[OPEN] So what's on your mind?

[lahire]

Who: Jack La Hire and You
What: Settling into yet another new home
When: Early November
Warning(s): In headers as needed

1. There's a piece of me that knows his name [The Oak and Iron]
There is a new face in town. Perhaps you might recognize him from your time in the Black Stag Casino. Perhaps you just have an eye for newcomers. Either way, here he is, sitting at a table alone with a meal he's barely touched, watching everything going on around him with the haunted eyes of a prisoner.


2. Every once in a while, he'll show his face [Out and About Town]
It has been decades since Jack has been allowed outside. While he's not literally kissing the grass in gratitude, he is lying on his ground, under a tree, staring up at the branches blankly with not a moment's care for how dirty his clothes (his casino dealer uniform) might be getting. Or for the fact that it is starting to rain.


3. And when he does I'll have something to say [Aces Wildcard]
[Find me on Discord or PM to plot.]

Comments

[abhorrently]

"Not a soul. I've done this over and over since the rains started, and no one's come to tell me different."

It's not hard to find somewhere open nearby - the trees, the town, they give way into a space filled with grass and fresh air, where the rain falls down on the both of them openly, and Fever throws out her arms and tilts her head back. It feels nice - it feels free in a way she thinks she must have liked since childhood. She'll never know, but she can imagine. It stopped being chilly and started being fun.

[lahire]

Jack is not quite so melodramatic, instead just. Letting the rain soak into the all of him like a mossy rock.

"It is good, I think."

[abhorrently]

"It's fantastic. And if we're lucky, it'll pick up, and you'll get to experience thunder and lightning as well. Or I can call up some, but it's more about the whole natural experience."

Oh, she hopes it does. People worry too much about being out when lightning's around. It's beautiful, and this man deserves to see it. Speaking of.

"What's your name?"

[lahire]

"Jack La Hire." At least now. At least here. At least on paper. It's a lie. But it's one he'll stick to. It's also redundant, but who would get the joke?

"You can call lightning?"

[abhorrently]

"Not in the sense of great bolts from the sky. That's a trick I haven't learned yet. But on a smaller scale? With great pleasure."

Jack, then.

"I'm Fever."

[lahire]

"Fever. I will remember that."

He isn't going to insist it's nice to meet her. Nice is hard. He closes his eyes, and turns his face up to the rain, letting the wet drip down his beard.

And then he opens up his mouth and screams. Because he can. Because nothing is stopping him from doing so. Because he's been holding a scream in for-fucking-ever.

[abhorrently]

Well. That's startling, but after half a second, Fever nods. Might as well. And if there's two of them, it's less likely someone will come out worried and more just annoyed that someone's being loud outside.

A good, solid scream, mustering up everything that still cannot come out through tears and venting it out. Occasionally, it really is needed.

[lahire]

For Jack it lasts a Long Time, until he kinda just drops to his knees in the muddy grass and shudders, letting out a sob.

"I am sorry, Miss Fever."

[abhorrently]

"You've got nothing to apologize for, Jack."

She had ended before him, but had patiently waited for him to finish, letting the rain soak her hair, her skin. All of it, washed away into the earth. If he needs to cry as well...

Well. She won't deny a pinch of envy. But she's got nowhere to be, and he's clearly working through something. Several somethings. Maybe he didn't want to be there with Aster either.

[lahire]

"I do not know what else to say, instead." He's hugging himself like it's an attempt to hold himself together, trying to shove it all back in the box before he breaks down too completely to ever recover from.

[abhorrently]

"Try declaring you're never going back."

See how that feels in his mouth, in his spirit.

[lahire]

"I am not going back. Only going to be sold to new and exciting masters in the future. Traded. Gifted. But, no, not back."

And that is scary. Aster's game was similar to his original Keeper. Familiar. Now though, the rules are made up and the points don't matter.

[abhorrently]

"Someone owns you?"

The quiet in her voice weighs the same as lead in the pockets, an old distaste rising in the back of her throat.

"No, that's not...people don't do that here."

Right?

[lahire]

“It is not a matter I am at liberty to discuss.”

His face forms the shape of a hollow smile, like he’s apologizing for that and his heart is squeezing tighter.

“I have many freedoms here. It is good. It is enough. The cage is much larger this time, and all of you are in it too. Stuck. Trapped. We all can act like we are free here, and build good lives. It is enough.”

[abhorrently]

"More than that. We're shattering this cage. And then none of us will be trapped ever again."

There's an old, low burning feeling in her. If she finds out whoever has this man believing that he's owned, in this place? She'll strip their property bare to find his contract and destroy it.

"I know that's hard to believe. But I've broken out of worse cages than this. And if I can do that, we can break this barrier."

[lahire]

"You are not the first to try to make me the promise of my freedom. I will believe it when it happens. Not a moment before."

He doesn't look directly at Fever as he speaks.

[abhorrently]

"I do not ask you to believe me, Jack. I'm only telling you what's going to happen."

Of course it's hard to believe. So she'll just have to prove things by doing, and nothing less.

"I haven't yet found a cage I couldn't tear apart."

[lahire]

“You did not escape the Black Stag casino. You were released.”

And the same for him, honestly.

[abhorrently]

"I did not attempt to escape. I waited to see if the proprietor would keep his word of this being a temporary occurrence."

Therein lies the difference to her. If one doesn't try to escape, one will never be able to say they broke out.

[lahire]

“Aster? He is like the Fae. Their promises are precise and honest in their falsehoods. It is a trick, but it is not completely untrue.”

No points for guessing why he knows something about the Fae, for someone who has known Erin.

[abhorrently]

Unfortunately, the writer cannot recall if Erin discussed the Fae, and is uninterested in going back to check at this present moment in time.

"Which is what makes him so dangerous. The bit of truth at the center makes everything harder to see through. And how he can attack what you want."

[lahire]

"It's a simple path into a heart, knowing someone's wants or needs."

Finally Jack picks himself up out of mud. He's starting to shiver a little.

[abhorrently]

"...getting chilly?"

She'll stay out until her fingers go numb, but this romp stopped being about her when she met him.

[lahire]

"A bit, yes. My apologies, but I may need to return to the tavern." He is clearly not expecting her to come with.

[abhorrently]

"Nothing to apologize for. Honestly, that's probably a good call - if you haven't tried their hot cider, it's perfect for days like today."

Guess who's walking with him, after all.