cloud 9 is always out of reach

ELOISE

Eloise had gotten used to the ice of Jack's stares, but every now and then he offered her one of molten-steel that made her blood run cold. She could still smell his breath and feel the closeness of him when he'd nearly killed her on the beach, sporting a look eerily similar. His words silenced her in another way: Eloise knew she was pretty on the outside. She'd built a safety net based solely on that. But on the inside? Well, she'd never been that before.

"Today?" Eloise snipped back, her fingers subtly adjusting the sides of the ledgers so that they were even. Allowing herself to look appropriately surprised and bemused, the illusionist just smirked. "Maybe you are smarter than you look, Jack." She said, shaking her head slightly. Indeed, she had just thought his writing was shit; it had never occurred to her it might be a code.

The end of every day. Just another reason for the pair to be together and for their web of lives to seem all the more innocuous. "So while the Ark is gone and we're all at sea. Who manages all of your interests here?"

but hungry dogs are never loyal

Coding base by Sky!

it's not your fault that you're always wrong

Jack resisted the urge to roll his eyes and point out that he was talking about beauty in general and not Eloise, but he thought better of it. Getting personal about himself even in a small way had filled him with discomfort, like a lead ball sitting low in his stomach, and he seized onto the next strings of their conversation with relief. "Aye, today. This is a step up on your usual shit - you must be gettin' comfortable," he remarked, not needing to glance back at the ledgers she held to know that they were in good hands. He'd never have given them to her if they weren't, after all.

"How kind of you to say. Almost like I've been doin' this my entire fuckin' life," he snipped back, an exaggerated look of surprise on his face to accompany the drawl of sarcasm. Kicking a heel back against the bench they were seated on, she raised a decent question. "It's a bad idea to let one person manage it," he said. "If a volcano erupts and they die along with it, my interests would be in a really shit state, wouldn't they?" The captain gazed back at the bustle of the port behind them.

"I've a few people worth knowin'. One of 'em you've met already - Raza. The others you'll run into, don't worry about that."

ELOISE

Eloise laughed at that, imagining a diapered-Jack running about as a toddler, barking orders, holding other children for ransom, all with a flask of rum tucked in the back of his diaper.

It wasn't that Jack's explanation was a poor one, only that it was tiresome constantly being told to hurry up and wait. Know all these things Eloise. Don't worry about things Eloise. Biting her tongue—he'd hear her thoughts anyways—Eloise just nodded.

Leaning against the bench, she listened to what Jack had to say, added her own sarcastic jabs when she felt it safe enough to do so, and continued to give off the impression that she was nothing more than one of Jack's fuck-buddies, here to hold his precious books.

~FIN

but hungry dogs are never loyal

Coding base by Sky!