open rp 2013 | INBOX 2.0

[dondarrion]

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[wont]

[ For the briefest while she had resented Jack for being the one left with her instead of Isaac. But then she came to realize they both missed the engineer from the stars and somehow that made it all a bit more tolerable. (She doesn't resent Jack at all now. He is the only comfort she has now.) ]

SENT: 6:22 PM
You're just saying that to make me feel better.
I keep thinking the people here are laughing at me.

[unkindly]

[It surprised him, how much he missed Isaac. He doesn't know why he missed him so much, so he tried to ignore it. That only made it worse. But having Alayne helped.]

SENT: 6:29 PM
no im not
most of these people if they got sent back in time theyd be completely screwed
its not your fault
youll get the hang of it

[wont]

[ She doesn't like arguing with Jack, even about little things. It's difficult sometimes if only because being a teenage girl in the modern world is difficult, but Alayne does her best to curb the worst parts of her behavior in the hopes of becoming something a bit more agreeable (a girl that Jack will grow to like, even love, so that he never turns his back and leaves her). ]

SENT: 6:31 PM
Every time I learn a new place, I find myself somewhere different.

[unkindly]

[He doesn't like arguing with her either, and it happens more than he'd like. They're both tired and stressed and at the ends of their ropes and it makes them irritable. He takes a deep breath and reminds himself that there's no reason to be upset at her. He's upset for her, for them, being bounced from place to place with no rhyme or reason.]

SENT: 6:35 PM
i know
im sorry its hard i know

[wont]

[ Alayne reminds herself not to be selfish, reminds herself that she's not the only one whose lost and at the whims of the tides of time. If there is blame to be had it wasn't hers and it wasn't Jack's. Sometimes she forgets, but mostly she remembers. ]

SENT: 6:42 PM
When will you come home?

[unkindly]

SENT: 6:45 PM
soon
by seven
im on my way now

[wont]

[ That actually pleases Alayne to hear and so she sets about trying to tidy the house in the meantime. They share a small space together, what Jack calls an "apartment". A meager size for two people but finer than any of the accommodations COMPASS ever provided them. ]

SENT: 6:48 PM
Was work awful?

[unkindly]

[It's the first place Jack has ever lived in on his own terms, and that makes it special for him. He'd prefer a farm out in the country, or something like that, but the city is where the jobs are, and Jack feels lucky that he was able to find a job that suited him. Landscaping. It mostly involves cutting other people's lawns and taking care of their gardens and shoveling and plowing in the winter, but it's good hard work and he appreciates it. Though dealing with clients can be hectic.]

SENT: 6:50 PM
no it was fine
no problems today
just tired, did alot
almost home

[wont]

[ Jack is not the only one who contributes, though Alayne's given skills are considerably less desirable in the modern world. Very few, it seems, need needlepoint or sewn dresses and so instead Alayne works at a small shop in one of the nicer part of towns. They sell fineries to very rich women and Alayne, with her fresh-faced beauty and her slender frame, is employed to help the women into dresses or — in the case of them not wanting to lift a finger — trying on the dresses for them so that they don't have to imagine.

It's very odd work. ]

SENT: 6:52 PM
Thank the gods, then, for the smallest of mercies.
All shall be ready for your homecoming.
I've seen to it myself.

[unkindly]

[By the time he gets and reads the message, he's already already at the door to the apartment building. He shakes his head a little at the formality of the language, but he won't say anything about it. He opens the door and climbs the stairs up to the third floor apartment.

It's a nice enough building, in a nice enough neighborhood, which means that for the small size of the apartment it's on the expensive side. But together they can afford it, and Jack didn't want to make Alayne stay anywhere that wasn't as good. Safe. Clean. He could live anywhere and be fine with it, but he's not going to subject her to that just for the sake of saving a little money.

He unlocks the door and lets himself in, closing and locking it behind him before letting his bag slide down to the floor and kicking off his shoes.]

I'm home.

[He calls it softly. It's a small apartment. Even if she's in her own room she'd be able to hear the door open, so he doesn't need to shout.]

[wont]

[ Jack calls the apartment home and so does Alayne, though she has difficulty genuinely thinking of it that way. The Tranquility had been her home for a year before COMPASS decided to steal her. Before that, the Eyrie. King's Landing. The North. None of these places held her for very long, despite Alayne (and Sansa before her) having given her heart to them each. After a while the process gets tiresome and so Alayne tells herself that she's done with it completely. It doesn't keep her from making sure the apartment is as cozy and comely as possible, but it does prevent her from loving it in the way the word "home" truly implies.

