles weakly, the words pressed against the cool jut of his shoulder.
RE: when i'm up here higher than god - Jack - 12-03-2024
[say]"Flora."[/say] Jack's whisper isn't the usual warning he might bark out when she insists on thinking too loudly or too repeatedly about something. (In his defence it's usually some song jingle, and it's usually on purpose). This time it's an attempt to get her attention, to interrupt whatever stain is leaking through her mind and colouring it dark. [say]"I'm here. We're both here."[/say] The reminder is as much for himself as it is for the Doubletake, it's true, and he winces as she shifts closer to him, though he doesn't do anything to stop it.
[say]"He would have shown up wherever you were,"[/say] he reminds her. It was just a matter of whether she (or they) died in the Greatwood or in some other region. [say]"Your father said he... that after he killed me he went for you?"[/say] His frown is somehow audible, and already fresh ice is beginning to creep around the bed in a starburst.
RE: when i'm up here higher than god - Flora - 12-03-2024
[say]"But you were only there because of me."[/say] Flora counters, the spears of guilt feeling like the only wounds she properly deserves. She tenses her entire body as if she has the strength to keep her sobs contained, but despite her best efforts, tears and choked cries push past her lips, and she buries them as much as she can against Jack's shoulder and the darkness that clings to him. For all her bravado, all the confidence that not even death would keep her down for very long—and it hadn't—Flora hasn’t accounted for the fear that follows, the way the world went quiet and still around her, her heart an ever-slowing beat as her vision narrows, narrows, and then ends.
[say]"The blade, it—"[/say] She tries to speak, but the words shatter into sobs, hiccuping in the back of her throat. With a pulse of apology, Flora lets the tangled walls of ivy she used to hold the worst of it at bay fall away, her memories spilling out, sharp and vivid. Pierce, that fleeting moment when he seemed ready to walk away, then the cruel decision that flashes in his eyes, the way his rapier plunges into her shoulder. The pain, the shock.
It shouldn't have killed her, but it did.
She gasps, her fingers curling into Jack’s shirt, holding on like he is the only thing keeping her from slipping back under. Fear surges, dark tendrils wrapping around her chest, squeezing until her breaths come in shallow, shaky gulps. Jack, she thinks, raw and unfiltered, his name echoing like a mantra, a lifeline to pull herself away from the dark. Tears slip down her cheeks, hot and unchecked, her body shaking as she presses closer, needing his warmth, needing the solid reality of him to ward off the chill that seems to have settled into her bones. [say]"I'm sorry,"[/say] she whispers, her forehead still pressed against him, her tears soaking his shirt, her grip refusing to loosen.
RE: when i'm up here higher than god - Jack - 12-03-2024
[say]"And I'll prob'ly be in another place 'cause of you in the future,"[/say] Jack says simply, though the confidence in the statement fractures away with each spear of guilt that Flora throws at herself. Flora, he wants to say, only for her emotions to wrap dark fingers about his chest and squeeze. Gods forgive Jack for wanting to peel himself away from her in that moment, and its out of pure and desperate self-preservation. His mental barriers are too flimsy to hold her grief and fear and guilt at bay, and with his body so pitifully uncooperative, they can do little more than drown together in it.
He sees the truth of it, though - the shadowy blade and its terrible power, the needless cruelty of Pierce's actions, the blood, the pain, the way he couldn't do a damn thing. Jack's grip is feeble at best, but he holds onto her as tightly as he's able, and were it not for the Doubletake anchoring him, he might have already unleashed another riot of magic with his flare of temper (and yes, passed out once again).
[say]"That is never happening to you again,"[/say] he whispers, the steel in his tone something dangerous and nearly unhinged to hear the words spoken so calmly.
RE: when i'm up here higher than god - Flora - 12-03-2024
It might have felt like to Jack like he'd died alone, the truth was he hadn't; but Flora had. Memories of feeling the captain's body growing cold far faster than she'd ever have believed possible mingled with the cold terror of oh gods, he's going to kill me too, had the queen stiffening against another round of convulsions.
A sudden, loud bang echoes through the cabin as someone begins pounding on the door. Flora flinches, her head jerking up slightly but she ignores it, her fingers still tangled in Jack's shirt, her body trembling against his. The raps grow more insistent, sharp enough to break through her haze of grief, and she swallows back a fresh sob, her tears quieting as the knocking stops. Her breaths come in shaky gulps, her heart pounding in her ears as she listens, every muscle in her body tense.
Silence follows, and then the unmistakable sound of something being hung on the doorknob—a soft clink of metal, the faint rustle of fabric. Flora blinks, her tears still wet on her cheeks, the interruption cutting through the thick fog of her emotions. [say]"Expecting someone?"[/say]
RE: when i'm up here higher than god - Jack - 12-03-2024
[say]"I'm sorry."[/say] Jack's apology is almost whispered against her curls, the captain's cold fingers teasing at the mess of her hair. And gods, he can feel it like something fiery unfurling great, dark wings in his chest, the feeling he can't name, and it sits there on the tip of his tongue like a secret, like a sin--
And then someone hammers the shit out of the cabin door.
Jumping in shock and clutching Flora closer, Jack's magic reacts on instinct, the results of which almost blow the door from its hinges as the bolt of electricity tears across the wooden boards. Almost being the key word, of course - left faintly smoking but still very much intact, the Doubletake will feel Jack's pulse thundering in his neck as he slowly shakes his head, reaching out to drag at the blankets with sluggish fingers.
[say]"No, 'm not,"[/say] he growls, dizzily peeling himself away as if he's not about to fall on his face.
RE: when i'm up here higher than god - Random Event - 12-03-2024
Tied to the door is a hastily scrawled note attached to a small bag. Within Flora will find a beautifully crafted ring alongside the following note:
A gift for saving the Mathair.
You heal ice-man and go.
Not time for Deepfrost yet, not good for trees.
You heal ice-man and go.
Not time for Deepfrost yet, not good for trees.
Flora has used her level 13 reward for the following:
Healing Ring | A golden ring made by the fae, capable of delivering mastered healing via touch.