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[light_mischief]

Skulduggery Pleasant

Cabin 117 - 6:39 PM

altered from killthecake

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[fonomena]

[Why...is he refusing to make eye contact at all now.....aggressively enough that even the aversion of eye sockets is obvious, even?? Really, an impassive skull face ought to hide plenty of things, and yet the mortified awkwardness is now rolling off Skulduggery so powerfully that it's kind of impossible not to identify at this point.

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?

[light_mischief]

[Jade is more than welcome to be the one revealing his deeply personal romantic tryst, if he'd like! Skulduggery would gladly cede the floor to somebody more capable of tolerating the embarrassment of having your actual sex life tossed around for everybody to hear!

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?]

[fonomena]

[Sorry, can't relate really! Never had a sex life colorful enough to be incredibly embarrassing when bandied about by a spiteful ghost for everybody to hear about!! 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--??]

[light_mischief]

[Oh, damn, this is so much worse than deflecting and having Jade find out sometime in the nebulous future. Because he knows exactly half of why Jade is making that face, and can guess at the other half easily enough.]

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.]

[fonomena]

[After the diner. --Of course. Gaining access to the bridge after reviving then, as he had...well, the intentions surely would have been detectable there, wouldn't they?

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?

[light_mischief]

[They're just two dudes with hidden necromancer backgrounds who would really not like to think about how a skeleton gets laid. It's absolutely sitting there, staring at them with giant elephant eyes, but Skulduggery figures as long as neither of them engages with it directly, they can come through this with minimal trauma.

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.