Evidence of Alayne's work is plain. Magazines that had been out the morning of have been tidied and there's a bottle and glass waiting for Jack on the kitchen counter, a drink already poured. There tiny gifts, the only ones Alayne knows how to give. She wishes there was more (she always wishes there was more).

She's still in her work clothes when she emerges from the bedroom. A plain black dress that exposes her collarbones and slopes down in the back. It makes her look like a ballerina, her long hair pulled away from her face. Alayne smiles at him. Curtseys, even. (People don't curtsey in the modern world but this is Jack and she knows it's no harm done.) ] Jack.

[unkindly]

[His first act, after taking off his shoes and hanging up his jacket (it's spring, still a little too chilly at night to eschew it), is to go to the sink and wash his hands. He's already washed his hands once, at the landscaping company's building, but he wants to make sure they're clean, because when you work in the dirt all day it's hard to keep them completely clean. But after the second washing they look much better, and he turns to smile a little at Alayne.

He had admonished her once, about the curtsying, how she didn't need to do it. He had felt bad about it almost immediately because he quickly realized how much everything else in these various worlds had tried to erase who she was, and he wasn't going to be a part of that. Not if he could help it. So he got used to the curtseying. And everything else.]

Did you have a good day?

[And there's the glass, where it usually is, and he picks it up and takes it with him to the living room where he sinks into one of the chairs with a sigh.]

[wont]

[ She doesn't quite wait on him the way a servant does — they're friends, almost family now, so there isn't room for that sort of thing — but there is a very particular attentiveness that Alayne pays to Jack whenever she's around. When they'd all been together under COMPASS, it was something she would do with Isaac constantly. Halfway between wheedling and neediness, the need to be a constant presence — if only to provide and, therefore, be wanted. Despite everything they've been through together there is still that thin thread of worry in all that Alayne does. What if I'm not good enough? What if he's unhappy? It colors the things that she does, just as she wrings her hands a little until Jack finally drops himself into a chair.

Only then does Alayne speak. His relief is echoed with a small noise of her own. ]

I sold a dress today. [ Her voice is equal parts proud and gossipy and she comes round and perches herself on the edge of the chair beside him. ] To a woman I am certain will fail to fit it in, though she refused to listen to a word any of us said. We could have lived like lord and lady for a month on the cost alone. [ Alayne sighs. ] It was a very pretty dress. [ All of Alayne's clothes are plain and dull, now that they must scrape together a modest living. ]

[unkindly]

[He listens, looking at her and watching her as he drinks.]

Congratulations.

[He smiles. He doesn't understand how people could spend so much money on clothing, but he knows better than to be derisive about it, since he knows Alayne comes from a wealthy background.]

What did it look like?

[wont]

[ Alayne is fairly certain Jack could care less about what the dress looked like, but he asks because it's obviously important to her and it is the major thread to the day's weft. That was how loved work, wasn't it? You took the things that another person cared for and you made them your own. Just by virtue of the fact that they were considered noteworthy or worthwhile, they became a part of your life. Association by proxy.

Looking up at the ceiling to imagine the dress in her mind's eye, Alayne shrugs with both her shoulders and then sighs. ]

A purple as dark as winter grapes, dripping with beads from every inch and cut with daring throat. It was, I think, quite scandalous. [ Alayne looks at Jack and lifts her eyebrows. ] She was a very full woman. Were she to don it, no doubt she would pour from every seam. [ Now, now, Alayne. That's not nice. ]

[unkindly]

[He listens carefully to the description. She's right, he really doesn't care that much about the dress, but he does his best to imagine what it would look like anyway. The best he can do is imagine Alayne in some purple thing, and he knows it's probably not even close to what she's describing.

Jack sips his drink.]

Still, she bought it.

[wont]

[ In her most gossip-y tone of voice, leaning forward over the arm of her chair in his direction even though there's no one here to overhear them: ] Still, she bought it. Then another in bright green, but she didn't think it looked right with my hair so she had one of the other girls try it on. [ Alayne frowns at that, the commission not having gone to her. But one sale was better than none and it would mean a little pocket money to do something nice for Jack when her next allowance came. ]

[unkindly]

[The gossip is strange but he likes hearing Alayne talk about it, because it matters to her, and it gives them something to talk about. Not that the don't have things to talk about, but sharing things about their days is the kind of comfortable ritual that Jack never really thought he'd have again. He smiles at Alayne and shrugs.]

There'll be other dresses.