[Echoed with utmost flatness. An awkward beat of silence falls between them. Does Jade even know what a 'vibe' is actually supposed to entail, in this context? Is he going to ask even if he doesn't?? Well...]
...Well, I suppose I've still risked life and limb for more ridiculous things, before... [Maybe. Probably. Speaking of--] That still doesn't answer my first question, by the way. [Or even the second, really, but...trying to choose the battles he can actually win here....] I'm trying to gauge whether you'll actually be aware of our collective untimely demises over there, should things turn out for the worst. Or will you simply wait until a certain amount of time has passed? Assuming we'll be needing to work within a time limit in general...
You all dying would actually be the most convenient method. [beat] Of returning, mind. Not succeeding. I suspect that there will be some sort of physical object that needs moving, and corpses are very bad at carrying things.
True, the lack of muscle tension in death tends to make carrying things very difficult. [A sardonic dryness, to this. Still, at least it sounds like they won't have to die just to retrieve this thing, which is...something. Of course, death being a side effect of the attempt is still on the table too, probably...] I see you've a rough guess that the object is physical, at least. Any other ideas as to its properties? Whether it's a single piece, whether it'll need a container or multiple hands to be carried...
[raises hand] I only assume it's an object. Mostly because I can't imagine how one hides away an abstract concept, but... Stranger things have been done.
[The captain, of all people, ought to have such horizons accordingly very broad. After all, he's seemingly cobbled together feats in the very existence of this reality that Jade couldn't have begun to imagine within the limitations of Auldrant. Why couldn't an abstract concept be given form to hide, really? (For some reason, for a very brief moment, Jade also finds himself thinking about that time back home when they'd spent months looking for the Jewel of Lorelei, only to realize by accident that Luke actually had it stored in his own body the entire time...)
That aside, though--hm. Isn't there something a bit interesting, in that response? Jade arches his eyebrows slightly, at the hand raised.]
But this thing is hidden away, is it? Or so you believe, it seems. ...By who?
[Well considering the reasonability bar for feral teenagers who are clingy about their cool knives is like, on the floor--]
Hmmm, I wonder! Not immediately "disqualifying", perhaps. Though it is a pretty disappointing answer...if it's the truth. ["If" being the qualifying word, of course, although...] I hear tell you supposedly don't tend to lie unless it's funny, at any rate--is that right?
[A pleasant enough smile accompanies the easy acceptance aloud, but...yeah there might be a slightly sardonic tint there too. How do you quantify that extended Hiram bit you pulled with the pirate crew, sir?? Half-truths and lies by omission still count as dishonesty too, as far as Jade's concerned...!
Still, arguing that point isn't going to get this conversation anywhere productive, and Jade's aware enough of this already. For the meantime--]
At any rate. To recap, then, to my understanding--do correct me if I'm wrong! As you cannot directly view or enter this reality yourself, you're opting to send a handful of passengers there instead. To retrieve an item of some importance to you...though we only know it's there by "vibes", and can only barely assume it's even physical enough to carry. You have no idea what we should expect to encounter in this unknown place. We also have no idea what the item you want looks like, or what size it is. We do know that it's hidden, though we don't know who hid it...and I'd guess you don't know why either. To cap it off, it'll be easier to return via dying than it will the conventional way, probably...though dying is unlikely to lead to actual success, either.
[A beat of silence, to just kind of...let all that sit there, for a moment. And then, very dryly:] Not asking for much, are you?
[........Jade sighs, a (half-)mock put-upon thing. In the process, he's also resisting the sudden and very powerful urge to just turn around and leave and take this ridiculous bar of pens with him--]
Of course you'd answer like that. [In immediate retrospect: probably shouldn't have expected anything else...] Surely you do realize how it all sounds, though. With a vagueness like this, one has to wonder if this entire affair isn't actually some kind of elaborate trap after all...
[Trailing off at that point, for a beat, Jade peers speculatively at the captain's features for a long moment.]
Why did you choose Skulduggery to take up this task for you?
[Oh yeah that's totally how it works, a foolproof tactic.....except Jade has been hearing just enough--from Skulduggery himself, mind you--that an admission like that is notable in itself, even despite the joke framing.
The speculative look remains on Jade's features. He's also letting another slight pause fall, just to really let that not-joke fall limp, before speaking once more.]
That would track, wouldn't it? It's a rather surprising concept, though. I hadn't thought you a sort of person capable of liking much of anything, particularly.
[Much less another person. Much less a passenger. And yet, and yet...]
Have you ever let any other passenger into the bridge, before? I've been wondering if Skulduggery's actually the first...
Not so unusual, and yet you're only willing to cite Friday... [Sure is literally not the question asked at all, no!! Which, in some ways, is even more telling than some sort of limited admission could have been. A slight smirk falling upon his features, Jade tilts his head slightly to one side.] So Skulduggery is the first passenger you've ever permitted into the bridge, isn't he?
Oh, of course, I suppose you wouldn't. Far too concerned with other far more important matters us insects couldn't possibly understand, no doubt.
[Just, slathered in sarcasm at this point, with an equal amount of airiness. ...Well, tempting as it might be to push further...Jade's not sure he could get any more direct in questioning if he tried, at this point, and the captain seems utterly determined to avoid actually answering the question no matter how extremely obvious the dodging might be.
That's fine, though. As far as Jade's concerned, the consistent dodging is just as good as confirmation anyhow. Which...makes for interesting implications, all told. If Skulduggery Pleasant is indeed the first passenger to ever witness the inside of the captain's bridge by active permission...just what was it, that earned him the privilege? What does the captain see in him, that he's never seen in any of the countless thousands of other souls sifted through the engines of this ship?
