carry your baggage up my street

flora

"Shhhhhhhh!" Shooting a wide-eyed stare over her shoulder at Jack, Flora shrinks down behind a tree. At an age where none of her joints pop or crackle when she moves, the queen is nearly silent as she peers out, her blue-green eyes narrowed between the jutting black tree trunks. I'm sure I saw something. She thinks, her breath held.

Dressed in a sweater the colour of faded sage and a pair of brown leggings paired with tall tan boots, the Doubletake might have stepped out from some boutique magazine advertising outerwear for the trendy explorer; that her daggers were strapped to her hip in a leather holster legitimized the look somewhat

Whatever it was Flora thought she saw, the excited flurry of her thoughts suggested it was probably something cute rather than scary; a luxere perhaps, or maybe a lost unicorn. Either way, she was waving Jack over as if he might have some ability he'd been hiding from her all these years that let him coax cute fuzzy things out of hiding.

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

Having not spoken a word, Flora's frantic hushing of the captain is met by a gentle raise of his eyebrows and little more than that. (Though he'll be the first to admit that his bones do creak in this sort of climate - what can he say, Jack is a creature of the tropics). The Ark has been left skybound along the fringes of the forest, neither captain nor crew wanting to risk getting too deep into Halo's frosty midst before adequately protecting their ship from her blistering cold.

Not bothering to ask why they are here (mostly because he's sure the answer will be the same as he expects - because we've never been) instead Jack slips behind the tree alongside Flora, though he doesn't bother to hunker down. Dressed in a forest green sweater that girls of Flora's age would probably describe as chunky knit, it wouldn't be wrong to say that they match, but Jack wouldn't appreciate it either.

As for his abilities and whether he's been hiding some from her, that almost gets a smile out of him. Almost. Instead, utilising his oldest magic - air - to cause the branches of the trees to wave and thrash in a gale, he manages to disturb a few squirrels and, lo and behold, a frost fox. "You are so welcome," he drawls.

flora

Anticipation coils in Flora's stomach like some easily-excitable garden variety snake, ready to strike despite not having any teeth. For all her years in Torchline the only time the flora or fauna have been able to surprise the queen seemed to be when it was void-touched and trying to kill her. It'd been a good few years since she'd been delighted by the arrival of something unknown—probably not since she was a child in the Greatwood truthfully—but all that wonder and magic was still alive and well within her, no matter how deeply buried.

As the branches abruptly begin to sway, even Flora starts somewhat before her thoughts immediately grow pillow-soft and covered in spun-sugar to see the frost fox startled out of hiding. Gasping quietly to herself, the queen's chin abruptly juts over one shoulder as Jack's smug drawl hits the air. "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh," She admonishes him again, aqua eyes flashing before she turns back, her fingers grasping the dark trunk of the tree she hides behind.

When she'd been small walking with her nonna through the Greatwood, the witch almost always had some small scrap of food with which to entice the various animals they came across. With nothing like that on hand, the memory of Vai bled into another—of a familiar pair of foxes that'd always been around when she was growing up—and the sorts of things that might have caught their eye. Lifting one hand, Flora waggled her fingers within a beam of sunlight, hoping that the glisten of her golden rings might pique the frost fox's curiosity.

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

Flora's delight buzzes along his telepathy and has a smile curling at his lips even as she turns to (loudly, he might add) hush him a second time, Jack rolling his eyes and folding his arms across his chest to watch the consequences of his air magic play out. And honestly he's just pleased it's not something with enormous teeth or stained by the void, and though foxes aren't a common experience for the good captain, he manages to contain himself as it scampers through the undergrowth.

Originally planning to slip back into the hollow of one of the trees, the glimmer of something nearby has the frost fox turning about, nose twitching adorably at the sight of Flora's shimmering jewellery. Freezing as if expecting it to be a predator, when nothing hostile immediately happens, it begins to prowl closer. And closer still, snuffling and leaning out as though it might nuzzle her fingertips--

And then Jack sneezes, and it bolts.

flora

With her breath held, Jack would feel Flora's mind begin to shimmer as if having been redrawn by a bunch of Disney-animators who couldn't help by add sparkles and lens flares to every scene. Her every thought was softened and contoured to appear ridiculously cute, and the closer the fox came, the more overwhelmingly adorable it all became.

