calicoat | 🏴‍☠️ IC contact; Duplicity

[ Jack leans back on the door until it clicks behind him, and closes the gap between himself and the chair in front of her desk, setting his hands on the back of it hunching over it instead of sitting down. ]

We're supplementing what we arrived with by playing cards and other perfectly legitimate means, I assure you.

[ Yeah. Uh huh. ]

I'd intended to use the gold as start-up money for a place to run games out of. We haven't locked down a location, yet.

[She looks curious, her hands coming to a pile of papers.]

I just purchased a house.

[She says it softly, tipping her head in one direction.]

It needs to be fixed up. Luckily, Billy is a carpenter. But it's outside of the housing, so in theory, it's not surveilled.

[In theory. The truth is much more complicated; this place feels like being in a soviet police state sometimes.]

There's a gambling den in the Down. Not a den. A casino. Are you considering the Down as a location?

[These strange non-sequiturs really are related.]

Congratulations.

[ He thinks? ]

Charles can't stand the thought of cooperating with a gang he isn't in charge of, so it'll likely be the Up...I'm sorry, whatever point you're making, it seems to have given me the slip.

It's fine. I'm doing that annoying thing where I make a lot of random comments to tie them together later, and you can marvel at how we got there. I mean. You won't marvel, but I can pretend.

[She tips her head to one side.]

It seems to me that you have a niche that needs exploiting, being pirates in a place where pirates are a bit of an exotic commodity, and an area that isn't particularly well-developed. The beach here is....by sad definition, a lousy pit of sand.

[She tugs her legs up.]

Because of that, the land and building around it are cheap. And it's not as heavily watched as the rest of the Up.

[Which doesn't mean it's not heavily watched, it's just a little bit out of the way.]

Chaz and I said the same thing. While I must say, the prospect of running whores again is not something that thrills me, there may just be enough of you who get your rocks off on it to make it a viable idea.

[ You people and your pirate fetishes, honestly. He can't even argue, half the people he's been with here, he reeled in at least in part thanks to that. ]

I didn't say anything about whores.

[She says it with a softness in her voice.]

You don't have to run whores. You just need to make something fun. You're not a stupid man, Jack. You know how to do that without make sex transactional.

Have you been to the Gray Room?

[ will they even let you open a business here without a series of side rooks for fucking? If so, he hasn't seen it. ]

Can't say that I have.

Can I buy you a drink?

[She asks, moves to come over close to him.]

I want to show you what you'll be up against in the Up.

Now that, darling, is a proposal you will have to bitterly offend me, for me to reject.

[ Truth is, he's peeked in. Looked a bit upscale for him, not anything like what his reinstated Ranger triumvirate are looking to do. But, if she's buying. ]

Oh, excellent.

[She reaches for his arm, like he's going to escort her, like she's a lady instead of who she really is.

The walk over there isn't actually all that long.]

I think this is a relatively old institution, here.

[ Jack obliges, like he’s a perfect gentleman, instead of what he really is. ]

They must be onto something, then?

Yes. People here love a theme.

[She says it dryly as they get judged, casually, to come in, and apparently they fit the bill. She finds a spot, a little isolated, a booth in a dark room, orders, and after he does the same, she leans back into the bench.]

I'm guessing there's nothing like this in Nassau.

[ He’s having a hard time deciphering what that theme is supposed to be, exactly. It’s upscale, sure, very classy. Not the kind of place that would let riffraff like him in, if he hadn’t updated his wardrobe to blend in a little easier. ]

God, no. There’s a tavern for drinking and arguing, and a brothel for drinking and fucking. No wealth of demand for anything else.

Well. I think a tavern for drinking and arguing wouldn't go amiss here.

[She nods a little to the bar.]

It's owned by mages. You can practically smell the magic coming off the bar. If you wait long enough, someone will make a show of it, sooner or later.

[She nods a bit.]

There's a secret room. Back there.

[She points with the tip of her nose.]

Well-versed in magic, are you, Daphne?

[ What does magic smell like, exactly? ]

I've seen it.

Can't say more than that.

[Which is pretty true, considering. She lifts her nose a little, and watches as their drinks are served.]

I want you to imagine Charles in here.

That's a tall ask. Cloud of smoke and a bed of furs, is more his style.

[ Jack thanks the server, and has himself a sip. Drinks are good, at least. ]

There are shitty bars in the Down, but nothing in the Up that's not quite this...frilly.

[She opens her hand.]

Planning on offering them danger?

🏴‍☠️ IC contact; Duplicity

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