Safrin
Safrin only laughs again—soft, shimmering, indulgent—and the sound curls through the starlit air like a warm breeze. She shakes her head slowly, sending constellations sliding over her shoulders in a bright, lazy cascade. "Need, want, and self-preservation," she muses, "are such very different things, Jack." A grin ghosts across her lips, wicked and fond in equal measure. "You’ve never been terribly good at telling them apart...but then, that is part of your charm."
She doesn’t move away when he looks up at her; she stays exactly where she is, allowing the intimacy of the moment to settle around them like a veil. Kneeling as he is, Jack’s lips fall level with her navel, her silhouette framed in the glow of candles and the halo of her own starlight. The effect is deliberate, with every inch of her presence telling him he is meant to look up.
Her hand lifts, slow and regal, before cupping his cheek. The warmth of her touch is impossible, heatless and bright all at once, and her thumb sweeps across the faint lines carved into his face by sleeplessness, strain, and heartache. The gesture isn’t pity, but something softer, something almost maternal in its confidence that he will bend and not break. "No one chooses to sail through rough seas," she murmurs, the words spun in that honeyed cadence that makes even advice sound like seduction. "Only the ignorant or the foolish crave storms. But you.." Her thumb drifts lower, brushing the edge of his jaw. "You know better than anyone that the sea does as she pleases. You can curse the waves, you can toss your anchor into the deep, but the waters will not calm simply because you’re tired of fighting them." Heartbreak, unfortunately, was no different.
Her gaze sharpens, luminous and mercilessly beautiful. "You will find that immortality will wear on you if you cannot learn how to sail through these waters." For a moment, she only watches him, her hand still on his cheek, her thoughts brushing against his in a steady pulse of constellations and heat and dark delight. "Even so," she continues, her voice slipping into something velvety and knowing, "there is no rule that says you must weather the storm alone." Her thumb glides once more along the hollow beneath his cheekbone, a gesture as gentle as it is calculated. "If the only place you wish to be is with your ship...then perhaps she need not remain merely a vessel you command." The words purr into his mind as much as his ears, a ribbon of suggestion unfurling through his telepathy like warm tidewater.
A vision brushes the edges of his thoughts, not a voice, not a face, but an impression: a cascade of wild curls whipped by wind in a familiar shade of maroon, eyes the colour of the sea, and a mind honed sharp by storms and survival, clever as his because it has lived the same waters and been shaped by the Captain's own over the years.
With a small shrug Safrin will let Jack do with the iea what he will, before her smile returns. "Of course it isn't too much trouble." She leans down, the fall of her starlit hair brushing Jack's shoulders as she lowers herself close enough that her breath stirs the tiny flyaways at his temple. Her lips hover just beside his ear and she tells him what it is he must do.
Jack has been given a quest! He must
1. Help someone get somewhere faster than normal
2. Witness longer range teleportion (either coming or going) whose range extends outside of just one board
3. Sail the Ark through an entirely new board, somewhere he's never been before.
4. Leave the Ark an entire board away, considering what it's like to be that far from her
She doesn’t move away when he looks up at her; she stays exactly where she is, allowing the intimacy of the moment to settle around them like a veil. Kneeling as he is, Jack’s lips fall level with her navel, her silhouette framed in the glow of candles and the halo of her own starlight. The effect is deliberate, with every inch of her presence telling him he is meant to look up.
Her hand lifts, slow and regal, before cupping his cheek. The warmth of her touch is impossible, heatless and bright all at once, and her thumb sweeps across the faint lines carved into his face by sleeplessness, strain, and heartache. The gesture isn’t pity, but something softer, something almost maternal in its confidence that he will bend and not break. "No one chooses to sail through rough seas," she murmurs, the words spun in that honeyed cadence that makes even advice sound like seduction. "Only the ignorant or the foolish crave storms. But you.." Her thumb drifts lower, brushing the edge of his jaw. "You know better than anyone that the sea does as she pleases. You can curse the waves, you can toss your anchor into the deep, but the waters will not calm simply because you’re tired of fighting them." Heartbreak, unfortunately, was no different.
Her gaze sharpens, luminous and mercilessly beautiful. "You will find that immortality will wear on you if you cannot learn how to sail through these waters." For a moment, she only watches him, her hand still on his cheek, her thoughts brushing against his in a steady pulse of constellations and heat and dark delight. "Even so," she continues, her voice slipping into something velvety and knowing, "there is no rule that says you must weather the storm alone." Her thumb glides once more along the hollow beneath his cheekbone, a gesture as gentle as it is calculated. "If the only place you wish to be is with your ship...then perhaps she need not remain merely a vessel you command." The words purr into his mind as much as his ears, a ribbon of suggestion unfurling through his telepathy like warm tidewater.
A vision brushes the edges of his thoughts, not a voice, not a face, but an impression: a cascade of wild curls whipped by wind in a familiar shade of maroon, eyes the colour of the sea, and a mind honed sharp by storms and survival, clever as his because it has lived the same waters and been shaped by the Captain's own over the years.
With a small shrug Safrin will let Jack do with the iea what he will, before her smile returns. "Of course it isn't too much trouble." She leans down, the fall of her starlit hair brushing Jack's shoulders as she lowers herself close enough that her breath stirs the tiny flyaways at his temple. Her lips hover just beside his ear and she tells him what it is he must do.
Jack has been given a quest! He must
1. Help someone get somewhere faster than normal
2. Witness longer range teleportion (either coming or going) whose range extends outside of just one board
3. Sail the Ark through an entirely new board, somewhere he's never been before.
4. Leave the Ark an entire board away, considering what it's like to be that far from her
