Methos listened to Jack's words about what dreams sometimes are and tried to decided how to describe the dream, "It was a mix of... metaphorical imagery, and memories. I think Oona saw some memories of mine I'm not fond of sharing, but even after talking with her yesterday about them I don't know if she saw or remembers those memories from the dream."
He watched River test her braid; unable to resist smiling at how quickly she spun to her knees in front of Jack and him. Methos ducked his head when River spoke of the image she saw in front of her. He was tempted to tell her he had a notebook and pen she could use, but he was keeping his journal in the notebook and as comfortable as he felt he wasn't ready to offer it up.
Methos laughed ruefully at River's explanation of how sly was used in her time, "Oooh, thanks for the clarification. I'll avoid risking having to have broken bones rebroken so they heal straight, thanks. Being able to heal quickly has its drawbacks as well as its perks. I'll think about building some familiarity."
He wondered who Daddy was and whether warning him, if he had a clue who he was, would only prompt Molly to declare war on them both. Methos had kept mostly to himself, but the sidhe was someone he couldn't afford to have angry with him. She knew far too much about what he was, if not who.
"Three seconds on a slow day. I can kill someone in three seconds on a good day, and I don't have her reflexes," Methos added to Jack's observation.
He half-smiled at the other man's lack of interest in dwelling on death and the afterlife, letting the subject drop. Methos held still while Jack turned so that he was kneeling between his legs. Methos found himself suddenly wondering if he'd made the best choice sitting where he had. Methos let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding as Jack looked at the Balance necklace.
"Platinum is my guess," Methos agreed before adding, "but given that I've got the impression Oona and Elric aren't... local... it might not be native to planet Earth. She's told me that metal holds spells better than flesh over a long period of time. I was guessing platinum based partly on how hard a metal platinum is. Elric said it can be made to protect me. It won't be able to do that if gets lost or destroyed. Oona's still figuring out the magic needed."
He shivered with the brush Jack was careful to make against his skin. Methos had to lick his lips before he could respond to the other man's words about the concept the old fashioned scales often led to, "Oona told me they're a symbol of Balance, that Chaos and Law battle constantly. The Balance is a place with rules, but individuality: diversity, but mercy and justice. She said there are those who stand for each of the three. Oona stands for the Balance."
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "I'm local, not from Melnibone like Oona and her father, or from Gallifrey like the growing contingent from there. But, I'm over 5,000 years old. I'm familiar with a number of the meanings scales have had on Earth through the millennia. I might not have understood how I was choosing to stand for the Balance when I asked Oona if she could put the necklace on me, but I stand for the Balance. Her father thinks I can protect her from the demon coming for her, and I'm going to try."
"At first it seemed like Oona was just a figure appearing in my dreams at a distance, then we were having one dream, but I'm not sure it was really one dream. When I could finally see her father clearly he'd... stepped out of me. I don't know when she saw me," Methos said slowly, again struggling to describe the dream for Jack. He smiled at the other man's hope he wasn't going to have to face Elric when they were free, "The dream Elric told Oona, that he was what remained of her father in a dream, or memory, or a spell cast before his fate claimed him. Not to get back onto the afterlife, but I got the impression he's dead, or mostly. I'm either safe or doomed."
"Whoa there, big boy. Back up to the part where you said you're five thousand years old." Jack turned his head a bit to look at Adam from the corners of his eyes. "Any place else and I'd have to make a guess that you were joking. But not this place."
Jack sat back on his heels. "So let's put aside metaphysical dreams and different species issues for a moment. five THOUSAND years old?" Jack looked Methos over once more. "DAMN you age well."
(OOC: *Giggles.* Thought that might get his attention.)
Methos couldn't help the mournful sigh that escaped him as Jack raised both hands. He nodded at Jack's instruction to back up to the part where he said he was five thousand years old. Methos corrected with a half-smile, "It was over five thousand years old. My memory is, or was before the mass amnesia, clear back five thousand years. It's the six hundred odd years before that that were fuzzy before this island damaged more recent memories."
