[o] Watch it all burn

Kaisel

Kaisel folds the note in his hands with a bitter finality. Probably for the best that he doesn't have to meet the captain of Flora's heartbreak, man's a complete jackoff. Still, he can't help but feel like it'll disappoint her. He said he'd handle it, but here he is alone on a beach with a box of Jack's shit. Maybe he should have been nicer in his note? Nah. Jack didn't deserve nice, fuck 'im. If he had the time to idle for ages in Torchline he could have just waited for the damn ship to dock and chucked it on board, maybe smeared some dogshit on it or something as an extra gift, but Kaisel does need to get back to Stormbreak sooner than later. 

"Promise is a promise," he mutters as he flicks the paper note into the nearby circle of stones he'd gathered. Within, the sand is dug out a bit to create a seat for the driftwood and strips of tree branches that line the inner folds of it as fuel ready to burn. It glistens, wet with oil he'd lugged along for the occasion, anticipating a firelit night out here one way or another. His hope had been s'mores, to enjoy the coastline starlight with, but now it'll be forgotten outwear.

Kaisel strikes a match and tosses it into the pit. Fire roars up, eager and willing to consume old and torn memories.

There's darkness in the distance
I'm beggin' for forgiveness
But I know I might resist it

Sohalia

A bonfire was not unusual on the coasts of Torchline, and when Sohalia first saw this one, it failed to catch her interest. She soared high above on feathered wing, taking advantage of the clear night to enjoy her snowy owl shift. She was due to return to the Greatwood any day now, and the anticipation was slowly killing her. Flying usually helped calm her mind, so here she was.

It was only when her keen eyes passed over the bonfire a second time that she took in the details: a fire containing some outerwear that she'd seen very recently, and a mop of dark hair that she recognized for the same reason. With a mental frown, Soh dove; pumping her wings as she neared the ground, she shifted, gracefully landing in the sand across the fire from Kaisel.

Running her hands through wind-tousled hair, she shot the young man a smile across the flames. "Hey, Kai." She looked pointedly at the clothing that burned between them. "I take it things didn't go well?"

these aching memories still dance around me

Kaisel

Owls are notoriously quiet when they fly. Kaisel doesn't hear Soh approach until she's nearly upon him, nothing more than a sudden dark shape swooping in low and close. "Shit!" Kaisel yells as he startles to the side, fists raised up near his head just in case. Sand sprays underfoot with his movement and threatens to force him down if he isn't careful trying to move so fast through it. Hey Kai.

"GODS—Soh!" He straightens up with a weak laugh and runs a hand through his hair, as if smoothing it might do the same to the quickening of his heart. "I thought—ah damn you are fucking sneaky Soh." He shakes his head and regains the ground he gave up, reaching down to toss one of the jackets in. The fire is resistant at first, then curls around the fabric with an excess of smoke and not the best odor. Kaisel wrinkles his nose at it. "Yeah, he said he doesn't meet with nobodies." The reminder rankles through Kaisel with a flare of anger he's ashamed is there. He doesn't want to let the shit steward get under his skin, but the arrogance of the response is ash in his throat all the same. "Why the fuck was she ever with him?" Why did she pick him over Koa?

There's darkness in the distance
I'm beggin' for forgiveness
But I know I might resist it

Sohalia

Owls are, in fact, almost silent when they fly - a fact that Sohalia conveniently forgot about until it was too late and Kaisel was already reacting to her sudden appearance. Perhaps she should have landed further away.

"Sorry!" Soh said, raising her hands in the universal gesture of I am not a threat. "I didn't think - I didn't mean to sneak up on you." She offered an apologetic smile, then watched as Kai selected a jacket to toss into the fire. It smothered the flames for a moment before the fire won out and began to eat away at the fabric, throwing off a smell that left Soh wrinkling her nose with distaste.

"Gods, he's such an ass," Soh muttered, almost to herself. She'd thought so ever since the first time she'd met Jack, and that was way before he and Flora started dating. She gazed into the fire, thinking for a long moment before she responded. She might not have liked Jack very much, but Flora had loved him, and she loved Flora. To speak against her best friend's actions felt... wrong.

Especially with Koa's cousin.

"I think... love doesn't always make sense," she said finally. There was a pause, and then: "And for the record, you're not a nobody. You're a really good friend to Flora, and that means you're a really good friend to me."

these aching memories still dance around me

Kaisel

He rolls his shoulder at her apology, his hand waving back and forth to suggest there's no need. He might have seen her coming if he hadn't been so in his head, or already wound up after reading the asshole's letter back to him. Gods, what a trip to Touchline this ended up being. So much for just popping in to check on an old friend real fast. He hadn't even packed anything for the visit. Now here he is, burning her ex's clothes and jumpier than a rat in a snake pit.

