the corner I haunt

flora

"Easier." Flora counters with an affectionate roll of her eyes before Jack's laughter has her lips unconsciously curling into a smile as well. "Besides, what wasn't ordinary about it before?" She laughs, not really wanting to know. There was the age difference, the fact that the pair were wildly mismatched, the volatility of their chemistry...really, you could take your pick.

Meeting his gaze, Flora can only tilt her head slightly. For all the ways in which she wanted to please the captain, she refuses to let that make her stupid. "It'll just be a ring that I can take off." She clarifies with a smirk before her thoughts are darkening and the urge to once again stay Jack's progress across the sand nearly has Flora doing just that. "Tonight?" She purrs, her thoughts heating. Where Jack had already been lubricated by liquor and cum once that evening, Flora was young and in love, and gods if that didn't have her wanting him over and over again.

EW DAVID "Ew, don't." Grimacing, while Flora had allowed the fact that her soon-to-be step-father had fucked the captain, she drew a hard line at anything more familial than that. Nudging Jack hard in the ribs for that one, she rolls her eyes and thinks icy thoughts for even suggesting such a thing.

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

Yeah, all of that, Flora, not to mention the mind-reading and the automatic power dynamic that creates, one that Jack pointedly decides to ignore at every opportunity save the ones she forces him to face outright. Still, the tonight? that purrs through her words already has him flicking the cigarette from his fingers and exhaling the smoke still lingering in his lungs. "Is that what you want?" He raises his eyebrows, tugging her closer against him despite the fact that The Ark is still at least a few minutes' walk away.

Scoffing at her disgust and rolling his shoulders in a shrug, Jack can't and won't deny that Flora is appealing in both mind and body to those who know how to manipulate such things. "A ring I can deal with," he purrs, leaning in to steal her lips in a kiss as if that will serve to melt the ice that sparkles through her veins.

romancing yourself is possible, narcissistic
and recommended

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

flora

"To fuck you?" Flora clarifies before shooting Jack a what the fuck do you think? look that her thoughts automatically underscore with a sweltering wave of heat. That's the thing about these youths you keep surrounding yourself with, Jack: they're insatiable, all the more when you give them a taste of what they want. Of what they've been craving for months on end. Besides, it's only fair to give the skeleton crew who'd been forced to remain on the Ark a taste of what they'd missed out on by not going to the Hanged Man, right? "Of course I want you."

It's times such as these that it's beneficial to them both that Flora has opted to go for blocking the captain's thoughts, rather than trying to weedle her way into reading his own, lest silent comments like that one get him into hot water that even his magic couldn't cool. Rising onto her toes and griping his side for balance, Flora hums her agreement, her smile sly against his lips as she pulls away. "I do wonder what it will feel like, though." She hums softly. "When I am strong enough to keep you out." What his mental touch might be like, the places he'd try and breakthrough, the silent struggles they might wage against one another. Flora being who and what she was of course was thrilled by the possibility, always one to rise to a challenge, even if she naively thought that she wouldn't ever need to keep such a shield maintained around Jack.

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

Jack would argue that this is less about these youths and more particularly about Flora, but either way, as the fire in her thoughts starts to heat his own blood, he draws her further against his side, his hand skimming down the flimsy material of her sundress and lower still across her ass. "Keep that up and the crew on The Ark won't hear shit unless you scream loud enough for them to hear it from here," he whispers, his lips brushing across her cheek and his hand giving a generous squeeze before he's ferrying them back into a walk, his shirt still slung over one shoulder.

"Oh, I'm sure it'll be very boring for you," he drawls as they head across the sand to the winking lights of the docks. "And even more boring for me." No way to anticipate what she'd like before she says it, or to respond to things she hasn't actually said out loud? Jack will be a tiger pacing in a cage, waiting for Flora to open the door for him.

romancing yourself is possible, narcissistic
and recommended

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

flora

Smirking up at him, Flora's thoughts are as smug as they are suggestive, and as his lips brush against her cheek, the queen tilts her head up toward his ear. "I bet you could make me scream that loud." She whispers, and in her minds eye Jack is fucking her hard enough to nearly have that little bundle of nerves inside of her bruised from his efforts.