He held still while Jack turned his head to look at him from the corners of his eyes. Methos promised him with all the sincerity he had, "I'm not joking. I don't think we're immortal in exactly the same way, usually I can sense someone like me, but it sounds like we're similar. I've wanted to let you know you aren't exactly alone since you were killed at the bunker. Having arrived here by crashing jumbo jet, the first thing I did on this island was die."
Methos watched Jack sit back on his heels, letting the other man see how nervous he was while he did. He nodded at Jack's asking about his age again, "My earliest memories have been hazy a long time, but I think I was about 28 the first time I died. It was in a sandstorm. I remember how that first time felt. I lived about six hundred years before I knew I wasn't the only immortal in the world. I wasn't sure that immortals like me are human until Aaron's birth."
He smiled as Jack told him he aged well. Methos explained, "I stopped aging the first time I died. That reminds me. I've also wanted to thank you for getting Aaron out of the bunker before it blew. If he'd been killed he'd have stopped aging. Spending all eternity as a newborn, or dying in the one-way immortals like me can die wouldn't have been much of choice. I don't know what makes you immortal, but for Aaron and me it's a kind of magic."
Methos nodded in the direction River had gone, "Molly and River, River from her time in Molly's body, know about the magic that keeps my kind coming back from the dead. The sidhe call humans with the magic Endless Ones. I haven't tested if Molly has heard the name Methos. In some circles it's known as the name of the mythical oldest Endless One. Here, Ellen and Oona know that Methos is my real name. I'm the mythical oldest Endless One."
Finding himself out of words, Methos reached out to touch one of Jack's hands. The contact eased his tension enough for him to find more words, "I don't advertise what I am or who because it's dangerous. The older I get the more magic I have that another of my kind can take by killing me. I just... I have been in a constant cycle of waking and dying over and over for thousands of years and I thought you might like to know that."
“Whew. That is a lot to take in.” Jack wriggled a bit so his ass was in the sand and he draped his legs over Methos’ so they were still facing each other. Heels in the sand he wasn’t putting much in the way of weight on the other man’s legs.
“OVER five thousand… how do you cope? How do you keep from going crazy? I learned I couldn’t die by doing. I learned I wasn’t aging by… watching the people around me get grey, show wrinkles, and my own face never changed. When Kelly died… I knew I was gonna end up watching everyone around me die and turn to dust. It didn’t seem fair. I gotta tell you, I tried. Not much I haven’t tried to die. People thought Kelly’s death drove me a bit insane. But it was that… realization that did it. Nothing worked, and I week sitting in a dark room, just shut down.” Jack looked Methos right in the eye. “And if Rose Tyler even hears a whisper of this… Just never tell her. She doesn’t deserve it.”**
Jack wiped his hands over his face. “I can’t grasp over five thousand years. You had to have seen the rise and fall of Rome, of how many civilizations. How do you handle the loneliness? It was one of the reasons I had to find the Doctor. To find out how this happened and how to fix it, and if all else failed, to travel with him… to be with someone who knows what this is like.” And to torture himself a bit while doing it. Because he didn’t just love the Doctor, he was in love with him.
“But there are others, here on Earth?” Jack had been considering asking Molly to introduce him to her people, another group that might make this more bearable. Friendships, hopefully, that could last.
Shaking himself out of the dark and depressing, switching back to the more, carefree Jack that he showed the world, he let curiosity take over.
“So you have magic. Like Tara, Willow, Molly and Oona. Do you… I dunno… cast spells and stuff?” Jack was somewhere between amazed and intrigued. He did know he was full of questions. “And there are others out there? I mean, how many others? And after all that time how could you not know if you were human? Didn’t anyone ever talk to you about the birds and the bees? Where did you think little Immortals came from? Fully formed from the sand? And… whoa… five thousand years of sex… I imagine there isn’t anything you haven’t tried. You could give me lessons. You could be like… Yoda… only sexy.”
Jack didn’t want to even think about Aaron dying as an infant if Methos was right. Hat would be… the universes cruelest joke. That kid just earned himself a guardian angel.
“And what happens if you die the first time of old age? Is there a nursing home out there full of geriatric immortals, unable to die, and facing eternity with bingo and Metamucil?”