Kaisel snorts in agreement at Soh's easy encapsulation of the Ark's captain. He pokes at the fire with an unlit branch, moving the flaming jacket to the hotter core of the fire to ensure it burns fully. The firelight flickers against them, stark against the evening dark. "Yeah," he mutters, glancing over at Soh. "So it seems." He doesn't know. Hasn't been in love. He's dated here and there, nothing much past 2 weeks and stolen kisses, the one girl who had been his first after graduation... nothing that came close to love. The mess of Koa's attempts is enough of a tale though, one which oddly enough sweeps both Flora and Soh into it, joining them in an unusual way that Kaisel is certain he doesn't want to even bother digging into. He doesn't think any of them want to. Sometimes you just fucked up and had to accept that and move on. Thinking about the why didn't always do you better.

"Thanks," he smiles, reaching to toss a pair of shirts into the blaze. He already thinks he's good shit, but it's nice of her to say as much. Jack's already proven to be stupid, so it isn't the words he wrote that bother Kaisel so much, it's the insistence on making it all that much more difficult. It's a silent fuck you to Flora, spitting on her generosity to return his items, to prove even more how untouched he is by this loss. It's a dick move is what it is, and Kaisel doesn't much appreciate being involved with another man's dick maneuvering.

"I just want her to be with someone who's—better, yanno? She deserves better. Deserves someone who doesn't make her fight to be loved." Kaisel squats down next to the box and leans back into the sand. It's already cool from the lack of sun, and it's soft as it squishes out around him, creating a custom seat easily. He'll likely regret it later when he's finding sand in places days later, like Torchline's custom brand of herpes. "I'm glad she has a friend like you, Soh." he glances at her, smiling, before turning back to watch the fire. "The love of friends is important too, and usually less mysterious. Funny that we can't use the same rules when it comes to romance."

There's darkness in the distance
I'm beggin' for forgiveness
But I know I might resist it

Sohalia

‘A dick move’ was more or less a summary of Jack, as far as Soh was concerned; she was unsurprised to hear that he couldn’t deign to lower himself from the Ark to recover a few remaining belongings. The worst part of it was that Flora had been so in love with him, and yet the captain had clearly thought her so far beneath him. Soh couldn’t even begin to understand their relationship, but even though Flora was hurting now, the Luminary rather thought she’d dodged a bullet in the long run. There was better out there for Flora.

And if uneasy thoughts of Koa arose from that line of thought, Soh studiously ignored them.

”Yeah, she does,” Soh agreed easily, rounding the fire to plot down beside Kai in the sand. ”She deserves the best. Someone who understands her.” Someone who could be mad at her for putting herself in danger without leaving her, someone who could see past their own selfishness and understand that Flora would always put her people above her own wellbeing. After all, Soh had wanted to strangle the Doubletake for her daring plan, but at the end of the day, Flora was her best friend. She couldn’t imagine a life without Flora in it.

And, really, when she’d understood the details of the plan… Flora had done the best she could. Soh hoped that, were she in the Doubletake’s shoes, she’d have been brave enough to do the same thing.

Shaking herself from her dark and twisting thoughts, Soh smiled at Kaisel gratefully. ”Thanks, Kai,” she said. ”Flora’s… special, you know? She’s just - she’s always been there, no matter what. I never had that before. Not really.” Not even with Jude, when all was said and done. ”I hope I can be half the friend to her that she is to me.”

these aching memories still dance around me

Kaisel

The final belongings of Jack are tossed in to burn. May it be the last of him. "I guess that's what life is all about right? Looking for the right people." He exhales with an audible hum as he leans back on the sand, his arms crossing behind his head to cradle it. Smoke billows like a warning signal from the pit, thick and acrid. Kaisel traces the stars among the patches of clear sky, on the lookout for a falling on streaking across the midnight expanse so he might throw a wish to it. The sound of the fire licking up the wood and gnawing through salt-stained jackets fills the quiet while they sit and wonder about love.

"How have you been Soh?" Kaisel asks after a beat, eyes still trained on Safrin's domain. "I realized I never bothered to ask you after...everything." It's an apology, but mostly its conversation, since Kaisel knows they aren't so close as to be checking in on each other all the time. Koa had kept both his relationships rather hidden from the family, not going so far as to outright sit them down at a get together and proudly announce they were his girlfriend. In part, because when he would have done just that, they'd left him. But Flora had been around Stormbreak enough that Kaisel got to know her, and they had always gotten on well. Sohalia however, especially once she took up leadership of his home city, she was someone more distant to him. Maybe it was the soldier in him, but he couldn't quite ease around her rank and permit friendship in the same way.