"You're just saying that because you've never had to go without." Flora hums as they step up onto the proper walkway toward the docks. Of course Jack was who he was because of his magic, and to strip him of it likely would make things significantly more challenging (and boring, it's true) for them both. "And I bet if you can't hear me coming, you'd scare real easy." Flora adds, mischief momentarily blotting out the red mist settling over her thoughts. Maybe she'd even be able to plan things without him knowing, or surprise him with things she'd bought or done.

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Don't tempt me," Jack whispers, and already her warmth against his side feels like the sun on a Longheat afternoon, the captain wondering whether they'll even get as far as the harbour before he's bunching up her sundress and fucking her against one of the palm trees dotting the borders of the beach. Luckily for them both, perhaps - scrapes and bruises are all fun and games until they become distracting - Flora weaves her filthy thoughts seamlessly with a much more sobering conversation.

He has never had to go without, it's true, Jack wrinkling his nose at her suggestions, both spoken and otherwise. Probably, it's true - he probably would be a lot jumpier if he didn't know where she was at any given time, especially taking the mischief already dancing through her mind. "I'm sure this is shocking, I know, but I ain't much of a fan of surprises," he informs her with a raise of his eyebrows. Who knows, though - maybe Flora can teach him to tolerate enjoy them.

romancing yourself is possible, narcissistic
and recommended

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

flora

Humming a sound that's as disappointed as it is understanding—having already had Jack twice that evening, Flora supposed she could wait until they were aboard the Ark—she nevertheless focused her thoughts fleetingly on the way the material of her sundress felt against her bare skin, the way her thighs brushed softly against one another, and the heat already starting to build between her legs. Don't tempt me, he'd said, as if she wouldn't.

"Gods, who could have guessed." Rolling her eyes, Flora grins. "At least you can be sure that whatever I do it'll have to be on a small scale. That is until you notice all your crew wearing matching rings." She jokes; that'd be the only way she could ever organize something like a birthday party surprise on a larger scale. For now, though, it was enough to be able to plant the seed in Jack's mind that once she was strong enough, there was always the possibility of mischief he didn't know about.

But come on, Jack. Those are the sorts of things that keep a man young, after all.

"So..." Swallowing, Flora's fingers inadvertently stroke the left side of Jack's hip as her thoughts eventually turn back to Vesper and Jack's other two children. "..anything else I should know about them? Other than avoiding your son until I can block him out?"

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

Furrowing his brow and casting a wry warning look down towards her, Flora is currently responsible for the most confusing erection of Jack's life, if the heat in her thoughts and the cooler palette of her words are anything to go by. Still, it's enough that his hand is still wandering, warm fingers slipping up her side and across her ribs, brushing just beneath one breast before retreating again as they begin to walk the boardwalk towards The Ark. "As if you know when my birthday is," he fires back, though if anyone could manage to give away telepathy-blocking rings like they were party favours, it's Torchline's Queen.

Surprised more than anything to hear his children come back up now that his ship is almost within touching distance, the captain gives something of a dismissive shrug. "Ain't much to know yet," he admits. "Vesper's sisters are called Calypso and Nova. I agreed to be hospitable to 'em, and apparently they're keen to be out and make a splash, so I've no doubt you'll know 'em when you see 'em."

romancing yourself is possible, narcissistic
and recommended

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

flora

Shivering slightly in response to the wandering of Jack's fingers across her body, her thoughts momentarily growing blurry as her focus reduces down to the press of his fingertips, Flora swallows before grinning wickedly up at the captain. "I'm sure someone does." She purrs confidently. Over the years, especially since having found herself in Jack's orbit, the queen had gotten very good at prying information out of people, and if Jack was going to try and hide something from her, it'd have her wanting to find it out all the more.

