tushanshu_logs | Event | Landfall

Event | Landfall | Diving & Sinbrilee

Characters: Any and every!
Date: August 10th - 31, 2013
Location: The sunken city of Sinbrilee
Situation: Tu Vishan comes upon the oceanfloor, holding his own memorial to the fall of his sister turtle while those upon his shell may explore the ruined city.
Warnings/Rating: Please place content warnings in subject headers!

Sinbrilee | Dreaming | Death

Art by Rica.

The city is lit by a warm orange glow, there are thousands of lanterns lit and burning brightly to ward off the gathering dark. It was once a grand, thriving place, and it's obvious by the quality of the Greco-Roman architecture, the high sweeping columns of white marble, the beautifully paved roads. There are aqueducts throughout the city that look as if they could be put to use today. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that the city's spent the last few hundred years underwater, it looks quite liveable. This city is entirely open to exploration, so feel free to send your character out to their heart's content. Remember, certain doorways will lead your characters into either Death or the Dreaming and these markings won't always be visible to them, so they should take care and be vigilant at all times!

Note: A separate post will be made for the events of the Bacchanal later in the month.

Headers:
> Keeliai | The Dive
> Sinbrilee | The Athenaeum
> Sinbrilee | The Agora
> Sinbrilee | The Baths
> Sinbrilee | Elsewhere

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"It wasn't just you," Jack replied, rubbing the heel of one hand against his temple.

"It was... everyone. The other Guardians, the kids in Burgess, everyone here... that's what that place made me think. It didn't matter that it didn't make sense, I had to watch them all just... leave me behind and I couldn't do anything to stop it."

The temperature in the air around them fluctuates, swinging down in response to his emotions. Yet the spirit catches it, dispels the outward reaction, steadies it again. A heavy pause and quietly, shamefully he admits, "That archway... that wasn't the first time I went through one of those. It was the second time."

Costigan turned to look out at the city before them again, an automatic way of allowing his companion privacy. He ignores, for now, the fact that he can't see the guy anyway and tries to treat Jack the way he would anyone else. That means allowing him time to think and to say whatever's on his mind. He feels the dip in cold and the adjustment a moment later, assuming it's a direct cause of Jack's doing but simultaneously not quite accepting that idea.

"It's not random. As far as I saw, the arches never created things that didn't exist somewhere already." He glanced to the side to ensure the frost was still behind him, then looked out. "Want to tell me about the other time?"

The arches never created things that didn't exist somewhere already...

The thought is enough to make even a being like Jack Frost feel cold in the pit of his stomach but he forced it away, focusing on Costigan's words. For a moment he resisted calling up the memory, knowing that it would only make him more sad that it was (could never be) real. His fingernails dug into the gnarled wood of his staff before he spoke again.

"It was..." He searched for another word, any word and yet could come up with nothing. "Perfect. It was perfect. I had a real home and, I, everyone was there. I read a story, to her, to my sister... Alice in Wonderland and--" His voice broke here but he tried to keep speaking anyway. "I... did the voices for her..."

That was as far as he got before a choked sob forced its way out and he drew his knees up tightly to his chest as the soft shuddering noises filling the space between them.

Costigan might have slapped a hand on Jack's shoulder if he could touch the guy. Instead, he only continued to stare out into the ruins of the city before them, empathizing with Jack's desires more than he would normally admit. He saw the same thing beyond one of the arches. He had no living family, of course, but he'd had a wife and a nice apartment over in Copley. It was enough.

Some part of him knew that it was different, because there was some miniscule hope left that he might see that future realized at some point, where Jack would never see his sister again.

"My dad died when I was in high school." He paused. Costigan didn't know if this was the right route, but he was trying. "I told you things were tight. My dad was a luggage handler at Logan. All my uncles and cousins, they were dirty, but my dad wanted to be an example to me. He's the reason I wanted to be cawp. My mom died after I left the Academy and I never saw her side of the family again."

He shook his head at the memory of his uncle coming to the hospital to judge him. It was hard for him to talk about and his voice hardened while he told the stories, but he continued anyway. Because if anyone deserved the truth of his past, it was Jack.

"I was an only child and my only family after that were a bunch of shit stains. The hardest years of my life happened without my parents. I was almost completely alone." Costigan lifted his hands to scrub at his face, pressing his balled fists against his closed eyes, remembering Queenan as the exception. "This guy Queenan, he helped me. When I had no one else, he stuck by me."

What was he trying to say? He had to focus, to get back on track. "As long as you have one guy who knows you- who really knows you, and respects you, and helps. You're not alone."

