16th Wave

[tentacruelest]

So it would appear that your Capt. William Bush is not the lazy, rotten imbecile he'd have yeh believe. When push comes to shove, he gets his job done. I'm done with the damned Barge for good. Hang the lot of yeh, I don't care. As far as I'm concerned, you all deserve each other.

An' the next one of yeh who wants to mention tentacles to my face, I warn yeh that aye; I have regained the strength enough to kill a man in one blow.

I'll see this ship out to the end of the month and be on my way at earliest convenience.


[Private to Sylvanas]

My lady, I didnae expect this to be so soon. I won't trouble you for forgiveness. Ask anything of me and it will be done.

[Private to Dean]

Winchester. I expect you're purring like a cat right now.

Comments

[Spam]

[forsaken_queen]

Captain.

[She steps inside, and it's an act of sheer will that her steps are steady and unfaltering. She has no tells like strained breathe or sweat. Those are only for the living. So she can fake it fairly well, only the tightness around her eyes might give away just how much effort she's putting into just standing here with him.]

Shall I congratulate you?

[She's not being sarcastic. It's a genuine question. She already knows how she feels about the situation, but she doesn't really know his state of mind.]

Re: [Spam]

[tentacruelest]

It weren't up to me. At the times I thought about graduation at all, it was to protest against it.

[Sylvanas is so usually tight and precise in her movements that Jones, at the moment, is none the wiser. If he had a table he'd invite her to sit. As he did not, he offered the only seat in the room; the piano bench]

[Spam]

[forsaken_queen]

Then I won't.

[She shakes her head slightly at the offer. If she sits, she's not sure she can stand again without falling. Instead, she holds out the box with both hands. If her left one shakes, it's only slightly.]

Here.

[Spam]

[tentacruelest]

[He eyes her trembling but says not a word, preferring to take the box in silence. He opens it up, having no idea what to expect by now.]

[Spam]

[forsaken_queen]

[Inside the box is mechanisms of polished golds and silvers, that immediately begin to turn once the lid is raised. It plays a tune, lovely but mournful for a music box.]

[Spam]

[tentacruelest]

[Jones goes quiet, holding the box with care and listening to the full melody play out. He always had an ear for music, and this one tune seems to speak volumes of the person standing in front of him]

[Spam]

[forsaken_queen]

[Hearing the melody hurts inside, twists up the feelings of loss she keeps bottled up. The feelings that are consistently shaken free when someone she has allowed herself to care about graduates. She knows better than to let them sneak inside her defenses, but somehow she always fails to stop it from happening.

Shindu fallah na.]

It seems a more appropriate graduation gift than Winter's Veil present. I never did find the time to sing for you.

[Spam]

[tentacruelest]

No, yeh didn't.

[Jones closes the box when the melody ends, breathing softly and evenly and echoing the same rhythm as his heart in a box not ten feet away]

I won't ask it of yeh, now.

[She needs rest, after all]

[Spam]

[forsaken_queen]

I apologize for going back on it. But perhaps the music box can be some amends for the oversight.

[Something to remember her by.]

[Spam]

[tentacruelest]

Don't apologize. Not to anyone; never to me.

[He sets the music box atop his organ, in a place of reverence]

I only wish I could have be around for when you finally gain yer freedom.

[Spam]

[forsaken_queen]

[That prompts a short, wry laugh.]

I wouldn't ask anyone to wait that long in this place.

[With a singular exception.]

[Spam]

[tentacruelest]

How long's it been, now?

[Spam]

[forsaken_queen]

A year and a month.

[With no end in sight. Just that one small reprieve, that effectively hammered home that she was not escaping this place unless the Admiral let her go, or was killed.]

[Spam]

[tentacruelest]

Damn.

I wish there was an easier way.

[Spam]

[forsaken_queen]

For what exactly?

[For his parting, or for her 'rehabilitation'. He could mean either.]

[Spam]

[tentacruelest]

For you to win yer freedom back.

[Spam]

[forsaken_queen]

I haven't been free for a long time, Captain. It's only the setting that's different.

[Spam]

[tentacruelest]

And do you imagine there'll come a time when ye'll ever be free?

[Spam]

[forsaken_queen]

[His question hangs in the air between them for along moment. He's leaving, so at the very least, she can give him honesty before he disappears.]

Have you ever seen exotic birds in cages, Captain? Sometimes, even if the door is left wide open, they can't imagine flying through it. No matter how much they hate the cage, it's all they know anymore.

[Spam]

[tentacruelest]

Not often.

[Birds didn't tend to survive underwater, after all]

But you remember what it was like, without yer cage.

[Spam]

[forsaken_queen]

[It's almost as if his question makes her toll flair up a little, to show him just how keen her memory is. But it's just that her focus is brought back to those hurts, certainly. Still she has to clench her jaw not to make a pained sound. ]

Very well, actually. But that life is dead and gone.

[Spam]

[tentacruelest]

[Aye, there's still weakness in Sylvanas' bones. But for now, Jones stays silent on the issue]

It doesn't have to be.

[Spam]

[forsaken_queen]

You don't have any idea what you're talking about.

[One might be able to blame the flare in temper to irritability from the toll, but really, the snappish tone comes from a far less physical pain. The only reason she didn't actually shout or snarl at him is because he is her friend, and he means well.]

[Spam]

[tentacruelest]

Don't I?

[He has, after all, been a prisoner of his own making for decades. But Jones supposes it can't compare]

Forgive me. I'm sorry.

[Spam]

[forsaken_queen]

No. You don't. None of you can understand.

[It's not his fault. Her situation is unique. Only one person that she knows of has any real idea of what it's truly like for her. And they aren't exactly friends.

If she had breath, she would sigh to expell the tension. But as it stands, all she can do is soften her tone somewhat.]

You're concern is appreciated, Captain.