Skulduggery Pleasant (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
light_mischief) wrote2022-04-24 01:29 am
light_mischief) wrote2022-04-24 01:29 amEntry tags:
[come sail away] ic inbox (season 1)
Skulduggery Pleasant
Cabin 117 - 6:39 PM
altered from killthecake
light_mischief) wrote2022-04-24 01:29 am
altered from killthecake
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Three seconds into those six seconds, naturally, Jade's glance shifts away from the bar rooftop and back to Skulduggery, humor fading somewhat as the silence begins to stretch. The last three seconds are spent blinking a bit at how he seems to have stalled out entirely; as usual, a skull shouldn't usually betray much in the way of expression, and yet...]
Yes, she...was. [...Huh. Well. Skulduggery has just essentially confirmed that Jade was not in fact mishearing or imagining Monday's words at that time, so...that, sure puts a bit of a puncture in the idea of that particular memory being some half-hypnotized figment of his imagination. Okay. But even that considered, why...is the atmosphere suddenly getting awkward? Another beat falls between them, in which Jade promptly finds himself wondering if he's missed something all of a sudden.] ...Is there something wrong, Skulduggery?
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Skulduggery is, in fact, aware that Jade's emotional restraint borders on the compulsive. It makes him the perfect sounding board for off-kilter thoughts and rational debates alike. It does not, necessarily, make any of this easier.]
Why would anything be wrong? It isn't as though I let anything she said get under my skin. [That is very much a lie, but he tells it with a straight face.] I honestly don't understand the preference for trash talk over more intellectual banter. It's easier, sure, but nobody ever really gets anything from it. And it turns recounting a good fight into a mildly embarrassing affair. Utterly immature.
[That's the only thing they're talking about, right?]
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As indicated, promptly, by the beat of silence that falls after Skulduggery responds. Over the course of it, Jade's peering at him for a long moment, a slight and proper frown beginning to fall in place.]
...Well, naturally, it's not exactly as if you've any skin for her to get under. [(Okay look he just can't let that entirely slip by without at least very dryly remarking upon it, BUT ANYWAY--)] Still, you seem...hm, I suppose I wouldn't be able to tell if you were embarrassed, would I? Though I can imagine having those sorts of things shouted at you from a rooftop for anyone nearby to hear might not have been the most pleasant thing.
[So why, then, is there still a mildly speculative note to Jade's words there? He's still peering, too...
That six second silence was kind of notable, you know?]
Surely nothing to be fussed over, though. Not exactly as if anything she said had any basis, hm? Invoking the captain in that, of all people. --Granted, Friday has likely been aware of your attempts to befriend him of late. But that was quite the exaggeration, by the sound of it... [Like. If you need that reassurance, Skulduggery? ...Is that what's bothering you here?? Because it sure seemed like something really bothered you, just that bit ago!]
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And that's what this is, by the way. Mortification, plain and simple. He thought he'd be more horrified or ashamed of his actions in the face of potential criticism. But standing here, resolutely not looking at Jade, Skulduggery can only manage to feel embarrassed that this is how it's coming about. As soon as he confirms that Monday hadn't been entirely off-base, the first thing Jade is going to wonder is just how on-base she was, and that is. So. EMBARRASSING. More than dating the so-called enemy, if we're being honest.
He has definitely gone mad. That much is obvious. His perspective is entirely out of whack. Someone really should have knocked some sense into him before this happened... But it's far, far too late to stop it now. Even if it weren't, he wouldn't want to.]
Yyyeah. [Awkwardly.] ...About that.
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The worst part, though, is that the pieces are...kind of already falling into place? Except the picture vaguely forming doesn't actually make any sense whatsoever. Skulduggery quite obviously is embarrassed about this, yet there's clearly some additional issue rather beyond the vulgar language. ...Something about the content? ....But Jade already pointed out it was clearly exaggerated, so...what....else would there be.......
Jade's turning fully to face Skulduggery now, eyebrows arching. We're on the very cusp of outright concern here, but at this point the way Skulduggery's quite clearly metaphorically dragging his feet about this is also pretty...well, strange is putting it lightly. Even the grim matter of Vile had become an outpouring with surprisingly little prompting, and yet now...]
About--what? Did something else happen?
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With Jade facing him, it's harder to pretend he isn't just obliviously standing around in contemplation. He tries for a second or two longer, then turns his head Jade's way.]
It was an exaggeration, but not... much of one. [A minor, almost imperceptible tilt of his head.] Things have escalated between the Captain and me. She was trying to use that to upset me then and embarrass me now.
[Because obviously, Monday planned for this final humiliation, right?]
