[se] disclosure

flora

"Wow." Caught between wanting to roll her eyes and laugh, Flora instead just shakes her head, awed at just how out of it the most cutthroat man she'd ever met, was.

"Okay, well, we'll sail around a bit first." Flora argues before sipping in a breath and wondering if, given Sunjata knew about Jack, this wouldn't be a good time to call in the Flood to help get them to the Ark faster. Were it not for Jack's promise and the fact that Sunjata's appearance would likely create more problems, Flora nibbled on the inside of her cheek and did her best not to distract Jack with the constant flurry of her what-ifs.

"Mmm?" It's like the scene in the Office where Pam says goodbye to concussion Dwight His apology is somehow the most startling thing of all, and later, gods if there is a later and they don't drown on the way to the Ark, she'll think about his words endlessly. In the moment, Flora can only smile uncomfortably as she gives her head a little shake. "Well, we can talk about it in a few hours, then." She murmured, hating the way it felt like he was just going to Dr Jeckyl about it and not remember a thing.

For a while it didn't look like the Ark was getting any closer at all, until it was. Squinting, Flora could just make out the screw scurrying around and readying themselves for the captain's arrival. "At the risk of having this sounds the way you're going to think, we're close. Just a little longer."

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

Not having to say anything now that Flora is well aware of just how distracting her flurry of what-ifs really is, Jack instead watches her, deadpan, with his hands still outstretched to manipulate the waves and air as he waits for her to be done. Once she's become cognizant of what she's doing, he gives her a grateful nod and proceeds to propel them across the waves and back to his waiting ship. "Sunjata doesn't get to set foot on her," he mutters petulantly nonetheless, if only to himself.

"Aha, good luck with that," he adds, about talking to him about it in a few hours. He'll absolutely remember (that's the pRoBLeM), it's just that Flora might actually have to pin him down somewhere to make him chat to her.

For the most part, the captain and his dwindling supply of energy and magic is a good sport about their journey, though to say he looks worse for wear by the time Flora speaks again is an understatement. "You'll need to tie the ropes," he mutters, nodding to where the crew will throw them down to be able to draw the boat up again. "I'll show you how."

Or he'll try to, anyway; by the time they're close enough to receive said ropes, the rowboat is all but bobbing around on its own without direction, and Jack's fingers are numb as he catches hold of one. "Like this," he mumbles, demonstrating a knot that takes him a few tries to get right, but isn't actually all that difficult. "Ready, captain?" He smirks.

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

"Oh I see." Flora chuckles, finding her association with Sunajta all the more amusing now that she had more insight into Jack and Sunjata's history.

Raising an eyebrow in silent acceptance of the challenge, Flora smirks to herself. She wouldn't have to pin him down AcTuALlY, she'd just have to think very loud thoughts in his vicinity until she slowly drove him crazy. Easy peasy.

"Yeah, I see." If Flora had been meaning to make some quip or other, it dies before it can even form into a thought as she realizes the magnitude of what they're about to do. Really, it should all go pretty smoothly, but if it didn't, this was one house of cards Flora didn't want to accidentally knock over. If she was ever going to give up Jack's secret, it was going to be because she intended to.

"You shut your mouth." The queen demands, grinning. "Haul us up, lads!" Flora calls brightly waving to the crew who are peering over the side and watching with someone skeptical expressions as to why Flora is the one doing the tethering. They heave ho, and no doubt Jack will hear them wondering why the captain isn't using his magic to assist.

Not a word, Flora reminds the captain as she reaches out an expectant hand for someone to help her onboard before glancing over her shoulder at Jack. "Oh, that? I accidentally stabbed him with one of my poisoned feathers." She explains with the sort of girlish shrug of her shoulders that she fully expects them to believe. "I'm going to take him to has cabin to make up for it." Flora adds in a stage whisper to anyone willing to listen.

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Joke's on you, aCtUaLLy, 'cause I'll be able to block you out again then," Jack trills at her, only to fall quite abruptly silent as the crew begin to haul them up to the deck of the Ark. The reason, of course, is likely quite obvious to Flora by this stage of the game given what she's just found out about the good captain. There are a lot more people up here, and without any kind of filter, it's loud. He hears a lot more than their confusion and their suspicion, such that it's with a visible grimace that he slouches aboard his ship.

For their part, a lot of the seasoned members of the crew are privy to Jack's migraines if nothing else, such that as long as he's not actively balking against Flora's suggestions, they're in no way about to object to her course of action. "Y'want us to stay put here, or...?" one of them asks, and where it not for Flora's voice (mental or otherwise, he's not sure) ringing in his head like a bell, Jack might have responded.

