[se] disclosure

flora

"Yeah well, I wish I didn't." The last thing the captain would feel from Flora's mind for the next little bit was overwhelming betrayal and hurt. Not trusting Jack to tell her a damn thing, Flora threw one of her daggers into the sand near him, before taking a few more steps and repeating the action. Hastened by the fact that every thought in her mind was on offer, the queen hating that Jack could just help himself to her most vulnerable thoughts and feelings—especially when they were ones she wasn't particularly proud of—stormed up the beach.

Turning, she held out her hand, to which one of her daggers flew. Moving another few feet, Flora held out her hand again, only this time her dagger remained where it was. Unless he lied about the distance, and she wouldn't have put it past him, she was at least 30ft away.

"So all this time?" She called, folding her arms across her chest and trying to keep her voice from wavering despite the increase in volume. "When I first met you? When I—" Fuck. Every time she'd ever tried to impress him? When she'd lied about smoking or drinking, when she'd tried to seem so cool and sure of herself while being a mess? "—you've just...always fucking known everything?" When her twin had died and she'd just wanted to be held and then fucked? When she'd thrown muffins at him accidentally and hadn't known the words to use to get him to stay, and so had asked him in to help?

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

Watching the daggers land in the sand nearby and wondering, briefly, if Flora is aiming at him or not, Jack eventually catches her drift when the projectile no longer returns to her hand and he's left in horrific, terrifying blessed silence. Only at this point does the captain let out a shuddering breath and pinch at the bridge of his nose, his own thoughts rattling like loose marbles in his skull. Later - hours later, probably, when Flora has either left him on this beach or they're back on the Ark - he'll realise the extent of his loss of composure. And thank fuck it's only Flora who has been around to witness it.

For now, though, he reaches out to claim the dagger she's thrown and been unable to recall, running his fingers across the razor sharp blade. "All this time," he confirms, trying to balance the tip of the dagger on his fingertip and succeeding only in drawing blood. "Providin', y'know, you're less than this distance away." Sucking the blood from his finger, he drops the dagger back into the sand.

"At first I liked that you were naive. Naive people are easy to control." He shrugs. "Now I like your fire, your ambition. Not to mention you're more interestin' than a lot of other people in Torchline."

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!

flora

"There's poison on that you idiot." Flora yells, not that she could have run across to stop him or recalled the blade in time. Throwing up her hands in exasperation—how long would it take them to get home now, with basic poison coursing through his body—the queen clenches her fists together.

"Oh my gods that's so gross." She murmurs, pressing her fists against her forehead and feeling as if she was going to vomit. Flora had never really considered their age gap before if only because she'd just been older at the snap of Frey's fingers, so the concept of age didn't really mean as much to her as someone else who'd taken a more linear approach to life. But to hear, from his own fucking mouth, that he'd liked her because she was naive? "Ughhh, I don't know why I thought you were like, somehow slightly better than that." Exhaling, and still wanting to scream, Flora plopped down on the sand and drew her knees to her chest.

It didn't make it better at all to hear she was interesting to the captain, not when he'd apparently been in possession of everything thought she'd ever had in his presence.

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Huh, so there is." Glancing back at the knife and realising belatedly that he's not only cut himself with a poisoned blade, but he's sucked the tainted blood from his finger, too, the captain can't not laugh about it. (That's a lie, actually, he could be doing a lot more about it, but if Flora hasn't put two and two together yet, this is not Jack as she knows him).

"Gross?" he echoes, before his brows furrows and he scoffs, shaking his head. "Shut up," he drawls, "that's nothin' to do with it. You weren't naive because you were young, you were naive because you had no idea how fuckin' powerful you were and how much you could influence everyone else. Swannin' around Torchline with Taliesins for parents and havin' no idea how much easier life could be for it."

Wondering how long it'll take before the poison in his system makes him feel even more like a horror show, the captain leans back on his good hands. "Go on," he mutters, "ask whatever else you wanna know." May as well. It isn't as though her opinion of him is going to get any higher, and gods know why it even matters to Jack at this point in time. It does, though. Fuck.

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!

flora

Stiffening somewhat only because it felt as though Jack had absolutely no right to make good points, Flora just frowned and turned her head away. "So you just thought to yourself, Oh, I can use that ?" The words were meant to be biting, but of course that's what Jack had thought. And of course he'd fucked her time and time again, because she was hot and he knew that she wanted it.

He hadn't even had to try.

