carry your baggage up my street

flora

All but colliding with the captain, Flora instinctively wraps her arms around him, trying to tug him into her momentum so as not to fall. Breathless she comes to a stop, the sudden drop in temperature sending a chill up her spine that went bone deep and had her wanting to tuck herself against Jack to try and get warm. Instead, fighting against the chattering of her teeth, the queen nods.

Wondering if flying was a new ability Jack had that he hadn't told her about—or if he meant to scamper up a tree the way he did with the masts on the ship—Flora shoves that problem out of her mind, instead turning away and recalling the daggers that she'd thrown once more. Her blades fly toward them as Jack's lightning slices away, and while only one of her haphazardly thrown daggers hits the spider, the lightning strikes true. The spider's legs all sever at once, falling in a twitching circle around a body that begins to sizzle and darken as Jack's lightning ricochets within it. The smell is like burning seafood and ozone, the combination of which has Flora's stomach-turning nearly as much as the twitching arachnid does.

"Gods, as if I needed another reason to hate Halo." The queen complains under her breath, the words a shoddy attempt to conceal the way her hands had begun to shake ever so slightly.

I'm stupid but I'm clever
I can make a shitshow look a whole lot like forever and ever

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

there exists a tipping point between gods and monsters

Despite the fact that he'd been the one to toss lightning at the spider, the result is such that even the captain, more than used to death and gore, is curling his lip at the results. "You had a list before?" he mutters, of her reasons to hate Halo, because if that was the case, Jack would very much like to know why they've come here to begin with. "If flyin' was an ability I'd learned, I'd have been usin' it long before now," he adds, spending a breath or two waiting to see if more spiders are going to come on the attack, before he slowly lets Flora go.

And yes, for the record, Jack will be climbing one of the trees like the rigging on his ship, and at least the captain isn't afraid of heights as he hoists himself up onto one of the lower boughs. "Keep watch here?" he asks, before pulling himself higher until he's able to get free of the treeline enough to orient themselves.

The good thing about The Ark flying is that she's very visible, and while they've gone a fair distance from their starting point, he can still see her to be able to navigate back in her direction. "Alright. Let's fuck off outta this forest," he calls down to Flora as he descends.

flora

"I mean, it started with it's cold and basically grew from there." Flora says with a mild shrug. It was also the place her mother had run away to when they'd vacated the Greatwood, so yeah, the queen certainly had a list.

"You really expect me to believe you don't have some aces up your sleeve, even now?" Flora wonders, daring to look playfully at Jack despite the situation they presently found themselves in. With thoughts of the spider forgotten momentarily but for the blue of Jack's eyes, the Doubletake snorts under her breath as she steps back. "Aye aye captain." She trills as if all of this was nothing more than a routine training exercise between the captain and a member of his crew.

In addition to the Ark Jack will also likely notice that while the Frost Giant has been bound up in crystal webbing, there is a distinct lack of spiders crowding its body.

Biting at the inside of her cheek and glancing around, Flora fits her third dagger back into its holster as she twirls the remaining two between her fingers if only to give her hands something to do to keep warm. With nothing to report, as Jack calls down, the Doubletake grins up at him, nodding.

I'm stupid but I'm clever
I can make a shitshow look a whole lot like forever and ever

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

there exists a tipping point between gods and monsters

"The cold would've been enough for me," Jack decides, and although they're in the Hollow Forest at Longheat (decidedly the warmest Halo is ever going to get) he's still not a fan. He's also not a fan of seeing the spiders' disappearance, Jack clambering back to the forest floor and pushing his hair back out of his face. "Those spiders are on the move again," he says, his voice quiet as if that might help matters somewhat. Whatever ace is up his sleeve, it likely isn't all that effective against arachnids.

Pointing in the direction they need to go to get back to his ship, Jack starts to lead the way, footsteps careful and ears keen for any sound of trees bearing the weight of eight-legged monsters. "Well," he mutters, "if you ever need to hate yourself for a bit, we can always come back here and get ourselves good and lost again." If it isn't obvious, that's the captain's way of saying he'd rather not visit here again any time soon.

flora

"What can I say? Curiosity and all that." The queen calls with a mild shrug. Parts of Halo certainly were beautiful (the inside of her mother's former spa, for instance), and given that it was Longheat, Flora had thought this as good a time as any to try and delve into the chillier portions of the region.

"You climb trees pretty well." Flora points out as Jack drops back to the ground, and though she knows it couldn't be farther from the truth, her mind briefly imagines a world where the captain had learned not from ships, but from actual trees. A world where his mother tended to his scrapes and bruises and his father told him not to climb too high. Realizing where her thoughts had strayed, the Doubletake shoots the captain an apologetic look before glancing in the direction he was pointing.

