That Sacred Arrangement....

[all7seas]

Who: wise_maiden and lists_to_port; We are leaving this log WIDE OPEN. So if you are family or friends, you are invited and may mingle or gossip or be all dressed up or get drunk or do the electric slide or WHAT HAVE YOU. Are there any Wedding Crashers in Luceti? Ha!
What: Wedding
When: Monday afternoon
Where: That spot with the lilacs by the river in that meadow west of the village. You know that spot---we know you know that spot.
Summary: Jack and Raine get married, and everyone ships it hard forever.
Rating: G I expect? It's so hard to tell sometimes.



On the morning of his wedding, Jack sat bolt upright in bed and then vomited onto the floor. Several minutes after that were spent dry-heaving and gasping for breath, and then another several minutes crawling to the bathroom to put his head under the shower. Cold water---it brought back reality and rationality, and erased dreams of being a pirate and dying in some war and having a best mate and a lover who had always been forbidden him---ever since Jack Horner's lesson and the two weeks following it.

Sparrow figured it was a case of wedding nerves. Strange dreams were a new thing for him, after all--normally he slept dreamlessly and woke up alert.

Later, as he stood in the quiet meadow he and Raine had chosen for their ceremony among the fragrant lilac trees, that morning dream was forgotten. Sparrow was calm. Happy. Clean-shaven and dressed in the attire Buffy had picked out for him and eagerly waiting for his beautiful bride.

Comments

[all7seas]

"Leftover business?" He stepped back so that she could come inside.

[herotypical]

"...I thought I should probably catch you before -- " Buffy stepped inside, her arms hugging her chest. "Before all the happy marital bliss distracts you and, uhm...Jilly's attacker gets forgotten in all of it."

[all7seas]

"Ah. Attacker of Jilly. Right." One hand crept up to cover that tattoo again. "Erm...sit down? Couch is right this way."

[herotypical]

"I know where it is." She turned away from him. Began to walk. A-ha...Buffy hesitated, looked back over her shoulder: "I mean...couches are almost always in the same kinds of places. There are only so many ways you can situate a..." She came across it and sat quite abruptly; however, she did her best not to get comfy. "Situate a couch."

[all7seas]

"Same--same sorts of places, yes. Ah---"

And she was on his couch, and Jack got hit with the hardest---well, vision was how it could best be described---since his dream that morning. It was a dream that made his ears feel hot and his fingertips tingle and made him murmur a name: "Annie?"

1/2

[herotypical]

Buffy sat with her posture quite straight -- her arms folded around herself and even her toes curled tight in her shoes. She felt apprehensive and...and was that some sort of stain on the floor, over there? It reminded her of blood. Old, dried blood.

She did an impressive job of looking suitably blank until that name.

done.

[herotypical]

"What?" She looked up. Startled. Buffy had heard that name, recently...somewhere. She tried to regain her composure; however, her voice shook. "I-is that the culprit's name, then? Annie? Not very scary sounding, if you ask me."

[all7seas]

"I....no. Not the culprit. I--I haven't found any leads for you, Mrs. Horner."

That was so strange; had he said Annie? He supposed he had. Very odd--but more important matters were at hand. Jack had to figure out how to put her off the scent.

"What happened to her? To Jilly?"

[herotypical]

Her sister had been sparing with the details and Buffy was feeling more uncomfortable than ever around him. It wasn't so much an animosity but the disquieting sense that she was at a disadvantage before him. She could not remember ever feeling this unbalanced.

"Mugged. Petty theft. It was all about the money -- who'd been hurting for it? Who's been losing?" At the tables, she meant. She was no stranger to their existence. Much of her livelihood was furnished by her husband's winnings.

[all7seas]

"Not Jack," he muttered in response. Sparrow stood and began pacing before the large stone fireplace. His brother rarely lost to Nami. "There's...lots of people who haven't done well."

[herotypical]

"And who's done the worst?"

She followed his pacing with her eyes. Trying to forget that it was his wedding day. Trying to hold onto a dream that was slipping away faster than she had anticipated. A new dream -- butterflies and couch cushions -- but not an entirely new subject. Buffy had dreamt of Sparrow in the past but it had never left her feeling so exposed before. Exposed and marked.

[all7seas]

Jack looked directly at her. "How am I meant to know that? I haven't been doing so well myself with her, A---Buffy."

There it was again---but that time he caught himself. He rubbed sweating palms together and tried to regain his composure.

[herotypical]

"No?" He hadn't been doing so well? A dream that felt like a memory made her think of bridge-side robbery. But Buffy couldn't quite yet think that Sparrow could be capable of this trespass.

[all7seas]

"The fact is, Mrs. Horner, there are many people in deep to Nami. This robber fellow could be almost anyone in the village. I---I can't help you."

[herotypical]

How frustratingly unhelpful. Buffy's fist bunched in the fabric of her sweater -- just above where the sparrow had been sketched. "Whoever it is, they got greedy. You heard, right?"

The larger robbery -- she alluded to it with a tight, anxious voice. If she had any suspicions then they fell solely upon her husband.

[all7seas]

"Hmm? Heard? Heard about what?" He turned toward the fireplace and stared hard at the ashes there. Buried underneath was his share of Nami's gold.

[herotypical]

"Someone took the whole treasury. All Nami had -- during the festival, sometime."

While she had been on Albert's roof enjoying wine and muffins and the fireworks. Contemplating a different future.

[all7seas]

"Really? That's...that's absolutely horrible, Buffy. Really. Tragic."

[herotypical]

"The tragedy'll be what they do to the thief when they find him." And because his Annie still alarmed Buffy: "Or her."

[all7seas]

"And what do you think they'll DO to said thief when they find him, hmm?"

[herotypical]

"There were some pretty strong threats-o-violence. Depends on whether they stick to the official channels, I guess."

It was just about the coldest, most lifeless conversation she and Jack Sparrow had ever had but Buffy wasn't sure how to shatter her way into deeper talk.

[all7seas]

"He'll likely never come forward, then. Neither him nor the one what attacked those people--Jilly--in the forest."

Jack sat down on the edge of the hearth, turned toward her on the couch, now.

[herotypical]

"People? There were others?"

She sat up straighter -- if that was even possible -- and her fidgeting stopped. But oh, how the distance between them seemed to be such an awful lot of distance. Too much distance, almost.

[all7seas]

Uh oh.

"Hmm? Oh. I, erm...just assumed, darling, that there had been. Haven't there?"

[herotypical]

"Maybe. I don't -- I haven't heard about any more but I guess that makes some kind of sense."

Her sights narrowed. Sword-point. Grocery bags.