this is drowning

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

'Well, best set an alarm then.' Flora says with a lazy smirk, and though they can't have been awake for more than an hour, already she feels sleep tugging at the balls of her feet and weighing down her bones.

The thing about mind readers, Flora was learning, was that they more or less acted as if everyone else could read thoughts too. At least the captain did. Where Jack didn't ever have to read into anything Flora said, the queen was constantly left on the backfoot where he was concerned. I'm headed to Hak Etme. Mirage crab to kill, which had actually meant you're welcome to join me; a squeeze to her arm which meant are you fucking sure about this?; a whisper against her ear that he didn't want to hear it. Did that mean the arm suddenly around her waist and the body pressed against hers? Or the things he'd said he wanted her to say, and now didn't?

Assuming it was the latter, Flora had meant it when she'd said that he wouldn't want to know, the queen let herself relax fully against the bed, her expectations firmly thrust back where they belonged. Twisting her hair and tucking it beneath her head so that Jack wouldn't have to breathe it in, she reached up a hand, her fingers curling into his hair as she contoured herself against him. "Night Jack," She whispered for the second time, before letting her hand withdraw and placing it atop of his around her waist.

JACK

Later Jack will percolate on those particular thoughts - the ones that only someone like Flora is able to have, the ones that bring the way he interacts with the world into sharp relief. For now, though, he merely takes her actions at face value, eyes already growing heavy as his head tilts into her fingers, his arm tightening around her waist. 

"Night, Flora," he replies for the second time, feeling the warmth radiate out from her skin and relishing it in contrast to the soft breeze that still buffets around the room. One might expect it to take a while for Jack to fall asleep given this new and relatively unexpected position; on the contrary, however, he's dead to the world again in moments, as if some missing piece of his night has slotted into place, leaving his mind quiet and his sleep dreamless.

It's another long few hours before the captain stirs again, and a couple more still before he finds himself in the chair behind his desk, shirtless and feeling uncharacteristically vulnerable. Given that Flora is about to put something sharp quite close to his face, he things he's got a right to the feeling, honestly. "I'd be done by now if you'd have just let me use the knife," he points out regarding his hair, Jack resisting the urge to crane around and look for her.

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

Flora doesn't succumb to sleep quite as quickly, though she does after a long while of staring at a particular sliver of moonlight. The feel of Jack's arm around her waist is as comforting as it is terrifying; the source of her fear being that either she'll have to accept that this is all the pair ever will be, or force herself to somehow move on. All the while knowing she'll still see Jack nearly every day of her life. It isn't something she'll decide with his arms wrapped around her though, and only once she feels and hears the captain's breath grow steady and even does she twist in his arms, her face pressed against his chest.

Having tugged on his shirt once more and snatched a pair of his boxers for good measure, Flora waggles the knife dangerously near the captain's eye as he continues to fuss. "By all means, keep it up and I'll just make this take longer." She threatens playfully, her eyes shifting from where she's pulling two strands from either side of his face to make sure they were even in order to meet his gaze, her brow raising. "Now shush." That Flora was going to do a better job of things than Jack would have was a given, but what she would have done for a proper pair of scissors and a comb. Alas, she was fairly certain if she tried to go home to get either of those things she'd come back to Jack having sawed off half his hair, so she made do with what she had.

"You know there are perfectly good barbers in town, right? They'll even give you a shave and put cucumbers over your eyes while they work."

JACK

"You know I have a pair of scissors in my desk drawer, right?" Jack tells Flora, instinctively cringing away from the knife that dances so close to his eye and furrowing his brow. It's true that said scissors have never been used on his hair a day in his life, but at this point, gods, he'd likely prefer them to whatever Flora might get up to with his knife in her hands. Sitting a fraction straighter, he glances between the Doubletake and the hair he can see out of the corner of his eye as she fusses over him; this is clearly something very new for the captain.

"Who the fuck has time to go to a barber?" He raises his eyebrows; with the hours Jack keeps and the things he gets up to when he is awake at the same time as the rest of the world, he'd likely have to book appointments seasons in advance. "Just... make it quick, yeah?" She won't, and he knows it, but he has a feeling that there won't be any cucumbers over his eyes for this either.

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

'Wh—' Straightening, the Doubletake pins the captain with a stern stare. "Why didn't you tell me that sooner?!" Setting the knife down on his desk with a huff, Flora fans her hand over his desk. For however close they'd become the queen wasn't about to go rifling through the drawers of his desk; he could either point where she should look or get them for her himself.

"Listen, with all the time you spent on the beach getting your ass kicked by a cat, you could have been at the barber." She says with a grin before moving to stand behind him. "Keep your head here." She murmured, her fingers against his scalp, before the sound of snip snip snipping filled the room. "Next time—" Because yes Jack, there would be a next time. "—we do this on the beach. That way you don't get hair everywhere and you can rinse off after. Speaking of—" Pointing at the section of hair she was cutting, Flora raised her eyebrows, clearly wanting him to use his magic and moisten it again.

