[se] just a pinch

candlewax & polaroids on the hardwood floor

Okay, well, so that was one of the most elegant things Flora thinks she's ever heard, and hearing it from Jack? Feeling her cheeks heat, the girl just hums a sound that strains towards cool agreement but likely sounds just as tongue-tied as she feels.

"A...feather?" The pretty blush turns a few shades darker now as Flora's lips begin to straighten. "You want a piece of my dad?" With Daddy Issues about as integral to who she was as her DNA, to say Flora was put on the defensive was an understatement. Folding her arms across her chest, she raises an eyebrow and her chin for good measure. "That's not true." She huffs, of the lack of visitors (except it was, since it was really only her twin, Melita and Hadama).

"Besides, if it's so handy to have a demigod feather in your pocket, no way that's an equal trade for some cupcakes. You gotta even the pot on your end." Flora says in a shockingly confident tone; feeling like someone was only being nice to you because they wanted something will certainly harden your spine if nothing else.

JACK

"Well, yeah," Jack says, rolling his shoulder in a shrug and not bothering to hide the smirk curling up one side of his lips. "Don't get the wrong idea, it ain't like I want to worship him or anythin'. I think I've only even thought about him a couple times..." When, exactly? You know when. Whether Flora does is another matter entirely. "Shit like that is just useful for trade, love." You know, that think she keeps telling him he's bad at.

She tries at cocksure and he's more than happy to meet her on that level (since it's his default setting), Jack straightening up and raising his eyebrows. "They aren't just cakes. They're... special," he reminds her, more than happy to throw her own words back at her as well. "Dead grandmas an' all that shit. That's worth a feather an' then some. Right?"

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when it ends and how it goes

candlewax & polaroids on the hardwood floor

"Ewwwwww." Flora groans. She didn't like thinking about her own Dad but to hear someone like Jack mention it? Gods, it made her water to shiver and maybe scrub off a layer of skin in the shower.

Tightening her arms across her chest (because it isn't like she can re-cross them to make her point), Flora's chin wavers back and forth as she draws herself up to her full height. "Yeah, except you didn't even try and it isn't like some cupcakes are going to bring her back from the dead, and-" Flora's teeth clamp down on the end of that particular train of thought and she finds herself spinning away from Jack so that he won't see the way she's biting down on her tongue to keep herself from crying.

Unable to tell if this was her fault for having brought it up or if Jack was being an asshole (both, the answer was both), all she can really do is swipe beneath her eyes and exhale sharply. 'Whatever.' She says at last, sounding childish, because...well, she was.

JACK

"Why would I try? She wasn't my nan," Jack points out petulantly, his brows furrowed as she turns away and he tries to mentally brush off the sting of her grief (it's the subconscious equivalent of looking at someone who has just walked through a big cobweb). Her whatever is all the confirmation he needs, at least, Jack spreading his hands and smiling a touch victoriously. "There you go. Favours for favours," he says, turning to open the oven and wrestle out a tray of perfectly golden cupcakes.

They might not taste anything like Vai's recipe given that a lot of the ingredients have been subbed in, but at least they've cooked right. "Next time I'd probably start simpler. Maybe you can make ice cubes," he suggests.

believer... believe it or not you'll know
when it ends and how it goes

candlewax & polaroids on the hardwood floor

"Makes them not as valuable, duh." Flora mutters as she stares at a corner of her ceiling, silently saying all sorts of self-deprecating things to herself as if that will make the tears prickling behind her eyes go away.

Glancing over her shoulder at the cupcakes which don't look right but aren't burned either, Flora swallows and shrugs. "Okay well...I don't even know when I"ll see my Dad, so..." She runs her tongue across her teeth as annoyance and rage push away her grief. " He's probably spending time with his real family, so it could be a while." Flora adds as a warning, turning properly now and sniffing curiously at the cupcakes.

JACK

There's a saying Jack knows that goes something like give your head a wobble, used when someone desperately needs to get back to reality. And maybe he might have actually said this to Flora, but as she continues to berate and upset herself over being upset, he just... does it, instead. Waggling her blonde head and mussing her hair in the process, he steps back so she can man the cupcakes and he can go lurk at the window again.

"Just send him a message and say you're gettin' friendly with Sunjata and a bunch of Ascended," he says with a scoff. "I bet he'll come fuckin' runnin'." Or flying, as the case might be. "Ain't nothin' like a parent that doesn't want to be involved but doesn't want you to make decisions either, eh?" He'll fucking drink to that.

believer... believe it or not you'll know
when it ends and how it goes

candlewax & polaroids on the hardwood floor

The very instant Jack lays his hands on her, Flora immediately softens. It's a bit like when you put a blanket over a bird's cage, or that thing you can do with chickens when you put their beaks on a line in the sand and they just...stop. So unused to be touched by anyone save for her twin, Jacks' fingers might as well have had magic in them (and boy do they ever) for the effect they have on Flora.

"Ha...ha. Yeah." Flora hums to herself as her fingers comb through her hair where Jack's had mussed it up. It's the final bit of the Captain's speech that has the girl properly returning back to herself. Exhaling sharply and letting her arms flop to her sides, Flora laughs with nervous energy. "No kidding. I bet I could get you one of Ronin's feathers far easier than Remi's in all honesty." She murmurs, reaching for one of the cupcakes and blowing gently on it.

