+- Court of the Fallen (https://cotf-rpg.com)
+-- Forum: Out of Character (https://cotf-rpg.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=26)
+--- Forum: Important (https://cotf-rpg.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=27)
+---- Forum: Archives (https://cotf-rpg.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=38)
+---- Thread: I can only hear the echo (/showthread.php?tid=11355)
I can only hear the echo - Flora - 05-18-2025
The sky stretched endlessly before her, a perfect sweep of cerulean silk flecked here and there with clouds spun delicate as cotton candy. Flora lounged at the helm of the Sugar Tide, a lazy curl of sunlight warming her skin, her bare toes wiggling idly against the polished wood deck. She'd set sail that morning with no particular goal other than to escape from the tension that always simmered beneath her skin these days, from thoughts that wouldn’t rest no matter how hard she tried. The sky offered freedom like nowhere else could, a vast, open invitation that whispered promises of solace and silence to her restless heart.
The quiet peace lasted precisely until she caught sight of the Ark.
She saw it at first as a shadow, a smudge of maroon against a tapestry of bright blue, moving swiftly across her vision. Flora’s breath stilled involuntarily, her fingers tightening around the wheel, knuckles paling slightly beneath sun-kissed skin. Her heart, traitorous as always, performed a small, painful leap, a familiar ache blooming in her chest like a flower she could never quite uproot. Even from here, even this far away, the Ark was unmistakable—the sleek, dark lines of its hull, the way it sliced through air or sea with the casual arrogance of its captain.
Flora hesitated only briefly, lips parting in a soft sigh as she shifted her weight. She knew exactly what Hadama’s note had said: he and Noah and Sah were patrolling Starfall's waters...and here Jack was, sailing back from precisely that direction.
Before she fully realized she'd made the decision, Flora was already steering the Sugar Tide directly into the Ark’s path, adrenaline and anticipation brightening her cheeks. A mischievous, defiant smile teased at the edges of her mouth, and her heart beat a quick, stubborn rhythm in her chest. With a determined flourish, she hoisted a brightly coloured flag—a vivid shock of red and gold that snapped sharply against the sky, one she was fairly certain (though admittedly not completely sure) signalled mayday. The silk rippled high and proud, billowing in the wind like a flame, impossible to miss.
Or ignore.
RE: I can only hear the echo - Jack - 05-19-2025
Flora isn't wrong - her vibrant red and gold pennant is certainly a distress signal for any passing sailors. More specifically, though, that particular banner usually signals man overboard, which will absolutely explain the sudden flurry of activity that she'll notice aboard The Ark. The Sugar Tide isn't exactly a difficult ship to recognise, and with her captain being, you know, the Queen of fucking Torchline, not to mention someone the majority of the crew know quite well, it's no wonder that they get right to work.
It's no wonder either that Jack appears at the prow of his ship, knuckles white against the railing, telepathy screaming across his crew for any sign that Flora is the one who has taken a tumble from her vessel. As he spots her, though, bold and smug and very much in the way (and within shouting distance, he might add), the captain groans and all but sags against the rail, forehead pressed to his folded arms.
He might have escaped Starfall unscathed - very much unscathed other than a faint scattering of bruises across his shoulders, thanks to demigodly healing - but he's still covered in dirt, debris, and an unpleasant spray of spider ichor, and he's fucking tired after the extended use of magic. Taking in a deep breath and forcing himself to straighten up, all battered Kingmaker leather and weary scowls, he allows The Ark to drift to a majestic hover beside her.
