Pull the pin on that grenade you cuddle [Locked]

[girlorgun]

April is in one of the lounge-type rooms on the third floor of the Kashtta Tower very pointedly not pacing. She's trying very hard not to let any emotions slip out into the area, so that she won't be influencing anyone else, but it's difficult. Someone downstairs is calm, and she's trying to pick that up as much as possible, but it's not working

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[stopdropanddie]

Jack hasn't even been here a week and somehow he's managed to upset some sort of delicate balance. He knows that without even having to demand anything from April or Malyshka or whatever the hell she's calling herself, and she's psychic, so clearly she probably knows that he went to see Sark and threatened the hell out of him, and, okay, he'd put someone through a wall if someone did that to Sydney, but he's not quite grasping that comparison right now. All he's seeing is a threat that's comparative to Irina Derevko. He put some amount of faith in Sark back in the other Chicago and seeing how easily he found it in him to betray here, it makes him wonder if, given the right circumstances, if Sark could have done the same thing and he would have been wrong to trust him all along.

The logic makes perfect sense to him, even if it's mostly based in professional paranoia and his strange fixation on trying to fix the past

[girlorgun]

The moment Jack's in the room, April stalks toward and then past him to shut the door. She doesn't slam it, but closes it delicately. And then she turns to Jack and punches him rather harder than it looks like she'd be able to punch.

"How dare you?" she spits. "You know nothing. Do not presume to know my business again, you manipulative bastard."

She might not have a very good opinion of him regardless of the Sark thing. She knows what he did to his daughter. Reminding her of her own father is not the best way to get on April's good side.

[stopdropanddie]

Jack staggers back at the punch, just staring at her with cold, restrained fury, but he doesn't retaliate. Not because he's too much of a gentleman to hit a woman- like hell he isn't if the woman deserves it- but because he's not turning this into a brawl.

Maybe deep down, he'd rather not find out whether or not the tiny woman is actually a better fighter than he is, but... Mostly he'd rather not turn this into a brawl.

"Your business?" He snaps, completely ignoring the manipulative bastard concept. Sticks and stones, and given the company she seems to keep, he's hardly the worst of that brand of bastard. "And what exactly is your business?"

[girlorgun]

"You make assumptions about why I care about people," she says, making no move to strike him again and giving no indication that she really really wants to.

Actually, what she really really wants to do is slit his throat. Well. That's what Kali wants, at any rate. "Believe me when I say, Mr. Bristow, that I have been played with and manipulated enough for five lifetimes, and I am quite adept at realising when someone is even considering doing so. It comes with the territory, you see. There is nothing Julian can do that I could not match or surpass, and I would not let some random passer-by manipulate me into deep caring." Just keep not killing him. That's the key. "He has never asked for my affection. Despite the fact that he has grown accustomed to it, he has only recently begun actively desiring that affection. This is nothing of his doing and everything of my own."

Her eyes narrow a bit. She is ice. No, more than that, she is stone. You would have to exert significant effort to move her now. "He is my family, Mr.