"You agreed to be hospitable to them?" Assuming that command came from Safrin, Flora can only shrug. Even if the goddess hadn't wanted Jack to raise her children, no doubt she'd at least want him to be, well, hospitable. Committing the names Calypso and Nova to memory, Flora can't decide whether or not to be nervous or intrigued by what making a splash in Torchline might mean for a couple of Safrin's daughters. As their queen, she supposed wariness was probably warranted, but as a fellow 21-year-old who'd also been born of powerful parents? Gods but they might have fun together, the Jack of it all notwithstanding. She'd have to figure out a better greeting than hey I know we're the same age, but I'm fucking your dad, though.

Speaking of..

You know, you might have shot yourself in the foot telling me about you. Flora raises an eyebrow as they mount the gangplank, a smirk curling on her lips. Before she'd known about Jack's telepathy, she falsely believed, for instance, that gagging herself on his cock was the sort of thing he might like, and because she didn't know how things worked in his mind, she'd have found the act of pleasing him wildly arousing. Now knowing that wasn't how it worked, Flora's daddy issues need to please went unsatisfied thanks to Jack's telepathy in a way she didn't think they'd be able to reconcile. There's no way for me to ever make things about you. She adds with a shrug, twisting out from beneath his arm and tucking her fingertips against his belt to drag him onto the ship after her.

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Mm, someone probably does," Jack agrees, glancing up as his ship looms into view, and given how close Flora is currently pressed against him - not to mention the recently changed nature of their relationship - she'll undoubtedly feel some buried string of tension easing throughout the captain's body. It's no secret that The Ark is one of the few things that has real sentimental value to Jack, but more than that, she's as close to home as it gets for him. "I know when it is, for example. So you might just ask." And he might just tell her, since they're being so candid with each other now.

As for his daughters, he lets out a dark laugh and follows Flora up the gangplank on confident steps. "Vesper bribed me to be hospitable," he clarifies, holding up his hand where the unrefined stone of mageglass twinkles dimly in the twilight. "Though don't get ahead of yourself - they might look the same age as you, but you got years of real experience on 'em." Just an hour in Vesper's company had proven that much.

Finding himself pulled onto the ship and raising his eyebrows as he follows, the words skeleton crew have never been more apt, given that barely two sets of eyes glance up to notice the captain and the Doubletake's arrival. His hands are back on her in moments, greedily roaming over the thin material of her sundress and the curves barely hiding beneath them as he draws her flush against his body.

"I don't think that's true, love," he whispers, leaning in so the words are lost to anyone but her. "Things are always about me." It's arrogant and overconfident and precisely the sort of attitude that has gotten him this far, and the smile in his voice is positively devilish. "If gagging yourself on my cock would make you happy, rest assured I'll be very pleased with you," he continues, grasping her hand to press it against the front of his pants, where his arousal is already hard and apparent. "It's right here if you want it."

romancing yourself is possible, narcissistic
and recommended

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

flora

Pressed against the captain's side with an arm curled around him, Flora certainly can feel the way the Ark relaxes him in a way almost nothing else came close to replicating, though she'd long known that about him. It was why in even her most foolish fantasies they almost always ended with the pair on the Ark; nights spent in her bed were a rarity, as they were in real life. That was an actual conversation for another time, though. "Alright then, when." She sasses, thinking that if he did tell her, they ought to make a point of at least noting the day as it passed by each year if only so that someone had an idea of how old the forever-35 captain actually was.

Lifting her brows, surprised not only that Jack let himself be bribed to be nice of all things, but that his son had anything worth bribing him with, she glances at the stone and gives her head a slight shake of confusion. "What's that?"