[say]"You lost a date overboard or somethin'?"[/say] he wants to know, tilting his head and gesturing through the cloud cover. [say]"Hate to say it, love, but if they fell from this distance, you ain't gettin' 'em back."[/say]
RE: I can only hear the echo - Flora - 05-19-2025
The moment Jack opens his mouth, Flora’s stomach drops—just a little—like she’s missed a step on the stairs. Her eyes snap up toward the flag whipping cheerfully in the wind above her, and as soon as she sees the bold red and gold banner dancing like it’s got real gossip, her face twists in mortified realization. [say]"Fuck,"[/say] she groans. Her cheeks go bright with heat, but it doesn't stop the grin that curls slowly across her face, sly and unrepentant. [say]"Maybe I did toss him over,"[/say] she calls back, raising her voice over the wind as the Ark glides closer. [say]"Got bored. Needed a little drama."[/say]
Truth be told, nautical flag code was one of those things she meant to learn back on the Ark—but since Jack never really ran into trouble that couldn’t be solved by speed, swearing, or storm magic, it had never come up. And her current interpretation was, evidently, loose at best.
Still, all of that fades just a touch as the Ark draws near and she really sees him. Jack looks..rough. Not injured, but his coat’s in tatters and there’s dirt smudged along one side of his jaw like he lost a fight with a cave—and won, barely. Flora leans slightly over the rail of the Sugar Tide, curls pulled back by the breeze, eyes narrowing as she takes in the state of him. Her fingers twitch against the polished wood at her side, not reaching, exactly, but resisting the urge not to.
[say]"What the hell were you doing out there?"[/say] she shouts, then adds quickly, [say]"Actually, wait. First—, did you see Hadama? He said he was going patrolling with Sah and Noah near Starfall."[/say]
She tries to keep it casual—like she’s just connecting dots, just curious, just making polite conversation with her most recent heartbreak while flying a skyship directly into his flight path under false pretenses.
Totally normal things. Totally fine.
RE: I can only hear the echo - Jack - 05-19-2025
[say]"You? In need of drama? Say it ain't so,"[/say] Jack drawls, still leaning his forearms against the rail as the ship glides parallel to her smaller vessel, the breeze stirring the tips of his hair around his shoulders and filling the Ark's sails such that the light catches on Flora's flushed cheeks. [say]"Just to be clear, though - you ain't got a man overboard? Don't matter which way to me, but..."[/say] He gestures over his shoulder to where the majority of the crew are holding fast at their positions, but a few are peering over the edge of the galleon's hull as if they might be able to see someone in need of rescue - or at the very least, a cool body.
The Doubletake's feelings about him - about the state of him and the way her fingers itch to reach and close the dozens of feet between them - are something the captain shows only in the slight roll of a shoulder, as if to shrug off an old ache. But then she mentions Hadama, and more specifically what Hadama said, and given the past hour of his life and the conversation when he'd parted ways with the Tidebreaker, Jack can't help but scoff out a disbelieving laugh that borders on offended.
[say]"Yeah, I saw 'em. We just took down a giant fuckin' void spider under the island,"[/say] he says. [say]"They decided to stick around an' make bad decisions. I decided not to. Nice of him to include me on the party roster, though."[/say]
RE: I can only hear the echo - Flora - 05-19-2025
Bassian’s worried little face is what does it. Flora leans over the railing again, her grin slipping as she clocks Bassian looking like he’s about ready to dive in after some phantom body. Murph’s not much better, brows low and set like this is definitely going to turn into a rescue mission. With a groan and a roll of her eyes, she waves a hand toward the crew.
[say]"No, no one’s overboard!"[/say] she calls out, exasperated but mostly at herself. [say]"False alarm! I got my flags crossed—I thought this was the impromptu ex bf chat one"[/say] She blows a kiss through the air to Bassian, fingers fluttering like a wink, before straightening and planting her hands on the polished rail of the Sugar Tide.
But then Jack speaks, and whatever playfulness remained on her face falls away like a wave pulling back to reveal stone. Under the island? Her mouth opens. Closes. Her spine goes rigid with the kind of full-body tension that always comes before a fight or a flight or a very pointed letter written in all-caps.
