[God Quest] help me get back to me

JACK

Jack had given it a couple of days before returning to the Crimson Cataract, allowing the world and his mind to settle (and his ears to stop ringing) after the fight with the banshee. But with the Ark now hovering dreamily overhead, the Captain swings down using a combination of rope, skill and magic before letting Murph steer the ship up into the sparse clouds again. He watches her until he can't see her any more, then turns to approach the shrine.

"Rae," he says quietly, cutting to the chase and opening the satchel slung over his shoulder. "Ain't sure I'm any wiser for it, but I've done what you asked." No wiser because you can bet he'd do all of this again if he needed to - yes, even bumping into Flora.

From the satchel he withdraws the shirt he'd been wearing the night he'd killed the soldier up in Halo, still a little bloodstained. Setting it down before the shrine, he adds the jar of memory mud collected only a short distance from here and, contained carefully in a bell jar and sustained by his own magic and willpower, a candle burning with the fire from Caido's Lighthouse.

"Weren't anythin' left of the banshee when she died. But this is where it happened, so..." So it's as good as he can do.

---

Jack has completed the quest he received in stop talking about the fucking sea

- Kill something sentient (PC is best, companion next, NPC last (must have 5 posts from Jack)) - a good night for bad choices - Killed Rhiannon

- Gather Memory Mud from the Greatwood - you're goin' off the deep end again - Met Vesper in the Greatwood and gathered memory mud.

- Kill a mirage crab or a banshee (initiate a KQ) - [KQ] chaotic stupid forever - Initiated a KQ to kill a banshee.

- Gather fire from the Everlasting Bonfire or fire from Caido's Lighthouse - I miss the misery - Ran into Flora at Caido's Lighthouse and gathered fire from it.

no more than I was or than I want to be
when you fall on me like night, I wanna kill the lights

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

dance beneath the stars as you drink in the night
let the thunder overtake you as lightning fills the sky.

Suddenly Rae is there. They look to the satchel, to what Jack has laid out, and then back to him.
"You chose the harder path," they say together. Not approval, not rebuke, but a statement only. One inclines their head a fraction; the other mirrors it. "The components are exceptional."

They move at once. What he has brought is gathered without comment, without ritual, without delay. For a moment, something takes shape in the air between them: a woman, tall and unmistakably formed, all sharp curves and vivid red hair, her presence brief and exact, as if never meant to linger. Then the image collapses inward, compressing cleanly into weight and solidity.

A heavy golden coin drops into being.

On one side, a ship in perfect profile; the Ark on stormy seas. On the other, the same curvaceous woman, pressed into metal.

"It is done," Rae says, voices aligned. They nod, and then they are gone, with no further instructions given. But then, where women are concerned, there rarely are.

---

Jack has completed his quest and received

Soul of the Ark (Upgraded) | A heavy golden coin with the Ark (ship) on one side and the Ark (soul) on the other. When heads (soul) is flipped, the Ark will appear as a woman and will remain until the Ark (ship) is flipped, at which point she will return incorporeally to the ship regardless of distance.

feel the force of nature penetrate your skin,
spin with the world as the magic sinks in.

JACK

Jack has barely straightened up from placing the last of his items when Rae appears, the Captain dragging up his mental shields on autopilot, little that it does to keep from being swept away in the branches of evolution and possibility that swarm his senses. But they speak and move without delay; practiced, logical, without emotion, and it's something he can appreciate as both an Abandoned and as a man. "Nothin' worth doin' is easy," he rumbles, mostly to himself and mostly without realising it, because as the components come together, he sees her, brief though it might be.

The vision Safrin had first injected into his mind, there again like the afterburn from staring directly at the sun.

Feeling his breath freeze in his throat, his eyes flick down at the shimmer of gold that replaces her, an eyebrow arching as it's not a woman, but a coin that lands in the soft grass. "I--" he begins, but the twins have already departed. No time for what's this or what's next or even thank you. It's just the Captain, the coin, and the soft hush of the Crimson Cataract nearby.

"A'right then," he mutters, kneeling to collect the coin and feeling the power thrum in it as it sits in his palm. Then, his fingers brushing across the tattoo on his wrist, Jack is gone as well.

~FIN

no more than I was or than I want to be
when you fall on me like night, I wanna kill the lights

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!