Gasping out a sound of flirtatious surprise as Jack tugs her against him—there might only be a skeleton crew, but that didn't mean the Doubletake was any less keen to perform for them—a small moan slips past her lips as his words tickle the baby-fine hairs on the back of her neck. "Yeah but...it only makes me happy thinking that it makes you happy." Flora counters, her palm fitting around the shape of his cock as she tangles an arm around his neck. And it's only going to make you happy if you can pluck it from my mind

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

It certainly is a conversation for another time, especially given the tantalising turn things are about to take. "Towards the end of Deepfrost," Jack tells her breezily, and if she's in any doubt, the silence from the ring on her finger might help. "Just when everyone's gotten tired of the season." Himself included, he might add. And as for the surprise that sparkles through her thoughts, Jack can't resist a chuckle at that, and he shrugs his shoulders. "I'm a businessman, Flora, and not an honourable one. Of course I can be bribed to be nice."

Regarding the ring on his finger, he flexes his hand a couple of times. "Mageglass," he explains. "It's like an amplifier for Abandoned magic. That kid on the beach was wearin' some, when we were fightin' the panther." For all the good it had done them, but that didn't make the item any less valuable.

As things ramp up (and the crew, all two of them at present, definitely notice and enjoy it, and Flora doesn't need to be a mindreader to figure it out), Jack hitches in a quiet breath to feel her palm press further against him, his own hand slipping around her waist whilst one drifts lower, bunching up her sundress as it slips up to cup the curve of her backside. "Sounds like quite an impasse," he murmurs, his lips a mere breath away from her own. "Guess we'll just have to fuck around and find out."

romancing yourself is possible, narcissistic
and recommended

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

flora

"What, like right around LongNight?" The queen purrs suggestively, her smile causing spiderwebs to stretch out in her mind that, over the next few seasons, will constantly be catching and holding onto ideas for how best to celebrate the captain's first immortal birthday. Glancing at the ring, the queen huffs quietly under her breath. Whether it was just happenstance that Jack was given an item so perfectly suited to him—something easily overlooked that in fact made him more of a threat than he already was—Flora just raises a brow before smirking. "And all of this time I could have just been bribing you to want me." She hums, though they both know that wasn't true. Not the part about being able to bribe him into wanting her, Jack had put that on the table from day 1; the part about Flora actually doing it.

The evening air against her bare skin has Flora sipping in a stilted breath as rivers of fire begin to course through her. While the crew might not have been looking, in her mind they were, their eyes drawn to the moon-pale crescent of skin that Jack's greedy fingers had revealed. "Oh no," the queen laments. Pressing herself against him, she curls one leg around his waist, and where her flexibility might have properly given the crew something to look at, the midnight shadows cast by Jack's body kept her modesty intact. Digging her heel against him and rising up onto her toe, graceful as any dancer might, she presses her mouth against his in a kiss that's as slow as it is wicked. Tonight I'm going to fuck you, until it's you moaning my name. Until you're begging me to let you cum.

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Not quite that bad - I'm not cursed," Jack says with a playful wince, though to be honest with the way his story had begun, he's not entirely sure how true that is. And given how his little revelation has already sent Flora's mind into overdrive, he may as well be now; were it not for her hand against his erection and her body draped so deliciously against his own, he might have been more committed to talking her down from such celebrations.

"Mm, you could have," he agrees with a wolfish grin. "More fool you for doin' it the old fashioned way, I guess." The old fashioned way evidently being able to worm her way in through the cracks in the captain's adamantine emotional armour, though he imagines Flora would argue that the results had been more than worth it. And Jack is inclined to agree, especially as she leans up to hook her leg around his waist, his fingers slipping beneath her thigh to support her as her lips come to press against his own again.

"Ambitious," he purrs, and if there's a hint of challenge in the captain's voice then it's entirely laced with approval. "I wish you the best of luck in your efforts, Your Highness." They won't get much done standing around here, though, and so Jack encourages her to wrap both legs around his waist so he might walk them somewhere more suited for Flora's endeavours.

romancing yourself is possible, narcissistic
and recommended

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!