[say]"What"[/say] she demands, voice sharp and high with disbelief. Her gaze skims across the open air between their vessels like she might suddenly spot the zipline that absolutely does not exist between them. When none appears, she turns back to Jack, and gods if the look she gives him isn’t urgent. Not panicked—Flora doesn't panic per se—but tight around the edges like the moment might split if she doesn’t say the right thing. [say]"Can you stay a minute?"[/say] she asks, and this time there’s no teasing curl to her voice. [say]"I just...if I'm about to become the solo leader of Torchline, it'd be nice to know the full story."[/say]
Her eyes flit toward the wheel of her skyship, toward the stained glass sail where it still fluttered like she’d done something right with it, then back to Jack. You could come here, her thoughts suggest, but it'd be easier over there.
Not just because it’d be easier to listen from the Ark's deck than from this smaller, more exposed perch. Not just because the Ark feels like power and presence and things built to last. And maybe, just maybe, she'd like to sit down and hear the whole story without worrying about whether her sail’s trimmed right or if her ship's hovering with just the right amount of smug to meet the approval of the captain.
RE: I can only hear the echo - Jack - 05-19-2025
At least the rest of the crew are able to relax as Flora confirms - for better or worse - that no one is overboard and their morally grey asses aren't going to be expected to be more heroic than they already have been today. Bassian waves brightly back to the Doubletake, of course, before getting back to work, and Murph relaxes at the wheel. Glancing over his shoulder at the men and women as they settle back into their usual rhythm, at least until this impromptu meeting is done, Jack's gaze returns to Flora with a quick and grateful nod.
Only to wince a bit, out of sight of the crew, as the tension and heat whipcrack across her thoughts loud enough that she might as well have slapped him. [say]"You didn't know."[/say] A confirmation rather than a guess, Jack straightening up and rolling his aching shoulders again, the grim nature of his day thus far evidently stripping away any animosity he might be bothered to feel towards Flora.
(It helps, granted, that this is the first meeting they've had in a long time where she isn't sneering at him like a mean girl on a Wednesday).
[say]"You mind if we tether and ferry you with us?"[/say] he calls, nodding to her ship and then back at the island, just visible in the distance as a purple hue on the horizon. [say]"S'just I'd rather keep puttin' distance between us an' that thing in case anythin' happens. Not that I reckon it should - Hadama seemed very commandin' an' confident in his deathwi-- er, decision making."[/say]
It should be easy enough to lash the Sugar Tide alongside the Ark as she sails, so long as Flora lowers her sails enough to avoid a collision.
RE: I can only hear the echo - Flora - 05-19-2025
Flora's brows knit and she shakes her head once, hard, curls bouncing with the sharpness of it. [say]"No,"[/say] she shouts across the space between them, voice bright with disbelief. [say]"I didn’t know they were going in. I didn’t even know you were going with them."[/say]
Then, gods, the way he says ferry you with us; she flinches. Not outwardly—her shoulders stay square, her chin high—but something inside her pulls back, like the ocean before a riptide. It’s not Jack’s fault, not really. It’s practical, and her ship is smaller, but still—tethered, like some pretty little ornament too fragile to handle the sky alone? She swallows it. Burying the feeling somewhere under her breastbone where it can’t do any harm, where it can settle like an old scar. [say]" 'k,"[/say] she calls instead, more curtly than she means to. Besides, it wasn't as though there was any reason for her to stay close to Starfall if things really did go wrong; what could she possibly do on her own that Hadama, Noah, Sah (and Jack) couldn't acocmplish together?
Her gaze flicks from the stained-glass canvas of the Sugar Tide’s sails to the gleaming hull of the Ark. There’s a flicker of pride in her chest as she begins pulling the ropes to begin the slow, careful process of lowering the sails. The wings of coloured glass settle into place with a hush of wind and colour, catching the sun in their shimmer as the Sugar Tide stills beside the Ark like a bird perching mid-flight.