JACK

Trying to ignore that interesting unexpected reaction (he does have magic hands, and magic everything else, but that is besides the point here), Jack hops back up to sit on the sill, the light pouring in from behind him as he watches her approach the cupcakes is if they're feral animals. "A feather is a feather," he says with a roll of his shoulders. "It'll be just as valuable so long as it's from a demigod."

He can't say he's had the pleasure of dealing much with the Lullaby's ball and chain, but he imagines Safrin's favourite action figure will be just as sought after as any other rare artifact. "Well? It ain't gonna bite you," he says of the cupcake, watching her expectantly. "Or... well. It might. I did put some of the whiskey in there."

believer... believe it or not you'll know
when it ends and how it goes

candlewax & polaroids on the hardwood floor

"I mean, if a feather is just a feather why not just tell people you have them and got them from me?" Flora wonders with a shrug, unknowingly opening the door to all sorts of nefarious business deals that might be arranged if Jack could claim "authentic" demigod bits and bobs.

Glancing up at him, Jack looking strangely divine with light pouring in around him and a who the fuck cares? expression on his face, Flora blinks a few times before huffing. "You made it. I have every reason to believe that it might bite me. Or be spiked with something. Next thing I know I could be carried off to your ship, totally helpless." Cue the montage of billowing white curtains and crisp linen sheets in the room on the Ark that Flora's mind had ascribed to Jack.

"See." She trills defiantly as she pulls off a tiny bit from the top of one and pops it experimentally into her mouth. Chewing, her aqua eyes fixed on Jack, Flora drops the cupcake to the ground and instantly puts her hands to her throat, coughing and sputtering.

JACK

"Mm, why indeed? It's a good point, but it's always good to have a few of the genuine artifact, no? Just in case people get suspicious." Jack grins. "Besides, ain't the Huntsman's feathers... on fire, or some shit? Pretty hard to replicate that." Unless you have illusion magic, which regrettably Jack hasn't yet found an affinity towards. All in good time he supposes.

As for carrying her off helpless to his ship, the captain does grace her with a devilish raise of his eyebrows. "Who says I'd need to spike you to do that?" he wants to know. Ah, but now it's time for the Ah-I've-Been-Poisoned skit, Jack tilting his head and following the cupcake's path to the ground even as Flora dramatically chokes.

"I reckon you could dust that one off and someone'd still eat it," he says of the cupcake, before his gaze returns to her face. "So good it took your breath away, mm? You're welcome."

believer... believe it or not you'll know
when it ends and how it goes

candlewax & polaroids on the hardwood floor

"Yeah but there are these magical gloves or whatever that hold them." Flora says with a nonchalant shrug as if this was common knowledge. "But he's got dragon scales too which are probably easier to carry around." She adds.

Gods but she'd picked a poor time to try and pull a fast one on Jack, because it wasn't in the middle of a feigned coughing fit that she could try and be flirtatious. Or well, she was going to pop up and go gotcha! in his arms when he tried to heroically save her. She probably could have saved the moment then and picked up on the whole GoInG BaCk To ThE ARk thing, but noooo. Jack just couldn't play along.

"Or so bad it nearly killed me." Flora quips back after having made a miraculous recovery.

JACK

"Magical gloves that hold 'em," Jack repeats, as though he's never heard of something so ridiculous in his life. It is, of course, a perfectly reasonable item to possess, but he's not going to let Flora off that easily. "Mm, a'right, dragon scales it is. Though you can figure out how to scrape those off him," he says. He doesn't imagine the dragon in question will be all that keen, but it's her suggestion, so it's her funeral.

Yeah yeah yeah, he's a real buzzkill and all. "Well, good or bad, they're passable for that stupid thing happenin' in the swamp," he says - or rather, he decides. Mainly because he's not making more cupcakes - not even the hels want the burnt ones. "Maybe you'll see me there if I do feel like a bit of networkin'." Probably not, though.

believer... believe it or not you'll know
when it ends and how it goes

candlewax & polaroids on the hardwood floor

"Coming right up." Flora replies with perhaps surprising confidence, though maybe for someone who could read her thoughts it wouldn't be that surprising at all. Would Ronin flay off half an arm if she asked for that many scales? Probably he would.

"Maybe I will." Widening her eyes a touch at that for DRaMa, Flora bites at the inside of her lip before awkwardly glancing around the kitchen. With the cupcakes made and only a few posts to go before four pages, she wasn't quite sure what was supposed to happen now. Was this where they kissed? Was he going to go out through the window, or would he use the door this time?

"You really should, you know." The girl says, clearing her throat and doing her utmost to make it seem like she wasn't stalling. "Come, I mean." Wink.

JACK

The confidence at least is something that Jack can appreciate, because it might be many things but it absolutely isn't a lie. Not that he knows whether or not the Huntsman will flay off half an arm for her, but again, that's not really his problem. He hoists himself up to sit on the windowsill now that it looks as though his skills are no longer required (and she's not going to lob another charred cake at his head), the captain raising his eyebrows at her suggestion.

"Oh, I always do," he assures her with all the casual sleaze of a man who has frequented many a brothel in his time. "But we'll see about the Feverlands. I ain't much for bringin' shit to bake sales." Snorting, he swings his legs over the sill and hops back out of Flora's apartment, quick as you like it. "I'll see you about those dragon scales," he calls over his shoulder as he leaves. "Enjoy your dead grandma's cupcakes!"

believer... believe it or not you'll know
when it ends and how it goes