❝ mmh… there’s a difference between quitting outright and making an informed decision after gauging a situation as impendingly fatal. ❞
and he’s used to that.
the – gauging situations thing. when there were IUDs crashing down around and you have to make sure that people actually survive. there’s something to be said for a tactical retreat. and it’s hard for him not to compare situations to those past experiences. even something as inert as this. a playful challenge - assessed with that bone deep military instinct.
❝ other people are easiest… then, probably anything with four limbs, mammals… dogs, cats, cows, horses, – even a unicorn… it’s easier to go from two legs to four… plus, with birds there’s the whole ‘aerodynamic’ thing… the complexities of actual flight… angles and lift, currents and… well - it’s just… uh… more complicated. ❞
he wrinkles his nose slightly. feet scuffing the surface of the roof. he doesn’t look to the sky, or to the moon ( why would he, when he has a better moon sitting at his side ), just gazes into that depth below. it’s possible he might survive. it’s also possible that he’d end up as a rather large stain on the sidewalk.
❝ truth be told, the first time i attempted a bird, i managed to take off, fly into a bookshelf and give myself a minor concussion. ❞
he hadn’t realised the full extent of his capacity until feiyan had brought him here. explained the intricacies of his particular brand of magic. had encouraged him to explore to practice, to read about all the things he’d been able to do in the lives gone before. without her, he’d still be lost…
but the topic takes a swerve and – true to his offer, he does listen. lets the words sink in. he finds that he quite likes the thought. that they’re all pieces who could contribute to a puzzle… there’s a reason, after all, that the arcana comes as a set… he’s also troubled by the same conflict too. cooperation - not always easy. hard to take a group and have everyone on an equal footing… he is slightly surprised at those offered words though - as she’d made it quite clear that she didn’t want to talk about it, perhaps she just didn’t want to be cross-examined by a barrage of questions ( which seemed to be the approach by some ) - and he doesn’t blame her for that one bit… it was hard enough to get your thoughts in order without having them jumbled and probed and… demanded… by others.
three soft words in agreement. but would they ever get to a place where those pieces could be assembled. a scattered jigsaw of parts without a bigger picture.
❝ problem is, we just don’t know what those pieces might be. ❞
without a reference. a starting point, something… anything… that might give them a hint… it was needle in a haystack time.
there is - however - something of a wry grin as she accuses him of bragging.
❝ the world has a lot of coastline. ❞
he gives a quick shrug. a vastly different space compared to here. and not all of those seas were viewed as a tourist or traveller. the waters at his feet, filling his boots, weighing him down, simply the sign of an encroachment to another battle. has she ever seen them in his dreams?
❝ maybe when this is all over, i’ll take you to see one for real… a memory you can make for yourself, huh? ❞
“Strange to think there’s someone around here that can actually tell the difference.” Though, it certainly wasn’t fair to claim such, she knew that the council had a certain few that could, but for the most part, it simply seemed as though there were far too many willing to cross wires. All too often she witnessed lacking logical thought before swan diving into the heart of their own thoughts and beliefs without paying heed to what lay before them. Perhaps she was guilty of such thing too.
Hues shifted across his form, unsure if she could truly comprehend him in any other light; the very notion that he could simply..-- change was something she’d really only seen in a place reality didn’t exist, and however briefly, she wondered if he’d ever struggled with prying the two apart like she did. “That’s insane.” Jack spoke lowly, “Do you ever just..-- get it wrong?” It didn’t offer much, not in the way of specifics, then again, she wasn’t certain there could be such specifics.. whether it just happened or whether it took more than the simplicity of thought.
Something about it seemed, alluring, and she wondered whether any singular expanse of the blackened sky above would find her so transfixed if she could just; be something else. And then thought was gone with yet another passing sense of imagery of that drew her lips tight in quiet humor. “Maybe birds just aren’t your thing then. Stick to horses and unicorns, pony boy.”
it wasn’t quite a thought that she herself could hold much weight in, knowing that it would imply she held something within her own head that poised itself as a piece to the seemingly unsolvable puzzle of where Fei had gone. The notion alone absurd to her. Despite knowing how much of the truth could bleed out into dreams, there came a breed of difficulty picking one apart from the other. “I know.” The lithe shrug of her shoulders as she lent in to perch her chin on the very edge of her knees. “I know, it was just..-- if I said anything like that in there, nobody would have listened.. they’d look at me as if..--” As if she were out of her mind. An irrational thought, and she knew as much, but she’d been looked at in such a way far too often to swallow it back again.
That and picking apart the mind of another or having their own picked at wasn’t exactly something she’d expect any of them to line up for all too soon. Not that she’d blame them.
“Maybe when this is all over.” She could repeat quietly, never having been all that much of an optimist, at least --- apparently not in this life. “I can never hear it. I think that’s what gets me.” the slight tilt of her head drew a lopsided gaze towards the blonde beside her, “I can see it, feel how it makes other people feel, but that’s kind of it. I don’t know what it sounds like, what the sand feels like between my toes, the smell of ocean air..” Teeth drew gently over her lesser lip, in some attempt to hold onto the doubtful edge of her own tongue. “You know I’m going to hold you to that.”