Slipping on a pair of sandals she’d kicked aside hours ago, Flora pads toward the bow, her bracelets chiming soft accompaniment with each step. The wind tousles her hair as she emerges into view again, steady on the polished deck, her gaze sharp as ever beneath the heat-haze of sun and altitude. [say]"Sooooo?”"[/say] she calls, hands on her hips. [say]"YDo I get a rope or a bridge, or do ya'll really want to see me go overboard?"[/say]
RE: I can only hear the echo - Jack - 05-19-2025
[say]"I was a last minute addition,"[/say] Jack calls. [say]"Though somethin' tells me Hadama ain't the type to send you letters until every last detail is hammered out."[/say] So, y'know, he'd been left off the list intentionally. All well and good providing things went well, but had he been left trapped beneath the island, the only people who would have been there to say anything about it would have been the others who went down there with him.
Unable not to raise his eyebrows at the sudden, curt response she quips across, it doesn't take a telepath to feel the sting of her pride as it recoils from the idea. [say]"I mean, if you wanna keep sailin' alongside us, we can talk like this,"[/say] he retorts automatically. [say]"I just ain't stickin' around so close to that island after it tried to eat me alive."[/say]
But then, however reluctantly, Flora is lowering her sails, and Jack whistles sharply to his crew so they can begin the process of roping the Sugar Tide up against the Ark's hull, until there's barely a few feet between them. As for how the Doubletake will get on board, that's where Bassian is already on it, apparently, appearing with a bright grin and a large hand to offer to her, ready to draw her onto the galleon's deck.
Once she's made it - and spent however long she plans to meet and greet as she likes - she'll find Jack back near the prow of the ship, washing his face in a barrel of clean water. [say]"So he just said he was patrollin'?"[/say] he asks, as if to clarify where to begin for Flora.
RE: I can only hear the echo - Flora - 05-19-2025
Flora frowns, nodding slowly as Jack repeats what she'd said—each word somehow making it worse, not better. Hadama didn’t do last minute. Not unless something had already gone sideways or was about to. The letter had seemed perfectly normal at the time—earnest, yes, but not the sort of farewell you frame. But now, after what Jack just said? The edges of it feel sharper in hindsight, like something she should’ve noticed but didn’t. Like a door left unlocked.
And gods, wasn’t that just perfect?
She presses a kiss to Bassian’s cheek as he lifts her aboard, lips bright and sticky-sweet with gratitude, and murmurs against his skin, [say]"Missed you, Bass. Let’s fly again sometime soon—just you and me okay?"[/say] He smells like citrus and salt and the very worst kind of fondness, and it makes her chest ache even as she smiles, slipping past him before the moment can bloom into something that will make it all the harder to leave.
The deck of the Ark is familiar beneath her sandals, enough so that the muscles along her spine tense without thinking. She knows this ship—its grooves, its sway, the exact give of the wood beneath her feet—and the familiarity wraps around her ribs like fishing line. She doesn’t look at the rigging. Doesn’t glance at the door to Jack's quarters. Doesn’t let herself think about how it feels to be back standing abord the Ark.
[say]"I got a letter. Said he and Noah and Sah were going to patrol the Arclight, and he’d meet me for dinner later tonight. But if he didn’t come back..."[/say] Her voice softens, the last part folding in on itself, like paper gone damp. [say]"If he didn’t come back, he said one of them would make the report."[/say]
She glances toward Starfall, frowning hard enough to have those telltale wrinkles that Danta and Asta didn't believe she had prominently on display between her brows. [say]"And then he said I was Torchline’s shining star,"[/say] she mutters. [say]"And his, too. Said he was proud to have me as co-ruler."[/say] Her throat tightens, and she tries to laugh like it’s nothing, like she’s reading into it too much—but it doesn’t quite land. [say]"Which, like... sure, okay, that definitely doesn't sound like a goodbye."[/say]
Her hands flex at her sides, fingers ghosting toward the rail but not quite touching it. [say]"Do you think—"[/say] she starts, then shakes her head, switching tracks. [say]"Okay, now you go."[/say]
RE: I can only hear the echo - Jack - 05-19-2025
Pointedly ignoring the ease with which Flora is able to interact with his crew, or the way he can practically sense her step and gait adjust to being back on the deck of his ship, Jack straightens from the barrel after taking a drink through clean, cupped hands and sweeps his wet fingers through his hair to cool off. Every second of her being aboard feels like a sign of her having gotten too close, too comfortable, only for it to go belly-up in the worst possible way. (That way being a rather predictable one, in hindsight). But gods if even the ship herself doesn't seem happy to have her.