Instead he leaves that to the Doubletake, wincing against sunshine that seems altogether too bright all of a sudden and making a beeline for his cabin.

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

Yeah well, I'll get an item that broadcasts my thoughts into your mind no matter where I am, how about that? The queen counters, if only to give Jack something to think about as they're pulled up.

"Nah, let's get the fuck back to Torchline. The jungle's crawling with void stuff and we got what we came here for." Flora says easily; being a captain is basically like being a queen after all.

Watching Jack begin to shuffle off, Flora plasters on a coquettish look as she slinks after him. "Someone's keen to play doctor." She purrs, before glancing over her shoulder warningly. "I take it I don't need to put a sock on the door to keep ya'll out...?" Waggling her eyebrows, Flora continued on down the hall, immediately letting the smile fall from her face the second she was out of eyesight of the crew. Only once they were safely inside the captain's cabin did the queen let herself exhale all she'd been holding in.

"Well, that was easy."

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

Being a captain is basically like being a queen, and that fact alone is enough for the crew to grunt their acceptance and scurry off to get to work. By the time Jack reaches his cabin he can already hear - in excruciating detail, he might add - the calls to haul up the anchor and to get the sails unfurled. Flora follows him inside, then, and it's with a fumbling of the lock on the door that the captain is able to at least physically shut people out if nothing else.

"Speak for yourself," Jack mutters of it being easy; with a clenched jaw he shuffles to sink down onto his bunk, elbows on his knees and fingers buried in his hair as if he might claw every voice on the Ark from his skull. (All of those within radius, anyway, and it's enough). "You'd think with how much magic I've used, I'd be too tired for this shit," he adds under his breath. Gone is the pleasantly out of it man from the Oerwoud's shores, and with the injuries from the jungle to show for it, not to mention a lovely bit of poison coursing through his veins, the captain has had enough for one day.

"You don't mind if I OD on Dreamdust in front of you, do you?" he asks.

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

"By all means." Flora said with an indifferent shrug. Undoubtedly Jack had worse habits than a noseful of dreamdust, and given she'd got the distinct impression this was far from the first time the captain had experienced an episode like this, it probably wouldn't kill him. Then again, there was the poison to take into account, so maybe she really would have to watch to make sure he didn't swallow his tongue.

Shrugging out of her jacket and tossing it on the back of Jack's desk chair, Flora glanced casually around the room. She'd never taken a close enough look at anything to be able to say definitely if anything much had changed, but it certainly didn't seem so.

"What do you want me to do if you're not better by the time we get back to Torchline?" Trying to keep her thoughts to a minimum in terms of worrying, that question at least seemed worth asking.

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Appreciated," the captain drawls, and though he's hardly steady on his feet, at least his fingers know where to go and what to do when it comes to rifling through his desk for drugs. And it's true that whilst Dreamdust as they all know it is usually powder, what Jack withdraws is more like a vial and a dropper, though he absolutely discards the latter to knock back the refined Dreamdust in one. Like she said, it probably won't kill him. And if it does, it does.

"Jus' don't touch the globe or the maps," he mutters, clearly in response to Flora's thoughts about the abundance of everything in his cabin. With enough clutter and glittering trinkets to put Howl's room to shame, things very well might have changed since her last visit. Jack's in no position to tell her.

Kicking off his boots with a small amount of effort, the captain is already slouching back into his bed with his broken wrist cradled close to his chest. "If I'm not better, there's fountain water in the top drawer. Make me drink it. Take the knife outta my boot an' the letter opener off the desk. Check there's nothin' else sharp leftover, or I'll try'n use it. Lock the door when you leave." The instructions are tragically practiced, not that Jack has ever had to give them to anyone else before. "If you don't hear from me within a day, I'm prob'ly dead."

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

"Or what?" Flora retorts, though it's more in an effort to break some of the tension she feels that in all honesty is probably one sided, what with Jack's head being what it was.

Watching the captain collapse into bed in a way that made him seem almost childlike, the Doubletake swallowed before glancing toward the desk and then back again. "I'm not just going to leave you." Flora protested softly before even realizing what she was saying. What, was she just going to sit on his floor for a day? She couldn't bring him to a healer, couldn't move him. Couldn't do anything. Her pining away at his bed side certainly wasn't going to help, nor was it the sort of thing Jack would want.

"Shut up, you're going to be fine." Selfishly needing it to be true more for her sake than his—she needed some closure about all of this and he wasn't allowed to die until she got it—Flora folded her arms across her chest before rolling her eyes at herself and going to his bed. She'd fucked the captain in this very room, there was no need to go being all awkward in his presence now. Reaching for the blanket and tugging it around him before gently tucking him in, the girl straightened. "Is there anything else I can do?" Hair pets, or silent book reading to fill his thoughts?