Jack's sneeze had them both jumping and as the fox scampered away, Flora was finally able to release the breath she'd been holding. Whirling around to face him, where the captain might have expected an accusation on Flora's lips—how dare he sneeze and so on—instead he'd find the Doubletake beaming up at him. "Did you see how close it came?" Breathlessly murmured, her nose the same chilly pink as her cheeks and lips, Flora lifted her fingers to her mouth and blew a puff of warm air against them as her thoughts grew sharp with a cuteness aggression brought on by the fox's bright blue eyes.

'Come on, I bet we can track it—' Vai had shown she and her brothers how, and though it had been years since she'd tried to follow trails, how hard could it be to follow one fox?

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

For Jack's part, the sneeze had been genuine too, though whether it's caused by the cold air or by the Disney palette of Flora's thoughts is still up for debate. Either way, he blinks back into focus as she turns around, glancing to the space where the fox had once been and nodding. "I think it appreciated your choice of rings," he agrees, burying his hands in his pockets and almost expecting that to be it for their adventure out in the Hollow Forest.

More fool Jack, of course, because no sooner is he about to suggest they go back when Flora is urging him onward, the captain's feet crunching steadily across the hard-packed ground as he gestures for her to lead the way. A tracker Jack is not, and given that they may as well be an eternity away (read: more than 40ft) from his ship and the people on it, the silence around them is absolute and only broken by the stream of Flora's consciousness.

"What're you expectin' to find?" he wonders. "A den? Fox kits?"

flora

Grinning if only because that meant 100% of all foxes she'd encountered had approved of her taste in jewellery, Flora smiled sunnily behind her fingers before balling them up inside of her sleeves. Gloves might have been a good idea, but given that the pair had only said they were going to go for a quick stroll, the Doubletake hadn't thought she'd need them. If only there was an elementalist nearby with the ability to heat things up.

Though her memories of Ianto and Fiadh were hazy, mostly clouded in warm amber and accompanied by the scent of tobacco, the sight of the fox's blue eyes sent Flora's mind reeling back to when she was a child, trying her best to keep up with Fiadh as her sticky fingers and hair-brained ideas led them all over the Greatwood. No doubt this fox wasn't housing a musical-tongued lesbian, but then again, what if it was?

Trundling happily forward, her blue-green eyes peeled on the ground in front of them as if paw prints might suddenly appear Blue's Clues style, Flora's shrug is one of utter nonchalance. "Dunno." Bouncing her eyebrows playfully at the captain over her shoulder, the queen shrugs again. "You can go back if you want." She adds tauntingly before the groan of a tree fifty or so feet ahead has her rolling her eyes. "Okay, you can stop with the air now, I think the fox is clever enough to have figured it 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

"A what?" Barking out a laugh at that, clearly Jack has not expected to hear the words musical-tongued lesbian today, whether it be from Flora's thoughts or out of her mouth, and colour him intrigued, but it's enough to have him picking up his pace that he might walk beside the Doubletake again. 

"You never told me the Greatwood was full of such interesting characters," he drawls. For the most part Flora feeds him the misty atmosphere, the rain on the canopy and the chirp and rustle of wildlife. People don't tend to form part of it.

Raising his eyebrows as she continues only to fall to a halt completely, one of Jack's hands slips from his pocket to snap out and grab at the queen's wrist. "My magic doesn't have that far a range," he mutters. "I can't sense anyone else out here - not yet, anyway. And I doubt the fox could have made a tree make a noise like that."

flora

"A what what?" Blinking, having not even realized the character traits the captain had pulled from her mind, the mention of the Greatwood and its characters has her rolling her eyes affectionately as she nods. "Ianto was like..my dad's lover or whatever from before." She explains as they walk. "He even weirdly lived with Remi and Ronin for a while? Or Remi lived with him?" Flora's face contorts into something squished and uncertain as she shakes her head. "Unsurprisingly, it was fucked up, whatever it was. Fiadh is Ianto's daughter. She's a lot like Mel from what I remember." Memories of the Greatwood's resident tugboat queen who knew everything there was to know about everything in existence filled Flora's thoughts, leaving a melancholic smile on her lips.

"Mmm?" Stumbling to a stop, Flora glances between the sound and Jack. Frowning, the implication coming to her far too slowly, the queen takes a small step back. "I thought that was you." She whispers before the sound of another tree groaning behind them has Flora flinching a step closer. "Maybe the foxes here grow really big?" No part of her believes that to be true, and though Flora hadn't remembered to bring her gloves, she had remembered her daggers.