(**OOC: AU Jack had a different back-story from the game station to here than Cannon Jack did from the final episodes of season 3 DW. Keeping this 100% spoiler free: GAME Jack spent thirty years helping rebuild the Earth after the Dalak attack before hitchhiking, hustling and conning his way to eventually get to the island.)
He watched River test her braid; unable to resist smiling at how quickly she spun to her knees in front of Jack and him. Methos ducked his head when River spoke of the image she saw in front of her. He was tempted to tell her he had a notebook and pen she could use, but he was keeping his journal in the notebook and as comfortable as he felt he wasn't ready to offer it up.
Methos laughed ruefully at River's explanation of how sly was used in her time, "Oooh, thanks for the clarification. I'll avoid risking having to have broken bones rebroken so they heal straight, thanks. Being able to heal quickly has its drawbacks as well as its perks. I'll think about building some familiarity."
He wondered who Daddy was and whether warning him, if he had a clue who he was, would only prompt Molly to declare war on them both. Methos had kept mostly to himself, but the sidhe was someone he couldn't afford to have angry with him. She knew far too much about what he was, if not who.
"Three seconds on a slow day. I can kill someone in three seconds on a good day, and I don't have her reflexes," Methos added to Jack's observation.
He half-smiled at the other man's lack of interest in dwelling on death and the afterlife, letting the subject drop. Methos held still while Jack turned so that he was kneeling between his legs. Methos found himself suddenly wondering if he'd made the best choice sitting where he had. Methos let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding as Jack looked at the Balance necklace.
"Platinum is my guess," Methos agreed before adding, "but given that I've got the impression Oona and Elric aren't... local... it might not be native to planet Earth. She's told me that metal holds spells better than flesh over a long period of time. I was guessing platinum based partly on how hard a metal platinum is. Elric said it can be made to protect me. It won't be able to do that if gets lost or destroyed. Oona's still figuring out the magic needed."
He shivered with the brush Jack was careful to make against his skin. Methos had to lick his lips before he could respond to the other man's words about the concept the old fashioned scales often led to, "Oona told me they're a symbol of Balance, that Chaos and Law battle constantly. The Balance is a place with rules, but individuality: diversity, but mercy and justice. She said there are those who stand for each of the three. Oona stands for the Balance."
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "I'm local, not from Melnibone like Oona and her father, or from Gallifrey like the growing contingent from there. But, I'm over 5,000 years old. I'm familiar with a number of the meanings scales have had on Earth through the millennia. I might not have understood how I was choosing to stand for the Balance when I asked Oona if she could put the necklace on me, but I stand for the Balance. Her father thinks I can protect her from the demon coming for her, and I'm going to try."
"At first it seemed like Oona was just a figure appearing in my dreams at a distance, then we were having one dream, but I'm not sure it was really one dream. When I could finally see her father clearly he'd... stepped out of me. I don't know when she saw me," Methos said slowly, again struggling to describe the dream for Jack. He smiled at the other man's hope he wasn't going to have to face Elric when they were free, "The dream Elric told Oona, that he was what remained of her father in a dream, or memory, or a spell cast before his fate claimed him. Not to get back onto the afterlife, but I got the impression he's dead, or mostly. I'm either safe or doomed."
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"Whoa there, big boy. Back up to the part where you said you're five thousand years old." Jack turned his head a bit to look at Adam from the corners of his eyes. "Any place else and I'd have to make a guess that you were joking. But not this place."
Jack sat back on his heels. "So let's put aside metaphysical dreams and different species issues for a moment. five THOUSAND years old?" Jack looked Methos over once more. "DAMN you age well."
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Methos couldn't help the mournful sigh that escaped him as Jack raised both hands. He nodded at Jack's instruction to back up to the part where he said he was five thousand years old. Methos corrected with a half-smile, "It was over five thousand years old. My memory is, or was before the mass amnesia, clear back five thousand years. It's the six hundred odd years before that that were fuzzy before this island damaged more recent memories."
He held still while Jack turned his head to look at him from the corners of his eyes. Methos promised him with all the sincerity he had, "I'm not joking. I don't think we're immortal in exactly the same way, usually I can sense someone like me, but it sounds like we're similar. I've wanted to let you know you aren't exactly alone since you were killed at the bunker. Having arrived here by crashing jumbo jet, the first thing I did on this island was die."