There's darkness in the distance
I'm beggin' for forgiveness
But I know I might resist it

Sohalia

Soh was quiet for a moment, letting the rush of the nearby surf and the sound of the flames licking at the remnants of Jack's clothing drown out the sound of her own thoughts. She'd never spent all that much time with Koa's cousin, but now that things were what they were, and knowing that Kai was friends with Flora, too.. something made her hesitate to share too much.

Still, it was a kind question, and after a beat of silence, she sighed. "You know, I'm not really sure," she admitted. "I mean, one day I was the Heart of Stormbreak, and then the next day I was nothing, y'know?" She tucked her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. "I haven't been back to Stormbreak, but from what I hear, things haven't changed all that much since then. I guess it just makes me wonder, sometimes, if I did any good at all."

these aching memories still dance around me

Kaisel

It's easy to see how Koa fell for her. She's enchanting, in a beautiful, charming kind of way. She has a softness to her that pairs well with his cousin, though it hadn't been soft enough to handle his heart without bruising it. Kaisel exhales steadily. "That's some bullshit," he mutters in response to her, toes wiggling in the sand. "You're not nothing," he clarifies, a strength of conviction clear in his voice. He tilts his head back to glance at her from his position in the sand; she's sideways with a backdrop of stars, lovely and sad.

"You're still Sohalia the Luminary, to start. You're still my queen. You're still capable and fierce as fuck." His lips press into a thin line of disagreement, and he returns his gaze to the night sky, waiting for his opportunity to wish. "Bad shit happens," he drawls, "you get knocked down you stand back up, even if you need to grab someone's hand to do it." She can't wallow. He's put his hope in her, many of them have. She has to rise and rise again. He'll haul her up if need be. "The Family—they can't remain."

There's darkness in the distance
I'm beggin' for forgiveness
But I know I might resist it

Sohalia

Kaisel's rebuke took Sohalia by surprise, and she glanced at him with raised brows as he insisted that she was more than she gave herself credit for. With a sigh, she sank down into the sand, stretching her arms above her head as she joined him in gazing up at the night sky. It wasn't the first time someone had voiced such sentiments to her, but it was the first that it had come from someone who wasn't a dear friend. She liked Kai, but she didn't know him well - and nor did he know her. He had nothing to gain from lying to her, or boosting her nonexistent ego... which meant that he had to be sincere. And that was touching to the Luminary, who turned her head to regard him gratefully, even if it meant getting sand in her hair.

"Thanks, Kai," she said softly, then returned to stargazing. "That's... really sweet of you." She wasn't sure she'd ever been called fierce before, and she wondered what she'd done to deserve it. Still, he was right about one thing: the Family couldn't remain. "I keep trying to think of ways to fight back," she admitted softly. "One day, something will stick, and we'll win." She had to believe that, because the alternative was too depressing to even consider.

these aching memories still dance around me

Kaisel

As she shifts beside him, sand pushing away from her, the two of them sprawled on the beach with the stars above, he smiles. She could have walked away—many would have. Because his words had been an invitation to argue, a request for her to remain and stand tall, and if someone isn't ready to hear that, it can fold them all the faster. He glances in return to her, the cool beach pressing against his cheek, granules adhering like crumbs to his cheek and ear. They both return to the stars and he listens.

Suddenly he sees one—a shooting star streaking across the sky. "Look!" he shouts to her, leaning up partway and pointing towards the cosmic tail. "Quick! Make a wish!" He's alive with the excitement of it as he slams his eyes shut and scrunches up his face a bit, wishing real hard. He even holds his breath, and in that moment puts every bit of himself into the dream he tosses after the falling light. When he's done, he peeks one eye open first, then the next, and exhales steadily. The sky is clear again, the wishing moment come and gone like a blink. "Did you make it?" he asks her, but would never demand to know her wish. If you say it, it won't come true.

He grins, content. "Want some s'mores?" he asks as he shifts onto his knees and reaches for his pack on the sand near him.

There's darkness in the distance
I'm beggin' for forgiveness
But I know I might resist it

Sohalia

There was a comfortable silence for a while as they stared up at the stars, Soh feeling surprisingly buoyed by Kai's confidence in her. Then, suddenly, a shout - and a flash up above as a shooting star streaked across the sky. Soh closed her eyes, reaching deep for a wish, and exhaled slowly. When she opened her eyes, her wish made, the star was gone. "Yeah," she said softly, a little smile forming on her face. "You?"

Then Kai shifted onto his knees, reaching for a nearby pack. Soh turned her head to follow the movement. Although s'mores made from the embers of her best friend's ex's clothing didn't sound particularly appealing, Kai had been so kind and earnest that she couldn't help but grin in response to the offer. "S'mores sound great," she said, and the remainder of the evening was spent with pleasant company, marshmallows, and chocolate.

fin

these aching memories still dance around me