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

[wise_maiden]

"I slept well enough. There's nothing more that can be done for that, can it? The night's already gone." The last she wants to do is worry him over something like that. Something about his touch feels so new, even if it wasn't, exactly. Maybe it just had been very long, since. "Besides, I like the waking up, better."

[all7seas]

Sparrow, meanwhile, was thinking to himself: Something about this--about HER---feels so NEW. But he assumed it was because it had been a long time since they had last been together, so he said nothing.

"As do I. Perhaps I should make you some waffles, or perhaps we should just stay together like this for a time..."

[wise_maiden]

"I wouldn't mind having a drink of water... in a few minutes." She's not in a rush to leave just yet, or to have him do so, despite the conflicting messages between mind and body. She wanted that to quiet down and go away; much like she handled the unpleasant things. Right now, it felt like they had the entire day still ahead of them.

[all7seas]

So Jack relaxed, now just letting the backs of his fingers drift over her upper arm. At least---his body relaxed. His mind, once the word "waffles" had been spoken, was racing along at a good clip. Distracting---a half-remembered dream, now here, now gone.

"Bloody dreams, eh?"

[wise_maiden]

"... A few, but they're not important." Raine hadn't wanted them to come up. She's not unused to dreaming, even if these had been more unsettling than usual lately. Focusing on the wedding--their togetherness, that had come first. "Some of them were... strange. I suppose those paintings we found the other day decided to tell their own stories in my mind."

[all7seas]

"I had a few, myself. Also strange. Ha. And rather...rather foolish, I suppose. In all of them, darling, I'm a pirate."

[wise_maiden]

"A pirate?" There is a strangeness to that, and yet... she briefly reflects on how she nearly called him 'Captain', when she first woke up, though she had immediately brushed it off. "I wonder why. They're only in stories..."

[all7seas]

"Aye---only in stories, aren't they. And I wake up in this beautiful reality, with you---I shouldn't even think of it. Just dreams, aren't they."

[wise_maiden]

"It troubles you, though. This idea of being a pirate... even in a dream." She reaches up to touch at his forehead. "I can tell."

[all7seas]

"Not so much...........aye. Troubles." He closed his eyes and leaned into that touch.

But it wasn't troubling so much as exciting and somehow right that he'd dreamed of piracy, of flying before the wind on a proud ship. And he'd accomplished most of his greatest feats without using violence.

[wise_maiden]

"Or was there something else...?" At least his dreams seemed straightforward in that regard, though here they were focusing on them when they had already clarified that they weren't important.

[all7seas]

"No. No, lass---nothing else." He sat up abruptly, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "I'll fetch you your water, shall I?"

[wise_maiden]

"... Understood." She gives him a gentle smile, curling back for a moment. "I apologize for pressing. It's nothing to worry about, after all."

[all7seas]

"Nah---nothing at all." Except for the fact that, just after he woke, he so badly wanted these dreams to come true. When Sparrow returned with the water he sat on the edge of the bed and handed it to her.

"For you, love."

[wise_maiden]

"Thank you." The water would help, she hoped, with that post-waking up dizziness. She pulled herself back up to a sitting position to take it from him, looking around the room again, taking the scene in and trying to push away any lingering feelings of discomfort. Their room.

[all7seas]

"Not used to the drinking, are you. Or the---"

Or what they had done together, which while hazy in the pirate's mind was also a very pleasant recollection. Why in the world was this conversation suddenly turning so awkward? They were a married couple. It should feel more...right, than it did.

[wise_maiden]

"It's just... been a long time, that's all." It made sense; it wasn't as if she had any reason to drink or... be with anyone after having the children. There had been no one else.

[all7seas]

"I'm not complaining darling, or anything of that nature..."

[wise_maiden]

"No, but there's something that you aren't saying." She begins to take a slow careful sip, but it turns into a longer one. Thirsty.

[all7seas]

But the frustrating thing is that Jack cannot articulate that strange premonition or discomfort or whatever-it-is. He can't put words to the not-rightness of this, even if he did enjoy it immensely.

Instead of trying, he lies down beside her again and rubs her back comfortingly.

[wise_maiden]

She's quiet while she continues drinking. Water was good--not that it made things any clearer, but it was cold, refreshing.

"Our first morning together. It's so... quiet out here."

[all7seas]

"It is a quiet place; I don't know how I endured it, before. Too busy with work I expect, but I still felt it keenly at times."

[wise_maiden]

"It won't be too quiet for much longer, once our boys have finished moving in." She does give a soft chuckle. "Though I think it suits us just fine for now."

[all7seas]

That laugh was reassuring. Jack was fond of the boys as well, even though he had been so absent throughout their childhoods. He dug his fingertips into the skin of her shoulders, lightly massaging the muscles there. Jack wanted his wife to be happy--that still held true, even in the lingering confusion and aftereffects of strange dreams.

Shifts---that was all they were. Nothing more.

[wise_maiden]

There's tenseness there, in her shoulders; tenseness that shouldn't be, of course, but that is because his new wife always strives to keep the troubling thoughts and fears carefully hidden, out of sight.

The dreams of her mysterious paintings as places come to life. Visions of a small, silver haired child at her side--one that looked nothing like her children, or even Mithos. Who was that boy? Traveling from place to place. But always: that boy.

The feeling of being despised, most of all, in the eyes of strangers.

It all flows back to her, in the silence. "What shall I fix you for breakfast?"