[ooc: 'cawp'='cop']

While Costigan speaks, Jack manages to get himself back under control, tamping down once again on the emotions storming through him. He shoved the heel of his hand against one eye, roughly wiping it, listening to the words in their unique Bostonian accent. As Costigan's past unfolds the spirit feels disquieted by the knowledge, ashamed of his own hurts. He'd been the one to die and brought back with no memory, he'd never had to live through the immediacy of the loss and then the added sting in the way the rest of his family behaved the way the undercover had.

In a way, Jack's pains were selfish... he chose to yearn for them after the fact and though he knew that was probably not the intention the man had for telling him these things, nonetheless it gave him some perspective to force away his own sorrows. When he spoke again, his voice was steadier.

"I'm glad he was there for you," Jack said softly, once Costigan had finished. "You deserve to have someone in your corner, Billy. And... I'm sorry, about your mom and dad. For what it's worth, I think he'd be proud of you, for doing the right thing even when it was hard."

Costigan is oblivious to Jack's thoughts, especially with no body language or expression to read. Instead, he drops his hands and tries to focus on gaining control of his own emotions again. He talks about his family so rarely that he can't help but get emotional about them. In fact, Costigan's not sure that he's ever spoken about his mother's death before, except with his aunt that time, but it wasn't the same. He was there to convince his cousin to cut him in on dealing. It was work.

At Jack's expression of pride, Costigan chokes on a humorless laugh. He coughs a couple times to kill it, not bothering to explain. He chooses to return to his point. "I can be that guy for you, Jack. If you let me."

The undercover reaches into his inside jacket pocket to fetch the pack of smokes from there. He needs a cigarette to calm his nerves. "I want to be."

Despite Costigan's not explaining it, Jack's expression and voice tightens subtly at the aborted bark of laughter, conflicting reactions rising in him. He called me by my name, the spirit thinks, in place of the usual 'kid' he normally got.

"I'd like that," he answered slowly, forming each word with thought and decision. "I would but... if you want to do it because of what you saw, because you think I need to be taken care of, it won't work. I let the whole thing with saving my money go because I know you mean well by it but I don't need a babysitter. What you saw, that... won't ever be me."

A beat and then, "I wouldn't ever let it go that far, I'd take care of it before... that."

Costigan gave a serious nod, listening and giving Jack's points all due consideration. He didn't want this to sound like a whim or something he hadn't given thought to. Truth be told, he had been thinking about it since their last talk weeks ago, but hadn't known how, exactly, to handle it until this place.

"I know. I want to do it because you're too much like me." He straightened and smiled a little, trying to emphasize the humor of the truth in his explanation. "You're okay until you're not, but you have trouble asking for help. All you need is someone to have your back."

The truth in Costigan's assessment hung plain and stark in the air and Jack ducked his head, though against the body language was lost because of his invisibility. They both knew that there wasn't any point in his denying it... but Jack found it a lot easier to relate to when Costigan said it was the same as he did. Maybe there wasn't anything wrong with it, that was just the way they did things.

All you need is someone to have your back.

"You know you're going back on what you said before, right?"

The undercover straightened and quirked his neck up at the accusation. He didn't know what he had said before or how this was contrary, but he could certainly believe it. He didn't really keep track of the things he said unless it was important to, and then only for work really. Whatever Jack meant, the truth of it was lost on him.

"What do you mean?"

"You said you'll stop trying to take care of me," Jack said. "You could have said you just wanted space for a while. You didn't have to be an ass about it... it's a good thing I knew better."

Costigan shook his head, smile fading. "It's not about the space. I always want space, you know that. I meant what I said. I'll have your back and I'll be there for you, but I'm not going to- to take care of you. You don't need that."

He shifted uncomfortably, not great with all this talk of feelings, sliding a smoke from his pocket and placing it between his lips. The lighter followed a moment later. "You're right, what you said about not being a kid, and I shouldn't have treated you like one."

"I don't," Jack agreed, leaning back on his hands and looking out over the former glory of Sinbrilee. "But I appreciated it for what it was, okay?"

Meaning, he knew Costigan hadn't meant it in a demeaning way and that it had been intended to help Jack, which the spirit had seen from the beginning and thus allowed to play out as it had. If he'd been actually offended by the efforts, he'd have either said so or stopped coming around, both of which he hoped the undercover knew or at least suspected.

"We're good, you and I."

"We're good," Costigan agreed. He followed Jack's example by shifting his own gaze out at the city as well. Once the cigarette was lit, he returned the lighter to his pocket and took a long drag.

The sentiment was about as close as the undercover would get to calling someone a friend to their face without being pushed.

It was peaceful, sitting side by side like this. He knew, instinctively, that it would have been sunset if not for the dome of water above them and in a rare philosophical mood, decided that it was kind of symbolic of his and Costigan's relationship. One chapter was ending and another one would soon begin.

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Event | Landfall | Diving & Sinbrilee

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