"Gods, I hate everything." Flora moaned against her knees. Wanting to just disappear in a way that even her ring invisibility ring was incapable of doing, the queen just hugged her shins and silently fought against the tears that stung her eyes.

"What's there to ask? Do u LIKe Me oR WeRe yOu JuSt usInG mE?' Lifting her head, she glances up the beach at him. "Of course I knew you were using me, I guess...I guess I just thought I was using you back in a way that made it seem fair." Fun, even. Sexy. "But you weren't just two steps ahead, you'd fucking lapped me, and..." Gods, maybe she ought to just wander down the beach and let him pull it all from her mind. "..it just sucks, but whatever. You must know that, I can't imagine people are stoked when they find out you've been in their heads the whole time."

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

His lips part to reply to Flora only for her to answer her own questions, not once but several times.  Given that Jack is meant to be the one running laps around her, he's nonetheless left gesturing uselessly at her instead, since she's already putting all the pieces together. "Oh, I do like you," he adds, at least, and the words would be a surprise to himself if his own mind isn't running rings around him. "Since you told me what you wanted, then went after it an' took no prisoners." Not that it makes a difference.

"An' you did use me back. It didn't bother me - I didn't mind bein' used." Maybe because the only relationships he knows are transactional - either way, it had been the cherry on the top of a good arrangement for the captain. (Except, you know, Flora hadn't been privy to all the details of said arrangement).

As for people, he wrinkles his nose at that. "Not especially. Wouldn't know in that much detail, though. I killed everyone who found out, 'cept for Jata. Most of 'em were dead before they even realised what they knew." He shrugs. "I built an empire on this party trick. Loose lips'll bring it down in days."

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!

flora

Perhaps still more on the naive side of things than not, Flora did not interpret any of this to mean, I know you better than anyone else and I still like you. Instead, the words just felt like a slap in the face, as if liking her at the end of it was the least Jack could fucking do.

"Well yeah, of course I did." The queen mumbled, leaning her cheek against one of her knees. "Of course I used you, I just..." Didn't have it as easy as you did? Not in the same way, but with her family name as he'd pointed out, she didn't have it as hard as others might have. Sighing, Flora just shakes her head.

"Guess we'll find out, huh?" It was meant to sound threatening, but in the end, Flora's words only sounded tired. It was hard to keep yelling down the beach, and gods, what could possibly be in her head now that the captain hadn't already heard? Oh, she was sad? Hurt? Her pride was wounded over Koa and this just made it worse? That for all of her family bullshit and queenly agendas, she was in fact just a 21 year old girl who cried over boys (and girls) sometimes? So, for all the loneliness he'd feel and how she'd hate him for it, Flora picked herself up and began to walk back toward him.

The closer she came the more she could make out the clamy sweat on his skin and the ugly discoloration around his neck. But it wasn't just that. "Jack...you look bad." And not just haha fuck you bad, but bad. "Did those vines do something? Do you feel okay?" He'd been strangled, yes and his wrist was broken, but if anyone could shake that off, she'd have thought it was the captain.

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Ooh, I can't wait for that," Jack trills, as if the threat of Flora being able to unpick his life's work has only just occurred to him. It hasn't, of course, it's just that it feels sort of foamy and far away right now. Glancing up instinctively as her thoughts fizz back into his own like a radio suddenly tuned to the correct station (and the Doubletake will probably recognise the gesture, in truth, from any of their dozen other interactions over the years), he tilts his head at her questions.

"Mmn? No, it's not the vines. I mean, it is, but not the way you think." He shrugs. Speaking of loose lips. "When I first got this magic, I didn't know how to shut people out. An' Torchline, she's a pretty crowded place. Took a while to figure out how to block people's thoughts out, but the damage was done, I guess. Too much stress an' the walls all crumble down again for a while." He scrubs at his eyes.

"If we were on the Ark right now," he says, his voice low like it's a secret, "everyone'd prob'ly know about me. S'hard to tell the difference between what people think and what they say out loud, when it's like this." As Flora will well know, since it's how this whole thing had started. "Oh, and I s'pose I'm also poisoned. So that's not helpin'."

flora

"What's that supposed to mean?" Flora wonders, not having anticipated Jack just supplying the information without being prompted. "Oh." Immediately stiffening against the feeling of pity that tried to soften her frown into something warmer, the queen sunk down to her knees where she'd been earlier to get a better look at Jack.