JACK

There isn't really an answer for that question - why didn't Jack tell her sooner, exactly? Maybe he'd forgotten, too busy being afraid for his sight given that the Doubletake was wielding a knife right next to his eyes. Maybe he'd withheld the information until the last possible moment, hoping that it would discourage her from going ahead with it. Either way, the captain casually points out where she might be able to find the scissors, before she begins to manhandle him all over again.

"Yeah? Next time we're scheduled to have a giant void cat stomp all over the beach, let me know and I'll book my appointment in advance," he snipes back, but at her instructions - keep still, keep his head here, don't twist around or be an idiot - the captain complies at least, though a shiver runs through him at the cold press of the scissors against his neck where she's cutting.

"It'll be fine," he mutters, of where they've decided to have this impromptu(ish) haircut. His magic comes to the rescue to do as Flora commands to keep his hair damp, and he's already tugging at a strand of air manipulation as well to sweep up his floor.

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

"I mean, I could have let you know if you'd told me when you'd be coming back." Flora says casually as she combs out a section of hair with her fingers, feathers it, and begins cutting. "Could have even scheduled the panther attack for a day that would have better suited your schedule and everything." Last she'd heard, Jack was planning on heading up toward the desert to kill some sort of crab she'd never heard of. It was only happenstance that she'd met him on the beach the day (or two?) before.

Though it had been a while since she'd cut anyone's hair, she'd practiced enough on Enzo to have it all coming back fairly quickly, and despite her threats to the contrary, she finished with Jack in a reasonable amount of time (by her standards, at least). Moving to stand before him, Flora surveys her work for a moment, her eyes narrowed slightly as she considers. Plunging her hands into the captain's hair and ruffling it, she combs it back away from his eyes before straightening, her arms crossed. "What do you think? Does it need to be shorter?" Had he hacked it off it probably would have been shorter, but just because it was the start of Longheat didn't mean he needed one singular haircut to last him the entire season.

"And before you answer, remember that it's entirely possible that when you go see Safrin everything about you remains exactly the same, so.."

Could he live with everything exactly the way it was, forever?

Meaning his physical appearance, of course.

JACK

"Yeah? I'll tap into my Just For Flora contact line on The Ark next time an' let you know my plans, shall I?" Jack raises an eyebrow at her, tracking her movements with his eyes since she's instructed him to keep his head where it is and he's not about to risk having his ear cut off by disobeying. Once the words have left his lips, of course, it actually does sound like a half decent idea to have some way to contact the Doubletake someone in Torchline should he need it. He'll think on it later.

For now, he settles in for Flora's reasonable amount of time, the captain trying to spy on how things look through her thoughts, and when he's bored of doing that, deciding instead to cast his telepathy further and check in on any crew within range of his magic. Finding that he's able to stretch the tendrils of his telepathic net a little further than before - no bad thing - he has to blink back into focus when Flora finally reappears before him.

"Wh--" With her hands suddenly in his hair, Jack practically flinches before glaring at her, as if silently asking what he'd done to deserve it. No, its fine, he almost says, before the next words leave her lips and Jack narrows his eyes ever so slightly. "A little shorter, then," he mutters, shifting in his seat.

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

"Your ship can fly, Jack. Don't act like having a way to contact me is out of the realm of possibility." She sasses, inadvertently giving voice to his line of thinking without really meaning to. Clearing her throat, the queen focuses her thoughts elsewhere. While it might all start out as a joke, questions about just how much they ought to keep one another informed of what they were doing could become real all too fast, and after Jack's comment the night before, Flora wasn't so sure those were waters worth wading into.

Frowning as he flinches, for once Flora doesn't think Jack's just being dramatic to be an ass. "Where'd you go, just now?" Had it been anyone else, the way his eyes had snapped back to her would have made her think he was just lost in his thoughts. Only Jack never had just his own thoughts, and given that hers were focused mostly on making sure she didn't fuck up his haircut, she very much doubted if there was anything in her mind that he'd found interesting or distracting.

'A little shorter it is.' Combing her fingers back through his hair before making a spritzing motion with her hand, Flora does as she's instructed, wondering indeed how much of the captain would freeze in place once he went to see Safrin.

JACK

"Given that the gods are more likely to swoop down and give you a pat on the head than they are me, perhaps you could find a way for us to communicate and just leave the means for it here on The Ark?" Jack sasses right back, raising his eyebrows at her before remembering belatedly that she's still very much got his head at her mercy, both in terms of aesthetics but also when it comes to pointy things near his jugular.

