turn the world upside down

JACK

Jack arrives at the appointed time and place, his impatience and brewing uncertainty hidden behind a veneer of cool indifference. He perches himself upon a flat rock near one of the more obvious entrances to Rae's Fingers, the sky bleeding reds and oranges into the horizon with the setting sun at his back. Pushing his sunglasses up a little higher to keep away the glare, he spends a few moments finding and lighting a cigarette, bringing it to his lips to inhale deeply.

Flora doesn't send him letters. Not official, from the desk of Flora Kaito-Taliesin letters, and she certainly doesn't give them to someone else to deliver. That, combined with the strange little note from her on their parchment this morning, and Jack is the sort of suspicious that can get a lot of people hurt with very little provocation. Good luck with that, Soh, and have Flora buy you a strong drink to say sorry ASAP.

you're the last of a dying breed; write our names in the wet concrete
I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me

Code stolen from Queen Sky

And it's peaceful in the deep
Because either way you cannot breathe

Of the two meetings Sohalia was scheduled to have in Torchline, this was the one that she was looking forward to the least. Let’s remember, shall we, that the last time she and Flora had spoken about Jack, it was a conversation in which the Doubletake was lamenting the fact that Jack seemed determined to do whatever the fuck he wanted without regard for Flora’s feelings on the matter. As a result, Soh was already inclined to view the man with a certain level of distaste (even if, she thought, Flora might have been overreacting).

But now, as she approached Rae’s Fingers at the appointed time, she felt a mixture of emotions. Wariness, for one, since her opinion of Jack was mixed at best; concern, because Flora had gone off to enact her plan seemingly without any backup, and even if Soh didn’t know what that plan was, exactly, she could take a wild guess what it had to do with; and anxiety, because she didn’t know what to expect from the recipient of this letter.

At least it was unopened. She hadn’t been stupid enough to try and read the letters intended for others, no matter how curious she’d been to know what they said. Would it have made any difference? Would she have tried to stop Flora if she’d known what the Doubletake was planning?

Well, she’d never know now.

She approached Jack with a frown on her face, already reaching in her pocket to withdraw the letter from Flora. She held it out to the man wordlessly. When he opened it, he would read the following:

—-

Heeeeeeeeeeyyy...

You told me you wanted to be a tool in the road, something that the Family couldn’t avoid. And I know you didn't mean like this, but...well, we all have our strengths, right? I guess I wasn't actually ready to stop fighting and after all this bullshit with Hadama and Sunjata and Deimos...I just...I had to try something.

So I went to Dahlia and I struck a deal: A vial of her blood, in exchange for being purple for a bit.

Okay, so—deep breath. I know. You’re probably pissed. No, scratch that. You’re definitely pissed, but try not to hate me too much about it.

If you're reading this, then I'm probably infected now. But I have Hadama working on it already. I should be back to my old self soon so long as things go to plan.

I don’t know if you’ll want to see me like this. If you’d rather avoid the hell out of me until this is over—I’d get it. (Or, well I probably won't while I'm infected, but afterward I will).

I love you.

Always,
Flora


P.s. I hope I'm not crazier than normal while infected, but if I am, sorrrryyyyyyyyyy.

No need to pray
No need to speak

Sohalia

the Luminary

JACK

Wariness, concern and anxiety - looks like they're all feeling fine and dandy this evening. Glancing up only once Soh gets close enough to see out of the corner of his eye, despite having sensed her some sixty feet away, Jack flicks the ash from his cigarette, stubs it out on the rock beside him, and grinds the butt into the sand with the heel of his boot. He straightens up in time for the Luminary to hand him the letter, the captain using the knife in his boot to open the sealed envelope, unfolding the paper to scan it with cold blue eyes.

And for those who have been around Jack for even a moment, it's likely quite unsurprising that his reaction is quite measured - at first. A little tightening around the corner of his eyes, perhaps, or a clench to his jaw, but little else by way of a physical response. Magical is another matter entirely, though, and around them every drop of moisture on the beach freezes over, fracturing out between the captain's feet in jagged, spidery pathways.