"Well, just stop being stressed." She chuckles helpfully. "You survived, you'll be fine, and I'm probably not going to tell everyone about you." Grinning now—it might not be nice to kick a dog when it was down, but Jack was more than just a bit of a bastard—Flora fished into one of her pockets, pulling out her compass.

"Go back." Flora says gently, holding the compass out to him. "This will take you right to Haulani and you can pass out in the fountain."

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Stop bein' stressed." Now it's Jack's turn to laugh, the sound probably more genuine than anything she'd heard from him before now. "I'll add that to my mornin' mantra, shall I?" Raising his eyebrows and trying hard not to let his smile run away with itself, as Flora produces the compass he's as surprised as he is anything else. But of course, as she's rightly guessed already, he's more than a bit of a bastard.

His hand - cold, clammy, and trembling ever so slightly - clasps around her own, as well as the compass in it, and for a second it looks as though Jack is absolutely going to take it and run. But that second stretches out into two, then five, and then even a few more. Huffing a sigh, he lets Flora go again. "Or," he suggests, gesturing to the boat, "we get in this, and I use whatever magic I've got to get us back to the Ark. The crew will get us to Torchline, and there's fountain water in my cabin."

Narrowing his eyes out at the ship they likely both know he'd never leave, he does glance fleetingly back to Flora. "I'll need your help, though, once we get on deck."

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!

flora

Stop it, Flora thinks in the captain's direction, like he has any right to sound charming after what he'd just revealed to her. Either way, his laughter does have the Doubletake feeling a little lighter if only because he doesn't sound quite as close to death as he certainly looks.

Unsure what to make of his hand against hers—confusion that will be evident in both her thoughts and her expression—Flora sighs as Jack begins to argue. "It's just water once it leaves Torchline." She says, repeating what the captain had mentioned to her not long before. Either way, the queen was more than a little relieved that he wasn't just going to take her compass and go, even though she'd offered it, but then...well, Jack would have known that now wouldn't he?

"What, to make sure you only answer to things the crew says out loud?" It's jokingly said, but aside from helping him into his cabin and making sure he didn't swallow his own tongue, yes, that's probably exactly what he'd meant.

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"No," Jack says smugly, and whether or not he's cognizant of it, that sort of freedom in the days and weeks to come - the freedom to respond to Flora's thoughts, whether or not she wants to punch him in face each time he does it - is going to be more relieving than he can give credit. "An' I know. That's why I'm gonna hang out in my cabin with the lovely lock on the door until we're back in Torchline's borders. This ain't my first rodeo." AKA this isn't the first time he's had to navigate some casual madness in his day to day.

Groaning as he tries to get to his knees and nodding for Flora to hop in the boat, he scoffs out another laugh and shrugs. "Yeah, pretty much," he says. "Ideally don't let me speak to 'em at all. Play up the poison thing, just tell 'em I told you to haul ass back the way we came. You're Queen, they'll listen."

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!

flora

"I could always just stab you, really make a show of it." Flora suggests brightly, before helping the captain to his feet no matter his orders. If he was shaky on dry land she doubted he'd make it into the boat without capsizing. "That parcel we picked up had better be worth all of this." She mutters as she takes her seat opposite the captain. It probably wasn't; just some random bit of black market tat that either had been fenced or was in need of fencing.

"Great. I'll put you to bed, then take over the Ark. Maybe I'll have them fly us up to the Cordillera where my dads used to live. If I drop you off there, I don't have to worry about any of this." False, for so many reasons that it didn't take a mind reader to point out, but Flora nevertheless smiled at the thought.

"Look at me." Waiting for him to do so, Flora pointed her finger at him. "Don't you dare pass out until we're close enough for them to see us."

Or else.

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"You already did," Jack whines, surprisingly accepting of her help as he wobbles to his feet and then all but pours himself right into the boat. "Oh wait, no, that was me." Popping up and patting the seat opposite for Flora to join him and make herself comfy, he raises his eyebrows and folds his arms across his chest (yes, it's a bad idea, and his wrist screams at him for it instantly).

"She only flies at night," he informs her petulantly, as if that's the greatest flaw in her entire plan. As for her not having to worry about 'all of this', he rolls his eyes and waits for her to get in the boat before a veritable sandstorm whips up at their backs from the force of his air magic. "You have my word that I'll stay conscious," he drawls, simultaneously manipulating a wave up to meet them, starting to carry the boat into the water.

"Hey," he mutters, almost as an aside as they shift and move. "I won't feel this way in a few hours, so remember it now. Sorry I'm a bastard, especially about all this shit. Bein' like this is all I know."

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!