Methos watched Jack sit back on his heels, letting the other man see how nervous he was while he did. He nodded at Jack's asking about his age again, "My earliest memories have been hazy a long time, but I think I was about 28 the first time I died. It was in a sandstorm. I remember how that first time felt. I lived about six hundred years before I knew I wasn't the only immortal in the world. I wasn't sure that immortals like me are human until Aaron's birth."
He smiled as Jack told him he aged well. Methos explained, "I stopped aging the first time I died. That reminds me. I've also wanted to thank you for getting Aaron out of the bunker before it blew. If he'd been killed he'd have stopped aging. Spending all eternity as a newborn, or dying in the one-way immortals like me can die wouldn't have been much of choice. I don't know what makes you immortal, but for Aaron and me it's a kind of magic."
Methos nodded in the direction River had gone, "Molly and River, River from her time in Molly's body, know about the magic that keeps my kind coming back from the dead. The sidhe call humans with the magic Endless Ones. I haven't tested if Molly has heard the name Methos. In some circles it's known as the name of the mythical oldest Endless One. Here, Ellen and Oona know that Methos is my real name. I'm the mythical oldest Endless One."
Finding himself out of words, Methos reached out to touch one of Jack's hands. The contact eased his tension enough for him to find more words, "I don't advertise what I am or who because it's dangerous. The older I get the more magic I have that another of my kind can take by killing me. I just... I have been in a constant cycle of waking and dying over and over for thousands of years and I thought you might like to know that."
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“OVER five thousand… how do you cope? How do you keep from going crazy? I learned I couldn’t die by doing. I learned I wasn’t aging by… watching the people around me get grey, show wrinkles, and my own face never changed. When Kelly died… I knew I was gonna end up watching everyone around me die and turn to dust. It didn’t seem fair. I gotta tell you, I tried. Not much I haven’t tried to die. People thought Kelly’s death drove me a bit insane. But it was that… realization that did it. Nothing worked, and I week sitting in a dark room, just shut down.” Jack looked Methos right in the eye. “And if Rose Tyler even hears a whisper of this… Just never tell her. She doesn’t deserve it.”**
Jack wiped his hands over his face. “I can’t grasp over five thousand years. You had to have seen the rise and fall of Rome, of how many civilizations. How do you handle the loneliness? It was one of the reasons I had to find the Doctor. To find out how this happened and how to fix it, and if all else failed, to travel with him… to be with someone who knows what this is like.” And to torture himself a bit while doing it. Because he didn’t just love the Doctor, he was in love with him.
“But there are others, here on Earth?” Jack had been considering asking Molly to introduce him to her people, another group that might make this more bearable. Friendships, hopefully, that could last.
Shaking himself out of the dark and depressing, switching back to the more, carefree Jack that he showed the world, he let curiosity take over.
“So you have magic. Like Tara, Willow, Molly and Oona. Do you… I dunno… cast spells and stuff?” Jack was somewhere between amazed and intrigued. He did know he was full of questions. “And there are others out there? I mean, how many others? And after all that time how could you not know if you were human? Didn’t anyone ever talk to you about the birds and the bees? Where did you think little Immortals came from? Fully formed from the sand? And… whoa… five thousand years of sex… I imagine there isn’t anything you haven’t tried. You could give me lessons. You could be like… Yoda… only sexy.”
Jack didn’t want to even think about Aaron dying as an infant if Methos was right. Hat would be… the universes cruelest joke. That kid just earned himself a guardian angel.
“And what happens if you die the first time of old age? Is there a nursing home out there full of geriatric immortals, unable to die, and facing eternity with bingo and Metamucil?”
(**OOC: AU Jack had a different back-story from the game station to here than Cannon Jack did from the final episodes of season 3 DW. Keeping this 100% spoiler free: GAME Jack spent thirty years helping rebuild the Earth after the Dalak attack before hitchhiking, hustling and conning his way to eventually get to the island.)
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Thanks for filling me in without spoilering me. :D
Since Methos post is a long one, something about trying to answer all of Jack's questions, I'm going to make his post a "fighting the shift" post. @_@
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