[say]"Patrol the Arclight,"[/say] he says slowly, before huffing out a breath that might as well be a laugh. Especially when it comes to the very obvious farewell written in plain text, nestled within an invitation to dinner. [say]"Providin' he ain't trapped down there, you've got one helluva dinner date to look forward to,"[/say] he mutters, before taking a breath and launching into the explanation of their trip into the island's belly.
He takes Flora through the Descent and into the Crush, the webbing, the parallel tunnels, the Mirewyrm and the Webvex. The tunnel quaking, Sah's stabilisation. The spider's death and the failed attempt to bait the wyrm back with it. [say]"With no way to get the thing to come back an' it tryin' to bring the tunnel down on us every few seconds, I wanted to plant the rose and fuck off outta dodge. Not your Tidebreaker, though."[/say]
And here Jack's quiet anger is clear in the still raw irritation that lines his face, regardless of how he attempts to mask it. [say]"Never realised he was such a manipulative shit. I'd have been impressed if he weren't tryin' to convince me to stick around an' be buried alive just as a point of pride."[/say] Rest assured, after this he's coming to see Hadama in a much more sinister light. [say]"Convinced Sah an' Noah to stay, by the look of it. I waited for 'em, long as I could, but..."[/say] He shrugs. [say]"They're still back there."[/say]
RE: I can only hear the echo - Flora - 05-19-2025
Flora doesn’t remember the last time she was on the Ark. Not properly, anyway—not with any detail. It’s gone, because no part of her ever expected there’d be a last time. Not with this ship, not with him, either. So this time, she promises herself that when she steps off again, she’ll say goodbye to the Ark. She'll take a moment to remember so as never to forget.
For now, though, she keeps her balance with the ease of someone who once called this place home, watching Jack in that too-deliberate way of trying not to watch, gaze fixed somewhere near but never on him—except when it is, traitorous and fluttering, because godsdamn if he isn’t still handsome even now, covered in dirt and ichor, half-wrecked and still somehow glowing under it all. It's unfair. He’s unfair.
Flora’s stomach coils as he begins to speak, letting images form of darkness clotted thick with strands of silk, something vast moving in the shadows, Noah and Sah half-swallowed by void. She should be listening, just listening, but the words paint too vividly, the horrors too easy to imagine. So by the time Jack’s voice hits a note of quiet fury—by the time the captain's glare cuts clean through Hadama’s decision to stay—Flora’s no longer watching the particular blue of his eyes or the sharp line of his jaw. She’s picturing earthen ceilings buckling above the Tidebreaker, the way the earth would taste if it filled your mouth while some void horror forced you to suffocate.
[say]"Fuck,"[/say] she mutters, raking her fingers through her curls. She is as unsurprised by Hadama's decision to stay as she is Jack's choice to go, faulting neither but feeling frustrated just the same.
Flora turns her face to the wind, eyes narrowed against the burn behind them. [say]"What do you think their chances are?"[/say] she asks, not trying to mask the concern. [say]"Should I...should I get my dads? Or tell Remi to start listening for their voices in his head?"[/say]
RE: I can only hear the echo - Jack - 05-19-2025
Jack can't help the pointed glance he flashes at Flora, even if it's only brief; sea blues under dark brows that seem to ask whether it's really him who's the unfair one. But it's gone in a second, regardless of how her presence on his ship feels as if he's unexpectedly gotten landsick, and he refocuses on the conversation at hand. [say]"Yeah,"[/say] he mutters, leaning back against the rail beside the barrel. [say]"Fuck."[/say]
Though far from a team player - especially towards their party leader who'd held a flower hostage for the sake of bloody-mindedness - Jack had seen the value in working alongside the others; the hybrid in particular. And so when he speaks, it's not without consideration. [say]"Sah's range of magic should be able to get them out of a scrape if they get into one, but if he's taken out..."[/say] Yeah, then he'd consider Hadama and Noah up shit creek.
