the fourth jack | video

[faultlesscon]

I don't believe this. [The feed shows Alex's back. His hands move about as if he's talking but there seems to be hardly anyone around. He leans back with a sigh, and it seems for a moment that there is a reply despite silence being the only audible thing.No, that's... how is this possible in the first place? You and I saw no one - we've been in the

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[crosscolumbkill]

I am his as given on the harvesting; without one, the other will surely die. [He settles back on his haunches, clawing a bit of paper out of his teeth.] Generally, separation from a draaga ends in a rather unpleasant, drawn-out withering sort of affair---he'd already started the trend down when we were reunited, and I wasn't far behind. A few days' unconsciousness is getting off easy, as long as he wakes up spiritually whole. Bit problematic if he doesn't.

[The next question is, honestly, a little surprising; he hadn't expected the young man to take interest in background. He makes a thoughtful noise. His response is earnest and thought-out.] All darkness and dinginess and wet mouldy earthy smells, mostly. Limbo Town's a terrified enclave burrowed into centuries of horror and tradition that have devolved in the corpselight. They do not do well down below, those sheeda-folk; a cult of coffin-makers, waiting to die. Klarion's a rare spot of curiosity and fresh will. They did not take well to him down there.

[A sniff.] He did not take well to them, either, and there's a blessing.

[faultlesscon]

Explains how he was when I headed over here. I suppose you don't get off as worse as him, considering you're looking better now. [Alex nods to the explanation.] Spiritually whole - like what?

Corpselight... [Leaning his head to the side, Alex looks over to Klarion's frame, thoughtful. His eyes go back to the feline and he reached out a hand, scratches behind the ear for a bit.] Odd one out, but in a good way. I'm glad he is, if anything. You too.

[crosscolumbkill]

Separation can result in a preemptive Grundy, if you're unlucky. I'd wager against Klarion's chances for that, though---the boy's too willfully headstrong to come to it, if nothing else. He's fight it like a bereaved mother-cat.

[His head tilts up against Alex's hand, expression turning satisfied.] We're all glad. Terrible tormented bullies, the lot of the town. [He realizes a potential question, and backtracks.] Ah. 'Grundy' would best translate as 'zombie' for you, I believe.

[faultlesscon]

[Alex's mouth opens at the explanation, and promptly closes at the last bit. In response to it instead, he continues to pet Klarion, scratching the sweet spots he's discovered over the course of his stay in the room.]

So in a sense, it's good that he's here instead of there. [He tilts his head to the side.] Klarion as a zombie - not something I'd take to well. That curiousity he has, not shared I assume?

[crosscolumbkill]

[This man is a good and attentive cat-person. The low rumble of a purr starting in Teekl's throat is measure of that.] Not in the slightest. The Submissionaries rule with an iron fist and a steel rod. [A chuckle works its way out between the humming purr.] Klarion himself was nearly one, though he abandoned the rod to spend a lifetime wandering, little foolish child. [the tone of voice suggests he's anything but angered by the decision on Klarion's part.]

You, Alex. You hardly got along well with your 'peers', either. [It's a question? Maybe?]

[faultlesscon]

[Alex likes to pretend he had a pet once in his childhood - if his father wasn't such a hard-ass, anyway. Nodding along with the words, the actions seem to slow down for a moment.]

At least he's doing something that he'd rather do, free will and such. [A grimace at the last part because he should have expected that coming, what with how Teekl seems to have this uncanny sense.] Not many good friends in my life, friends at that.

[crosscolumbkill]

No? Yet you're socially competent. [Teekl's eyes are closed, now, voice absent.] So I have to assume you don't suffer fools gladly. Is it hard to find people whose company you enjoy, or hard to find people whose company enjoys you?

[faultlesscon]

Glad you think so. [Don't mind if he scratches at the other to distract the darker thoughts.] A little of both - I can be a bit of a bastard to authority, but people have said I'm capable of being tolerable.

Should I go on about my 'peers'?

[crosscolumbkill]

[The cat, as usual, has something of an inscrutable expression---but it's tilted up again, depthless eyes focused on Alex.] You should. That word hardly makes a fond shape in your mouth.

[faultlesscon]

[A nod and his eyes look to the ceiling for a moment.] Back home, I really talked to only a few.

Josh Campbell was the closest friend I had at school - Raj was his friend, the tag-along, if you will. We did things together that friends do. [He pauses and lets out a sigh.] A third one, Nigel Colbie.

He screwed over any balance of normal I had.

[crosscolumbkill]

There's always one for it. [The cat rests his jaw on Alex's chest, looking up with hooded eyes.] Tell me about him.

[faultlesscon]

You know, you may be one of the only beings I've told this truth to so far, and you're a cat. I'm not sure socially competence can be applied anymore. [Looking back down, he quirks a brow but shrugs, continues the petting.]

He was a fucked up individual - had it in his head that he and I were part of this Templar bloodline, that it was our duty to carry it on.

Didn't let anyone get close to me.

[crosscolumbkill]

[Is that a smile? Maybe. It's nigh on impossible to tell, between the fur and the feline anatomy, but maybe Teekl smiles a little at him. Maybe he doesn't.] Cats keep their secrets. We're better for confessions than, say, dogs.

He saw something special in you. Did he demand you live up to the expectations this 'bloodline' entailed?

[faultlesscon]

... Nigel was close with a dog, makes sense. [That gets an even small smile from Alex. Leaning his head back, he keeps his eyes wandering.]

Not demand, but expected it. Everything he did pushed me in the direction he wanted, which were those expectations. He always spout crap about how we would be one, me as the Jack and him as the Spade.

In the process, five people were killed, himself as the last.

[crosscolumbkill]

[The cat makes a small 'hmmm' noise against his chest.] What were you to do, as a Jack?

And what did you do, not being one?

[faultlesscon]

Are you or Klarion familiar with Knights Templar history and legends?

The tale of Maraclea speaks of a knight who fell in love with a noblewoman, she returned his feelings but before they could wed she died. [And it stings to talk of it.] Unable to be apart from her, he made love to her corpse, a sign of an eternal bond. Nine months later, he dug up her body, and it had been preserved with her skull and leg bones arranged.

He took the objects, and prospered, under the belief that they would ensure success. That's an idea of where the crossbones and skull come from. [A sigh.] That's what Nigel wanted, so he killed our classmate, Susan - I fancied her and she thought the same of me.

I refused.