JACK
"Mmhm," Jack hums against the hollow of her throat, entirely entertained and self-satisfied, and even more so at the sharp prickle of not-quite-fury that sparks across The Ark's mind in response. "I bet they'll have the balls once we're settled in Torchline. Lots of well-meaning if you need helps or I could captain you betters." Because it doesn't escape Jack's notice that the rumours are likely born from equal parts jealousy of what they have and envy of what might be theirs if they can make her out to be some damsel in need of rescue.
It isn't anything she's ever needed to say explicitly before - Jack has known since the second he first flipped her coin that she belonged to herself, and that any clutch of control on his part save in case of emergencies would be more damaging than any rough seas or high winds. That, ultimately, had been the core of his nerves about it; the sort of rejection that would have her not only have her turning her back on him, but having ship turn on Captain in one fell swoop.
"It'd kill me if you did leave to sail alone, y'know," he says, the words not the soft and desperate adoration of a man in puppy-love, but the dark truth of a bond so deep as to be carved in his bones. Not literally - Jack hasn't murdered to become immortal just to dramatically commit suicide - but inside something would certainly wither and take decades in its remaking. "Don't let the rumour mill catch that either, though, or they'll think I'm blackmailin' you on top of everythin' else."
It isn't anything she's ever needed to say explicitly before - Jack has known since the second he first flipped her coin that she belonged to herself, and that any clutch of control on his part save in case of emergencies would be more damaging than any rough seas or high winds. That, ultimately, had been the core of his nerves about it; the sort of rejection that would have her not only have her turning her back on him, but having ship turn on Captain in one fell swoop.
"It'd kill me if you did leave to sail alone, y'know," he says, the words not the soft and desperate adoration of a man in puppy-love, but the dark truth of a bond so deep as to be carved in his bones. Not literally - Jack hasn't murdered to become immortal just to dramatically commit suicide - but inside something would certainly wither and take decades in its remaking. "Don't let the rumour mill catch that either, though, or they'll think I'm blackmailin' you on top of everythin' else."
no more than I was or than I want to be
when you fall on me like night, I wanna kill the lights
when you fall on me like night, I wanna kill the lights
- Secret Telepath
- Functionally Immortal (Forever 35)
- Two small star tattoos beneath his left eye
- Click for The Ark!