Shaking static from his fingers, he silently hands the letter to Sohalia to read. "When did she give this to you?" he asks in a rough voice, patting his pockets for another cigarette.

you're the last of a dying breed; write our names in the wet concrete
I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me

Code stolen from Queen Sky

And it's peaceful in the deep
Because either way you cannot breathe

Sohalia didn't know Jack very well, but she didn't need to in order to read his response: every bit of moisture around them froze over, the sudden ice beneath his feet crackling and fracturing. Soh did her best to put on a brave face - head up, eyes on Jack, back ramrod straight - but internally she quailed. If she was him, she would be furious, and she didn't know him enough to predict what he would do when angry.

So when he handed her the letter to read, she was surprised. She would have thought he'd keep it private, but she took in anyway, skimming over its contents. As she read, her eyes widened and she visibly paled. Whatever she'd been expecting Flora's plan to be, this had never even been on her radar.

Holding the letter back out with a shaking hand, Soh swallowed hard. "Three days ago." Three days where her best friend had been with the Family. What if they locked her up, like they'd once done with Soh? What if they hurt her? What if they killed her again, but this time, she was in Stormbreak, where no one could get to her to bring her back? Thoughts spiraling, Soh blurted, "She gave me a letter for you and a letter for Hadama, and asked me to send them in three days. She asked me to trust her, and I -" I did. Gods, she was such an idiot.

No need to pray
No need to speak

Sohalia

the Luminary

JACK

That's the funny thing about the captain - it takes quite a bit to get him properly angry these days, age and wisdom doing their part to school him in the art of patience. But when he really gets going, even he doesn't know what he's going to do until it's done. For now, at least, he's locked into this moment of near disbelief. Shock and something like betrayal coils in the pit of his gut like a viper readying itself to strike, and he struggles to light his cigarette given that the magic leaking out of him keeps frosting over the match tips.

Finally succeeding with a soft curse, he drags deeply on it and accepts the letter back from Soh, shoving it and his rime coated hand into his pocket. "Three days," Jack echoes, his laughter seeming more disappointed than anything. "Right. Well, we're all learnin' a lot about broken trust today, ain't we? You sent that letter to Hadama yet?" He wants to know where in the timeline of this shitshow he stands before making any further waves. Or not, as it might happen. Again, he really doesn't know yet.

you're the last of a dying breed; write our names in the wet concrete
I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me

Code stolen from Queen Sky

And it's peaceful in the deep
Because either way you cannot breathe

Broken trust. Was that what this was? She’d believed that Flora had a plan - a good plan, one that could help. Except… if that was the case, then why would she have been so desperate? Gods, Soh should have seen this coming - or, if not this, then something. She should have found some way to stop her, to detain her, to knock her over the head with a rock if it would have kept her safe. Kept her from this fate.

Betrayal, sharp and acrid, tasted bitter on her tongue as she considered the ramifications of what Flora had done. What she had done. ”I’m going there now.” Her voice sounded thin and distant in her ears. Oh, gods, Hadama. She thought she was going to be sick. Now she had to hand off a letter that was no doubt similar to that which she’d just read - to another friend, who already carried the burden of an entire region on his shoulders, and that was besides what he carried as a demigod.

No need to pray
No need to speak

Sohalia

the Luminary

JACK

"Prob'ly best you hurry, then." If Soh is looking for any words of reassurance or comfort, she wouldn't have found them in a man like Jack even on his best day, and especially not after receiving a letter like the one now sitting in his pocket. No, his eyes are already back on The Ark moored in the near distance, her sails almost seeming invisible against the bloody light of the setting sun - such is their purpose - and he leaves the cigarette in his mouth as he straightens up and steps past the Luminary.

"Thanks, I guess. I ain't killed the messenger in years, so you ain't gotta worry 'bout that at least. Good luck with the Tidebreaker - I've a feelin' you'll need it." As for the captain, once he figures out his next steps, maybe he'll manage to crack himself out of his inertia. And after that?

The world will just have to wait and see.

~FIN

you're the last of a dying breed; write our names in the wet concrete
I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me

Code stolen from Queen Sky