[say]"Sayin' that, though, ain't teleportation a thing that demigods do?"[/say] It's reasonable to believe that the majority of the group, if not all of them, can just opt out of being there if they want to. [say]"Even so... yeah, maybe put Remi on alert."[/say] It certainly can't hurt.
RE: I can only hear the echo - Flora - 05-19-2025
It doesn’t take a telepath to read the expression on Jack's face—, not when Flora’s spent seasons at his side, tangled in sheets and secrets, drunk on his storms and always two steps from drowning in them. So when those dark brows lift and his gaze cuts her way, sharp as a broken compass needle, she doesn’t flinch. She just arches hers right back, ocean eyes widening in mock innocence that barely masks the flicker of smugness underneath because yeah, it absolutely was him being the unfair one.
[say]"Hadama can teleport,"[/say] she says lightly, folding her arms across her chest as she leans one hip against the railing, watching the sky bend a little too softly around the Ark’s maroon sails. [say]"He can take someone else with him, too—he’s done it with me before. Noah, though...I’m not sure."[/say] Her mouth quirks, something bitter curling at the edges.
Her sigh is long and theatrical, enough to make her curls bounce as she tips her head back. [say]"Greeeeat,"[/say] she groans, already picturing the delightful task of telling her fathers that their demigod club might be needed on-call for a possible island rescue. [say]"Remi’s gonna love that."[/say]
And then—well, then she lets her eyes drag down the length of Jack properly. Thoroughly. It’s absolutely under the guise of checking for injury like a dutiful queen should, but she doesn’t exactly rush the inspection. The dirt, the tears in his coat, the scratches she can just make out through the grime; he looks like a man who got spit back out by something ancient and hungry. Which is probably exactly what happened.
Waggling the fingers of her right hand, the one with the slim ring of gold wound with trickles of ivy, she raises a brow. [say]"You actually okay?"[/say] she asks, tilting her head. Given that the Ark had left Torchline, any fountain water she was carrying would be rendered useless by the distance, and surely it was her obligation as queen to offer healing if he needed it. And not, you know, an excuse to be able to reach out and touch him again.
RE: I can only hear the echo - Jack - 05-19-2025
There's an argument brewing there in the subtext of their covert glances, and Jack is keen to keep it tethered and stifled for as long as possible. And so rather than grabbing at the bait she tosses out under the guise of a silent oh yeah?, he keeps his mind on the shrinking island behind them, on the possibility that there's at least one corpse laying under the rubble of a collapsed tunnel.
[say]"In retrospect, prob'ly somethin' that would've been worth figurin' out at the start of our little adventure down there,"[/say] he mutters, letting the wind blow through his hair and fill his lungs with the scent of salt and sea and not old, damp earth. [say]"Could be worse for Remi,"[/say] he supposes. [say]"Might've been you down there or somethin'. You're more'n capable - not that I blame you for not volunteerin'."[/say]
But then Flora's eyes are on him in a way that simultaneously makes him uncomfortable and also keen to ask her to follow every glance up with her hands, and Jack shrugs - both in reply, and to get out of his Kingmaker Coat. [say]"I am, oddly enough. Got out with a couple bruises but that's it,"[/say] he says, meaning it enough that her truth ring will be able to confirm it. [say]"Largely thanks to this an' whatever power Hadama's got. Needs repairin' now though."[/say] he examines the back of the coat with a wrinkled nose.