calicoat | 🏴‍☠️ IC contact; Duplicity

[ If they were face to face right now, Anne would have just spat it out. But there's something about this, knowing she's talking to him and not hearing his voice or seeing his face, that's making it easier for her to contemplate the idea of keeping a lid on it, something she'd never do otherwise. It's a strange feeling to want to hide something from Jack. She's only felt it once before, and that was with Max. This, by comparison, is less damning.

But still. A moment ago she'd been grateful for this device, but now she's having to enter each letter into her confession and send it to him, she's overthinking more than she usually does about anything. She can't tell whether it's better or worse that he's not there to look her in the eye. ]

saw billy bones

we had an argument

didn't last very long

[ Sorry Anne, you're gonna hear his voice. Pick up the phone, now. ]

Anne. What does that mean?

[ Stupid question. He knows full well how most of her arguments with anyone other than him end. But the sooner she confirms it, the sooner he can work on smoothing it over with the only person in this city with whom their names carry any measure of weight. ]

[ For a moment she considers pressing the red button, which she understands from context clues is meant to be a refusal. Red for stop, green for go, that makes sense even to her. But a second after thinking it she dismisses the thought. Billy Bones isn't worth putting a real thorn in Jack's side. ]

Things got heated.

[ It's still weird to hear Jack's voice coming out of this flat, smooth, tiny thing. She feels a little bit stupid talking into it. ]

He was being a cunt, Jack.

Well, how heated did they get, Anne? What on earth would the two of you have to fight about?

[ Had they ever even spoken, back in Nassau? Jack may have in passing, in the tavern, every now and again, but certainly not enough to harbor any resentments worth carrying back here. And Anne is not as outgoing as he is. ]

Did you leave the man alive, at least?

I don't know.

[ That's not a lie, she really doesn't. She'd just sort of left him there, and the rationality for that decision is still there, ready to be deployed. ]

It's not like it makes a fucking difference, is it? He'll come back. People don't stay dead here. So whether I killed him or not doesn't fucking matter.

[ Somewhere in the middle of all that, her voice went a little waspish, sharp, overly defensive. She's never felt the need to defend herself over much, not to Jack at least, but she can feel fury under her skin again, bubbling, simmering. ]

Ain't it enough for you to know I had my reasons?

[ The annoyed grunt of a sigh from the other line is unmistakable. Honestly, what is wrong with her? He thought she'd mellowed out a bit, now that the shock of their abduction has worn off. ]

It might make a fucking difference, Anne, if we need an ally and the only person who has known us for more than two weeks recalls the time you sliced him open for looking at you wrong.

[ God damn it, Anne. Jack leans over the counter at home, one hand holding the phone to his ear and the other trying to massage the burgeoning headache from his temple. ]

Would you like to share your reasons? Something more compelling than 'being a cunt', if you have them?

[ She can remember their conversation almost word-for-word. It wasn't much of one, if she's honest with herself, but it'd been enough at the time to warrant a blade to the gut. ]

Saw him across the street. He's fucking tall, couldn't miss him. I said you told me he was here. He said he was fucking sorry I'm here too. The fuck am I supposed to do with sorry, Jack? And then— [ The words tumble out of her a little, like she's trying to circumvent him before he can interrupt her and answer that question. ] And then he fucking calls me Anne.

[ Smart on her part, because he is absolutely going to interrupt - what the fuck else could she want from Billy? ]

Okay. So you attacked him because he was too familiar, and has nothing to offer you but condolences. I think violence, in this instance, is unnecessary, even by your very loose standards.

[ At least Hammond and friends were hurting someone. Killing during active piracy is a means to an end. This seems so random. Extreme, even for her, always the hotter head of the two. ]

Are you hearing yourself? It sounds to me like you're cracking up.

Fuck you, Jack.

[ Jesus, she wishes she'd just faced the music and hunted him down to talk to him face to face, because that doesn't feel half as satisfying when she's just snarling it to a blank bit of machinery. ]

What the fuck happened to you being on my side? You said it'd be us to the fucking end.

Sometimes [ often times, but he can be diplomatic about it ] being on your side means telling you when you're acting a fool. That is a courtesy you extend to me with awful regularity so please, excuse me for returning the favor.

[ Jack, on the other hand, is glad not to be face to face, lest he give in to the growing temptation to throw the phone against the wall. ]

I need you to pull yourself together, please, and not stab anyone else until I can figure out how to smooth this over.

Edited 2021-12-05 02:59 (UTC)

Why the fuck would you want to?

[ Usually Jack can calm her down, the operative word here being usually. Most of the time. Maybe not immediately, maybe not in a way that's immediately obvious, but where nobody else can get through to her, Jack can. ]

What use is he to us, Jack? Why's it fucking matter whether it's smoothed over or not? He's been no fucking help to us so far. Nobody has.

Whether you enjoy his company or not, he has more in common with us than anyone here. When trouble starts, or we get around to trying to build something here that's any more substantial than the stack of appliance manuals, that is a connection that could have been useful, had you not thrust your dagger through it.

[ She knows this. She's smarter than this. Maybe this is the trouble. God help him. ]

Oh, and you think he would've just got into fucking bed with us, do you? [ She's sneering now, definitely, lip curled, and if he was right in front of her she'd be giving him the same furious, indignant face she's giving her phone. ] You're talking like I ruined some fucking alliance with him that was all set in place. I didn't.

He might have, at some point. And that's all we've got, nothing but maybes!

[ He's raising his voice now, furious that Anne seems to have fried her brain using the microwave last night. What the fuck? ]

Did it ever occur to you that telling him to fuck off and walking away would suffice? How are you going to keep yourself out of fuck-jail and find a Submissive if you are stabbing them over the slightest of infractions? Use your fucking head, won't you, I can't always be thinking for the both of us!

Fuck you.

[ She's already said it, but it bears repeating. If she was in her right mind she'd have ended this conversation already, cut him off halfway through a sentence and gone off to sulk somewhere, and maybe that's why she's still here. She's not in her right fucking mind, and the worst part is that she can feel it; she knows, at least some small part of her knows, that there's something pushing her in this direction, but she's completely helpless to stop it.

It's such an unpleasant feeling that it's a whole lot easier for her to just ignore it, to pretend that this is the way she'd be acting if she had a clear head. She doesn't want to think about what it says about her. Best to just ignore it. ]

I'm not stupid, Jack. Don't talk to me like I am.

Fine, fuck me, Anne, fuck me. Just come home, won't you?

[ Before she manages to kill anyone else who didn't deserve it. He won't be here, but that's probably better for both of them. ]

🏴‍☠️ IC contact; Duplicity

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