"Sounds like a date." She says under her breath, hating the idea that there might be more spiders scuttling toward them. Shivering as the feeling of thousands of tiny legs tickling across her skin became so real as to have Flora rubbing at her arms, she reaches out for Jack as if his realness might chase away the phantom itch.

I'm stupid but I'm clever
I can make a shitshow look a whole lot like forever and ever

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

there exists a tipping point between gods and monsters

"What's a tree but a mast waitin' to be made?" Jack quips back, peering up at the branches that spider out like so much rigging on his ship. The similarities are enough for his own thoughts to wander, though of course they're soon invaded by Flora's, and in response to her apologetic look he shoots her one of mild disgust; practically affection, given how he might have reacted once upon a time. "An' I wouldn't say a date, per say. Can you imagine tellin' Remi all the lovely places I take you?" Haunted, spider infested forest, void clogged jungle, boring beige town in King's End followed by their infamous brothel...

Smirking to himself already, his arm slips around Flora's waist almost automatically as he ferries them forward, wanting absolutely nothing to do with the Hollow Forest or its inhabitants on their way out of it. "I reckon that frost fox was in on it," he grumbles. "Wanted you to follow it so we could get attacked by spiders and giants." Okay, the giant hadn't been doing much of the attacking, it's true, but fuuuuuck.

flora

"Okay philosopher." Flora trills, rolling her eyes at him before his gaze has her quietly clearing her throat. She's apologetic to a point, because it isn't her fault that Jack can't keep himself out of her thoughts and as much as he loves the things her imagination can do, neither of them can pick and choose where her mind will wander at any given moment.

"First of all, I took you, and second...he and Ronin lived in the Cordillera. There's basically no where more dangerous than that, and the pair of them use it now as a vacation house." Now it's Flora's turn to look mildly disgusted, if only because mention of her her parents has her wanting to do everything in her power to try and salt the wound in their minds that was she and Jack, all the more. "But fine, if you prefer I can just tell them that we only ever stay on your ship where it's nice and safe. In your bed, specifically." With a feline grin Flora tucks herself against Jack's side, and the fact that it doesn't send immediately affection roaring through her bones only goes to show how commonplace that particular gesture has become.

"You think?" Fitting her blades back into place, the queen glances over her shoulder as if she might see said fox giving them the finger. "That's pretty clever, if it's true." No doubt a fox was a better lure than a spider, but if they all worked together, no doubt they'd eat better than on their own.

I'm stupid but I'm clever
I can make a shitshow look a whole lot like forever and ever

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

there exists a tipping point between gods and monsters

"Ah, but remember, Flora - you're their little girl and you only deserve the best." Which, y'know, admirable for any father to consider, but when it's paired with constantly barraging Jack with thoughts about his own inadequacy, y'know... keep it to yourself. "It'd have been different if they were the ones out here with you. Or whatever prince charmin' they approved of."

It must be a commonplace gesture these days, not just because of how quiet Flora's mind is compared to how it used to be, but because they manage to navigate the uneven ground of the forest without any difficulty, despite how the Doubletake is glued to his side. "Listen, once we get back to the ship that part won't even be a lie," he adds, because fuck this place.

"Well, with that giant they should be eatin' good enough to leave us out of it," he reasons, picking up his pace for good measure until the trees do start to thin out, Jack letting out a sigh of relief at the vague shape of The Ark that appears in the distance.

flora

"Well, when it's convenient anyway." Flora titters back, the architecture of her thoughts growing hard and dense like columns of immutable obsidian. Neither of them had wanted the best for her when she'd been born, when she was growing up; when Enzo had died, they'd only wanted her to get over it. Now, though, when it was easy to cast stones from the porch of their stupid fucking Houseboat, they were all too keen to play the doting father card.

Said Prince Charming, they both knew, was Koa, and while Flora didn't regret her choice one bit, the way everything had happened between she and the dragoon had an unhappy squall in her mind threatening to pour tears from her eyes at the mention of him. "Yeah but...they aren't." Glancing up at him, Flora leans her cheek against his shoulder. "You are." Whatever they all had to say about it, Jack had been the one to be there for her. He'd seen her after Enzo, after Asta, after she'd (they'd) nearly died on the beach, and a thousand other times before.

Snorting under her breath but certainly not arguing, Flora stretches out one of her hands and waggles it if only to draw attention to a new ring on her finger. "I wanted to see if you'd even be able to notice it." She murmurs, of the very minor telepathic shielding she was now capable of producing. "I'll try and keep working at it, but...Vesper came into the Tavern the other night, so it isn't exactly like I'll be able to avoid him indefinitely until this is stronger enough to keep him out." Aka if there really was anything in her mind that Jack's son shouldn't know, they should probably figure something out.

