🏴‍☠️ IC contact; Duplicity

[calicoat]

INBOX text / audio / video / action "Captain Jack Rackham. Leave a message, or speak to me face to face like an adult." code credit

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[extramuralise]

[ There's a slow, considerate nod, a subtle and resolute tensing in Irving's expression. Speaking quietly: ]

Yes, I'd had the same thought. [ Does he still? He doesn't know. ] That we might... try again, here. Start anew, now that we are on slightly more even footing. Sometimes I do feel as if perhaps I've... failed him in some way.

[ Irving couldn't exactly say why he's felt some burden of responsibility for Hickey ever since the incident with Billy Gibson, but he had hoped Hickey might take something from Irving's lecture to him, really want to work to better himself, to involve himself. If Irving had been more persistent, maybe...

But maybe not. Maybe he's a fool, and it's pointless to wonder.

He scoffs skeptically, rolling his eyes and raising a brow. ]

You're not referring to yourself, are you?

[calicoat]

Perhaps...an apology then, is in order.

[ Jack speaks slowly, or else, he fears he might let on, with a chuckle or a hearty drip of sarcasm. It's completely demented, of course, to ask a man to apologize to his own murderer, but that's what makes the ruse so fun. Anyway, best not to press it, not while his lips are getting looser and the drink is really setting in. ]

As much as I would delight in keeping you to myself, John, I know that's impossible, so as you begin to spread your wings, do remember, there are more interesting options than Thomas Jopson.

[extramuralise]

An apology? [ His tone is confused and very faintly appalled. ] Exactly what would I have to apologize for? I've done nothing wrong.

[ Despite whatever guilt Irving might occasionally feel, whether misplaced or merited, he does still believe -- confidently so -- that he'd done the right thing back then, the only thing he could have done. The rest is too impossible to pinpoint, impossible to prove; perhaps he could have tried harder with Hickey, but who's to say it would have done any good, made any difference?

And besides, there had been plenty else going on at the time, all of it intensely dire, that demanded far more urgent attention than Cornelius Hickey did. It would have been reckless and irrational to have considered being a moral mentor to him a priority, back then.

Then Irving blushes, deeply and abruptly, feeling a bit of mental whiplash from the two drastically different trains of thought. What can he possibly say to that? If he agrees then he's a harlot, opening himself up to all manner of depraved, promiscuous behavior, and if he disagrees, then what on Earth does that mean? Jack will certainly read something into it, even if there's nothing (fidelity, attachment, intimacy, anything in that vein) actually there to be read. ]

I have no intention on spreading anything with Lieutenant Jopson-- nor anyone else, for that matter. [ At least, he's not ready to think about it. Though, speaking of Jopson: ] Though I suppose I really ought to be heading home soon, he'll no doubt wonder where I've been otherwise.

[calicoat]

Failing him, if that's how you feel.

[ It's too dark now to see the flush on Irving's face, but believe, he'd find it satisfying if he could. He really shouldn't be so worried about whether Jack thinks he's a harlot or not - he already does, and there's not a damn thing he could do to convince him otherwise now.

He laughs, deep and drunk and  surprised that Irving of all people, picked up on an innuendo he hadn't even intended. ]

Spreading with Jopson? I didn't say that. You dirty bird, you. You row back.

[ Jack's going back for the bottle. Promise not to smash it against his head. ]

[extramuralise]

It is only that... a feeling. Nothing more. [ More or less. Mostly. ] And I highly doubt his own reasoning is likely to align with mine.

[ Irving passes the bottle over before he takes up the oars with a sigh, his flush brightening further still but also thankfully all but invisible by now in the still-growing darkness. ]

Oh-- [ He huffs indignantly, the boat moving with a jerking start. ] You know what I meant, and it isn't... wasn't that!

[ Maybe a little bit it was; spreading his wings with Jopson (or anyone else), versus anything else, are really two only slightly different ways of saying the exact same thing anyway, now aren't they?

Within another minute or so they're moving smoothly through the water, not necessarily at speed, but there also isn't very far to go. ]

It's no concern of yours, besides.