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Or I'll be sad," Jack mutters, and there'd be the ghost of a smile on his face if he were remotely capable of it. Granted, Flora is absolutely right, and he's utterly at her mercy in the present moment. (As are the contents of his room, as she's just pointed out). "Oh, you're not?" Sounding genuinely surprised, given what Flora has discovered about him in the past few hours, the captain can't help but scoff. "That's nice of you."

Already his voice has grown softer under the effect of the Dreamdust, and he blinks at her somewhat curiously as she approaches the bed, only to tuck him in. "No healers." It's a weak protest, but clearly one that feels important enough for him to voice. "Not magical ones." It goes without saying that someone with healing magic might be able to figure out the sort of skills he possesses if they go digging around enough.

"I don't feel fine," he admits, pressing his eyes shut as the world starts to swim before him, though in reality it's just the steady rock and sway of the Ark as she gets underway. "Just... tell the guy listenin' outside the door that you know he's there."

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

"They'd all think I killed you." Flora counters, sounding almost defensive. Maybe Jack didn't deserve nice, and though she did feel like a complete fucking fool, knowing what she did now, what else could she possibly have expected? For Jack to have come clean to her earlier? And why would he do that? Because he'd been so swept away by her character? By her potential? Hardly. If anything she was just mad that she knew about it, because it made being around him feel more than just intimate. It felt unsafe, leaving her feeling on edge.

"No, I know. Just waterboarding with fountain water." She confirmed with crooked smile. As for someone outside the door? "Oh, and how would I do that without giving you up, huh?" Rolling her eyes, Flora briefly considered flinging herself against the door and moaning loudly, but it occurred to her that might just encourage him to stay.

Instead, she cleared her throat before leaning toward the seam of the door. "You want what cleaned? Alright, I'll get the first person I see to do it. Be right back."

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Maybe you will have," Jack points out. It's the least he'd deserve given his bloody history, not to mention his continued manipulation of the Doubletake. (Arguably even now he could be said to be manipulating her, though he's not purposely pulling her heartstrings - he's just pretty pathetic right now). "Why'd you feel unsafe?" he wants to know, only to groan at both the realisation of exactly why that might be, and also because a bunch of the crew, unbeknownst to Flora, have started singing sea shanties right above them.

Still, for all of that, he does admire her ingenuity, and he scoffs out a laugh as the man's presence promptly fades away from the door. "Nicely done," he mumbles, wishing he didn't have a broken fucking wrist and could get more comfortable in the bunk and covering his eyes with the back of his good arm. "Know any good stories?" he wonders, as if he's just asking her to pass the time.

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

Raising an eyebrow and trying not to hold the captain's question against him, Flora sighed and glanced around the room as if she might be able to just point to something within to explain it better than she felt capable of doing herself. "Because it feels like I don't have room, to like, think. Not when you're there, listening in to my first thoughts about everything." The Doubletake begins, sighing. "I know it might seem like I don't think before I speak, but I do actually go through a few revisions before I open my mouth." Only with Jack right there as things were being formed, it didn't feel like Flora had a safe place to think and rethink about things. "It's one thing for you to pick up on all the embarrassing things, but it's another when you're just there while I work it all out."

Jack had access to thoughts Flora wouldn't even claim as her own, whether she liked it or not.

Taking the comment to mean the man had indeed left, Flora offered the captain a mock bow. Unable to help the way her gaze took advantage of the fact that his eyes were closed—shut up—the queen forced her gaze toward Jack's deck as she nodded. "Of course I do. I was basically raised by a witch who came from another world and grew up in a magical forest." Thanks to Vai, yeah, Flora had stories.

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

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Oh," Jack mumbles, clearly not ever having heard this side of things before, even from those who had shared his secret for whatever misplaced length of time it had been. (Sorry, Eloise). "It's not..." Frowning behind the darkness afforded by the arm pressed over his eyes, it's clearly not an easy thing for the captain to explain, though his current state at least means he's liable to try. "You give me too much credit," he settles on eventually, huffing out a long sigh.

"Unless I'm tryin' to work out someone's intentions, which is usually only in business, I'm not payin' close attention to your... er... thought arithmetic?" Mental working out? Whatever. "It's just a low buzz. Comes and goes, dependin' on what I want to let in. Not like right now." Where everything is at high volume all at once, he means. But you know, trying to explain the intricacies of his magic - which go far, far beyond I read ur thoughts babe - is a good distraction, even before Flora speaks again.

Barking out a laugh and resisting the urge to call the Doubletake a liar if only because he knows she's speaking the truth, Jack's arm drops from his face and he pats the space beside him on the bunk. "Do tell," he drawls.

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!