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

Wanting to take several steps backward in the conversation, alas Flora has already moved on from lesbian tugboat queens to live in ex-boyfriends who also used to be foxes, the captain left blinking slowly at the Doubletake's heels. "No shit," he says of it being fucked up, Jack letting out a long sigh and laughing under his breath. He might have had a few follow up questions - ones that would undoubtedly make Flora cringe and ew and whatnot - were it not for the ominous noises in the forest around them.

"Not from 50ft away," he mutters of it being him, Jack's voice dropping to just above a whisper as he becomes hyper-aware of the world around them. Not bothering to dignify Flora's big foxes theory with a response, the fact that he can't hear any wildlife any more is his second indication that something is wrong. The subtle changes in airflow around them now - that's Jack this time, the captain trying to alter the currents to bend the wind and let them hear things a little easier. His telepathy is razor sharp, too, in case of any human threats that come into range.

flora

Flora would have been quite content to keep gossiping about Remi's personal life, all the more so given what an asshat he'd been as of late, were it not for the way the forest seemed to be closing in all around them.

"Okay well some of us can't just judge distances like that." Flora hisses in response as if she could simply argue the sound away. Though one might have expected the queen to melt against Jack, to bury her face in his sweater and let him deal with whatever was coming, instead she brandished a dagger in either hand and did her best to still her thoughts (for both of their sakes).

Tickling the boundaries of Jack's magic would come a sound probably unlike anything he'd heard. It wasn't human, not exactly, but if he was hearing it, it shared enough of a kinship for his magic to pick up the feral instincts that sloshed through a mind every bit as loathsome and dangerous as the forest they now stood in. Another tree groaned, followed by another and another, as if something had tugged at them in quick succession.

Not needing to explain the why of what she was about to do, Flora pulled off her signet ring and lobbed it as far as she could into the distance. When the jaguar appeared it was immediately seized upon by something that shimmered in the light; something with too many legs and eyes and teeth.

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

Jack won't have to speak for Flora to recognise that something is going on with him; stiffening at her side and growing pale at the strange half-sentience that slithers along his telepathy, his breath catches in his throat and he turns instinctively towards the presence. The signet ring and the jaguar are a good red herring - he doesn't know what has picked it off, but it's not the thing ripping up the trees, and Jack wastes little time before a veritable wall of ice erupts from the ground at their feet, as if to provide an extra barrier between them and whatever is coming.

"There's more here than just foxes," he whispers, nudging the Doubletake away from the wall as if to silently tell her to fucking run. "We'll circle back to The Ark as quick as we can," he tells her, already on the move in precisely the opposite direction to the thing in the forest. He doesn't go too quickly, though - call it a deathwish and Jack will call it caution, but he wants to keep that presence in range if only because then he'll know where it's coming from.

flora

"Wh—" For all the ways Flora isn't like her family, there are plenty of ways that she is, and this is about to be a prime example of one of them. "Don't you want to know what it is?" Turning, the queen isn't ignorant of the way tension pulls at the corners of Jack's lips or sharpens his gaze, nor has she ever mistaken him as the sort of put his neck on the line for no good reason. But come on; they'd faced worse than just a few loud sounds?

"Besides," Flora continues as if she'd been speaking out loud. "I need to go get my ring." Grinning mischievously up at him and bouncing her eyebrows, the queen rises onto her toes in an effort to press the chilled tip of her nose against his. "You stay here, and I'll sneak over invisibly. Once my ring stops being a jaguar whatever that thing is will lose interest."

Probably.

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

"No, I don't," Jack tells her simply, and the look on his face absolutely says as much. "It's big, violent, and human enough that my magic doesn't like it, but monster enough that I can't get a real read on it." Is that not enough for Flora to understand the down tools and run approach he's suggesting (and implementing, much to her reluctance)?

But of course she's gone and lobbed her ring into the forest, so of course they're going to have to go back for it, the captain groaning and continuing to raise ice in their wake as if to keep them blocked from view - or to at least give them more options to hide and sneak around. "Fine," he hisses, falling to a stop in a copse of trees that, with the addition of his ice magic, should be a decent enough hidey hole while Flora fucks off to be invisible.

"I'd say don't do anythin' I wouldn't, but I wouldn't be goin' back."