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Except for those rumor mills about himself and Peony back home, maybe, but that's like a dozen realities away and also (mostly) very funnily unfounded and ANYWAY--...Anyway, though.
Let's set aside the rather comical implication that even Jade running into this tangent now was somehow some farewell plot of Monday's too, literal weeks after the fact. No, in the end, only the part about things having escalated between Skulduggery and the captain is really sinking in, and--
Hold on.]
Things have... [Hold on. Jade stares very intently at Skulduggery for a long moment.] You're not joking.
[Like. Pretty clearly. There's not the slightest joking note in anything at all, that Skulduggery's just said. ...Which means...
Skulduggery has noted by now, surely, how Jade's range of outward expressions don't actually tend to fluctuate very much in normal conversation. A pleasantly cheery smile is the default, with a side of sardonic flair when the opportunity arises, though such can give way to more of a frown in the face of more grim topics--or, a pensive flat neutrality that swings closer to his actual internal state as a general rule. Every now and then there can be surprises or developments that crack the veneer a little, though...
And this. Sure is one of those occasions, as it turns out. Seeing as the stare Jade's continuing to level Skulduggery's way about now sure is building to an expression that's openly vying between surprise and plain incredulousness here. Because--well, when it's set out that plainly--of course he can readily connect what ""escalated"" has to mean in this context, but that's also...!]
...How long--has this been the case?
[This...is pretty blindsiding, actually! Which, is a feeling that Jade truly does not experience often in life--not to a degree as thorough as this, anyway. Not one of his favorite feelings on the world, to say the very least. ...He's still got a pretty clear memory of their talk after the diner excursion, though--or. So he'd, thought? Surely it wasn't so long ago, then, when the very notion of imparting friendship upon the captain had seemed like a tenuously risky enough idea...
To Jade, anyway. Though now, of course, he has to wonder--had Skulduggery, even then, already been--??]
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I... knew more about his intentions after the diner. [God this is. Wow, like, nearly physically painful to say to Jade, specifically, at this exact moment. There are so many other ways this could have gone, where dignity and respect would flourish and the mental image of Friday shouting "WHAT DO YOU TWO DO, SCISSOR?" would be nothing but a bad dream. Ways that wouldn't involve Skulduggery talking about them courting each other like lovesick teenagers to Jade Curtiss of all people.]
I didn't trust it until last month. And before you say anything, this doesn't change anything. The plan is still the plan. It's just. A more loving, compassionate plan than before.
[Boy he wishes throwing himself overboard were an option.]
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Retrospect always makes things seem more obvious, of course, but now Jade does wonder if he could have considered this possibility sooner. ...Should have, perhaps. Still, for once, it was a suspicion that had quite simply never come to mind as even a vague possibility. --Of course, now a part of him can't help but wonder just what they even did in the bridge back then, let alone--
--No, not relevant to anything. Not beyond surface level! Don't wonder about the mechanics either. Don't think about Monday postulating scissoring at, yeah, the top of her lungs.......
(Honestly, at this point Jade would almost agree that discovering being sidelined later really might have been a better angle than This. There would be...a lot less of this crude elephant now vibing in the metaphorical room, anyway, despite just how hard the both of them are trying to avoid making eye-contact with it--)]
An...elevation in "loving compassion" is some form of change, from what we discussed in that time. [Kind of, strained, don't mind him trying his level best to focus on what's important here. He's also rather visibly trying to regain some control of his expression as well, but for once it's a rare occasion where Jade is having difficulty with it. There's a reeling sort of pause, in which he's distractedly adjusting his glasses before continuing, frowning deeply.] At the time, the captain's capacity for simple civil camaraderie seemed a difficult enough prospect. And now you're--you believe it to be mutual? ...I suppose you must...
[The worst part of this is how this would be, legitimately easier to grasp as some kind of--mutual set of physical(?!?!) flings they're having of late...the quintessential detached "friends with benefits" scenario or something, you know. Except Skulduggery almost immediately brings up compassionate love outright, and that's some pretty strong phrasing...
But--how? That the captain would even be capable of such a thing...]
What changed last month, for you to trust it?
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It's much easier to do when he has other questions to address!]
...Last month, the Captain was. Having trouble moving forward with the information I'd given him. Darcy told him she might do something unconscionable in an attempt to motivate him. The Captain could have killed her for it. It... It wouldn't have been entirely unjustified, if he had.
[It hurts to admit, but it's true. He only wishes he hadn't told Darcy as much when it had happened.]
But he didn't. He frightened her into an apology and then... let her go. For my sake.