"Mm?" He doesn't expect her to have noticed the way he'd disappeared into his magic, let alone to ask about it, and it takes a brief second for Jack to remind himself that he doesn't have to lie about the answer before he responds. "I think my magic can reach further than it did. I can cover another of the lower decks - about an extra ten feet," he says slowly; clearly this is hot off the press, Jack frowning as if trying to find the catch in all of it.

Shorter it is, though, and he raises his fingers to provide said spritzing for Flora to work her own magic, though his nose wrinkles at the reminder that he'll soon be seeing the goddess again. "I'll head to the shrine tonight," he tells her. "So y'know... if I don't turn up tomorrow, maybe send someone to the lighthouse to check on me."

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

"Oh I dunno, something tells me Safrin might be more than willing to answer your calls now." No, they might not have finished the conversation they'd started however many days ago it was now, but just incase Jack hadn't gotten the picture before, yes, Flora was jealous and was going to continue to be. "Maybe a two-way parchment." She suggests mildly, not entirely sure how serious they were being about actually telling one another their respective schedules, but knowing that there were other uses for such an item regardless.

"Oh?" For a moment Flora thinks to ask how he knows the range is farther, before quickly recalling that for all his years aboard the Ark, Jack could likely pinpoint exactly where 30ft was from him at all times. Is that from Safrin too? she wants to ask, before pointedly focusing on his hair.

Biting at the inside of her cheek—see said comment above about jealousy—Flora lets a bit of Jack's hair fall through her fingers as she combs out the section she'd been working on. "You want me to wait outside?" The offer, if it even really was that, is made almost under Flora's breath. It's only because of the state the captain was in when she'd gone with him before that she made it all; the thought of him bloody-nosed and half-blind stumbling down the lighthouse's steps making her brow furrow deeply.

JACK

"I'll reserve my judgement," Jack decides regarding the goddess and her willingness to swoop down to grant him quests and favours. It isn't that he doubts Safrin, especially not when she's right there in front of him and melting his fucking brain, but one doesn't live this long as an Abandoned without a few deep-seated hangups. A two-way parchment, then, is a very nice distraction, and he raises his eyebrows and nods. "Not a bad idea," he agrees. Perhaps there's someone out there who already has one who might be willing to trade, or at the very least be kind enough to stand still while he steals it?

As the conversation turns back to his magic, Jack will be honest in that he'd expected a little more than Oh? from Flora, before the dark, sticky reminder of her jealousy floods along his magic. "Yeah," he confirms, purposely adding, "I don't know where it came from. Didn't ask for it, put it that way."

Glancing up at the hair that falls through Flora's fingers and into his field of vision, he raises his eyebrows at her offer - not because it's an unwelcome one but more that he'd genuinely not expected her to give enough of a shit to wait for him again. "If you're not busy," he mutters. "That'd be really helpful. Thanks."

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

"I'm full of 'em." Flora says of her good idea, before rolling her eyes. What was a bit of thievery or 1000MP between friends, anyway?

"Mmmm." The queen hums, and while the ring on her finger has her absolutely believing that Jack hadn't asked for it, that only made it seem more likely that it was a gift from Safrin. "So it's, what, 40ft I have to be able to shout at you from if I want to keep my thoughts to myself?' She's kidding of course—there wasn't anything worse than I love you in her thoughts—and given she was fairly certain Jack's magic had already found that particular pandora's box, nothing else really seemed worth concealing in contrast. 'Sounds like we're going to have to find you some stronger headache remedies.' She hums more to herself than to him as she fluffs out the bottom of his hair, taking a moment to ensure it was even before stepping back.

"...yup." As she'd pointed out on the beach, despite her jealousy, she was still willing to help Jack with his nonsense, much as she disagreed with it; hated it, in some cases. "I'll wait outside the room though, if it's all the same." Being there to pick up whatever shell of Jack was left over after he saw Safrin was one thing, but having to pick up the pieces of herself after hearing and seeing the things Safrin was liable to coax out of him was another entirely.

JACK

"Once upon a time I'd have laughed at that, but you really are," Jack remarks, and he'd have turned his head to smirk up at her were it not for the finishing touches she's putting on his hair - and the scissors he knows are still quite nearby. Those same scissors are what stop him from scoffing at the implication that the expanded range on his power is definitely from Safrin, but he does wrinkle his nose. "Can't a guy get better at his magic on his own merits?" he asks haughtily.

"But yes - 40ft from here if you want to scream into a telepathic pillow," he adds, finding himself jostled by her fingers in his hair, prompting a necessary pause before he speaks up again. "I didn't consider that, to be honest," he says of the negative aspects of this apparent boon, and it has him groaning internally.

Were it not for the Safrin discussion - and doesn't it always seem to come back to the goddess? - Jack might have continued down that thread of conversation, but with Flora agreeing to wait outside to scrape him off the flagstones of the Aumakua, at least he knows he can get home safely enough, and he gives her a brief nod. "Appreciate it. Can I get up now?"

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!