I'm stupid but I'm clever
I can make a shitshow look a whole lot like forever and ever

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

there exists a tipping point between gods and monsters

"Don't feel too bad for him - he's prob'ly makin' a thousand mistakes as we speak in the name of gettin' over you," Jack drawls. No, he hasn't ever met Koa face to face, but he's met hundreds of hot blooded young men who think their dicks and their hearts are inexorably connected. Not getting what he wanted - or what part of him thought he had a right to - is liable to land him in hotter water now than ever.

But that wasn't the point Flora was making, and Jack lifts a shoulder in a shrug that's just a bit too casual at the confirmation that, yes, he's the one who's been there, now and in the past. Glancing down from the thinning expanse of trees to see her ring, only as she begins to think properly about it does Jack become informed. "I was a little busy," he drawls in his defence - foxes and giants and spiders, oh my - but now that she's drawn his attention, the captain reaches out to grab her hand, examining the new addition.

"Mm, maybe you should get some practice with me," he considers. "And I should meet with him again, find out what he really wants from Torchline." Then he might have an idea about what kind of things he shouldn't know.

flora

Wincing at that, the idea of Koa out making bad choices making her feel guilt and jealousy in unequal measures, has Flora sighing under her breath. It wouldn't make a difference or help anyone to point out that she was upset largely because of how much she had cared about the dragoon. How close to falling in love with him she'd been for seasons—maybe even years—teetering on the brink with something always in the way. In the end, what derailed things completely was Jack, and much as she sometimes wished it would, her love for the captain hadn't just eclipsed what had happened with Koa. Not when the dragoon was the first man to ever fall in love with her and tell her.

"Uh huh." Smirking at him, Flora's hand relaxes in his. She'd opted for a ring to go on her pinky finger as she assumed the captain would never need to borrow it. "Yeah?" Considering, she shrugs. "I wonder if it'd let me block out really small things from you. Or, like, when I'm 39ft away if I could go really quiet."

I'm stupid but I'm clever
I can make a shitshow look a whole lot like forever and ever

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

there exists a tipping point between gods and monsters

"Sounds like there's more trainin' to come in our future," Jack says in response to her ideas about the telepathy blocking ring. He doesn't respond to those Koa thoughts on purpose, though Flora likely already realises that much. The captain can be the jealous sort, of that there is no doubt, and he isn't sure how much envy to feel over the things the Doubletake thinks when he might always hop up towards Stormbreak to find out for himself.

"For now, though, let's call it a day with those spiders, yeah?" As they approach The Ark, the crew are already tossing down a rope ladder for them to begin to climb their way back up to the deck, and Jack steps aside to gesture for Flora to go first. And no, it isn't chivalrous at all, not when he gets to stare at the Doubletake's ass the whole time.

flora

The pair hadn't ever spoken of Flora's breakup with Koa, and though for a while she thought it was because she didn't want to, it had become more and more clear that Jack probably didn't want to either. If it upset her at all the Doubletake didn't let on, but that was only because she didn't know, not because she'd found some secret way of keeping her thoughts about it from Jack. "Deal." She agrees, of doing more training. They'd already agreed to spar a bit more regularly to try and improve their speed and accuracy. Why not add in a bit of mental pushing and shoving while they were at it?

"eeeeegh.." Shivering, the feeling of tiny legs crawling up her spine once again resurfacing, the queen grimaces. "If I wake up in the middle of the night thinking there are spiders in the bed, at least you'll know why." She grumbles before reaching for the rope ladder. Once upon a time, she'd found getting onto the Ark this way infinitely difficult, though whether it was because she was stronger or simply from practice, Flora scuttled her way up fast enough for Jack to only get a few eyefuls of her ass at best.

I'm stupid but I'm clever
I can make a shitshow look a whole lot like forever and ever

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

there exists a tipping point between gods and monsters

Listen, a few eyefuls are enough, and in fairness to Jack, he can ogle her ass whenever he likes, so it's not too great a loss that Flora has become adept at climbing onto the ship this way. Still, he's close behind, and they hop back onto the deck much to the relief of the crew (who had seen the trees rustling and heard the giant bellowing if not the action in any detail). "Just 'cause I know why doesn't mean I'll be any happier 'bout it," he mutters, brushing off his clothes and reaching out to assist in hauling the ladder back up.

"Well, that was dangerous and unnecessary," he says once they're ready to fly once more. "At least I can check this one off on my list of places I never wanna see again. Where to next?" He has a feeling it'll be more Halo, but y'know, whatever. As long as it's not this fucking forest.