...Is it truly a good or a bad thing, this distinct favoring?
Questions he'll have to mull over on his own, probably; Jade doubts the captain would want to answer any of those, either. So...it's a bit of an impasse from here, isn't it? Not much else to be said. There's a slight pause, in which Jade idly weighs the pen sword in his hand, looking as if he's just about to offer it over--but at the last second, another final question occurs to him unbidden. Unrelated to anything else spoken of so far, here...well, sort of unrelated, anyway. And it's coming out as soon as thought turns to it, before he can quite stop himself--]
--Speaking of Skulduggery, though. As I'm sure you're aware, his body scattered on impact back there on the excursion...yet even upon his revival a day afterward, those bones persisted. Did you have...some sort of existing bone stockpile, that you pulled from to piece him back together? [--Don't need to know, really don't need to know, don't ask, why are you--] If so, does such a stockpile exist for generally fleshier sorts of bodies too, when you resurrect them?
[It's about what he'd already guessed anyway, though the validation is...hm. Only leads to more questions, really. How are the materials preserved? How does he manage to piece together anatomies from countless different worlds? And for that matter, most pressingly of all, how does the resurrection--
No. He told himself he wouldn't pursue this, and he's not going to, regardless of the way there's something intent and unpleasantly familiar rearing up in the back of thought just at this little bit of information already.
It's another beat of hesitation, as if he's about to say something else...but Jade's expression simply flattens into neutrality, after a second or so. With no further pretense, he actually does hold out the ridiculous bundle of taped pens for the captain to take this time.]
Well, here you go, then. Per our agreement. [.......] Honestly, I haven't the faintest idea what you're going to do with this thing.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[Echoed with utmost flatness. An awkward beat of silence falls between them. Does Jade even know what a 'vibe' is actually supposed to entail, in this context? Is he going to ask even if he doesn't?? Well...]
...Well, I suppose I've still risked life and limb for more ridiculous things, before... [Maybe. Probably. Speaking of--] That still doesn't answer my first question, by the way. [Or even the second, really, but...trying to choose the battles he can actually win here....] I'm trying to gauge whether you'll actually be aware of our collective untimely demises over there, should things turn out for the worst. Or will you simply wait until a certain amount of time has passed? Assuming we'll be needing to work within a time limit in general...
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[The captain, of all people, ought to have such horizons accordingly very broad. After all, he's seemingly cobbled together feats in the very existence of this reality that Jade couldn't have begun to imagine within the limitations of Auldrant. Why couldn't an abstract concept be given form to hide, really? (For some reason, for a very brief moment, Jade also finds himself thinking about that time back home when they'd spent months looking for the Jewel of Lorelei, only to realize by accident that Luke actually had it stored in his own body the entire time...)
That aside, though--hm. Isn't there something a bit interesting, in that response? Jade arches his eyebrows slightly, at the hand raised.]
But this thing is hidden away, is it? Or so you believe, it seems. ...By who?
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Is "I don't know" a disqualifying answer? [or is he REASONABLE unlike the goddamn teenagers]
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Hmmm, I wonder! Not immediately "disqualifying", perhaps. Though it is a pretty disappointing answer...if it's the truth. ["If" being the qualifying word, of course, although...] I hear tell you supposedly don't tend to lie unless it's funny, at any rate--is that right?
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[A pleasant enough smile accompanies the easy acceptance aloud, but...yeah there might be a slightly sardonic tint there too. How do you quantify that extended Hiram bit you pulled with the pirate crew, sir?? Half-truths and lies by omission still count as dishonesty too, as far as Jade's concerned...!
Still, arguing that point isn't going to get this conversation anywhere productive, and Jade's aware enough of this already. For the meantime--]
At any rate. To recap, then, to my understanding--do correct me if I'm wrong! As you cannot directly view or enter this reality yourself, you're opting to send a handful of passengers there instead. To retrieve an item of some importance to you...though we only know it's there by "vibes", and can only barely assume it's even physical enough to carry. You have no idea what we should expect to encounter in this unknown place. We also have no idea what the item you want looks like, or what size it is. We do know that it's hidden, though we don't know who hid it...and I'd guess you don't know why either. To cap it off, it'll be easier to return via dying than it will the conventional way, probably...though dying is unlikely to lead to actual success, either.
[A beat of silence, to just kind of...let all that sit there, for a moment. And then, very dryly:] Not asking for much, are you?
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Of course you'd answer like that. [In immediate retrospect: probably shouldn't have expected anything else...] Surely you do realize how it all sounds, though. With a vagueness like this, one has to wonder if this entire affair isn't actually some kind of elaborate trap after all...
[Trailing off at that point, for a beat, Jade peers speculatively at the captain's features for a long moment.]
Why did you choose Skulduggery to take up this task for you?
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[if you say it like it's a joke then it's not true right.]
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The speculative look remains on Jade's features. He's also letting another slight pause fall, just to really let that not-joke fall limp, before speaking once more.]
That would track, wouldn't it? It's a rather surprising concept, though. I hadn't thought you a sort of person capable of liking much of anything, particularly.
[Much less another person. Much less a passenger. And yet, and yet...]
Have you ever let any other passenger into the bridge, before? I've been wondering if Skulduggery's actually the first...
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[which is literally not the question asked at all.]
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[Just, slathered in sarcasm at this point, with an equal amount of airiness. ...Well, tempting as it might be to push further...Jade's not sure he could get any more direct in questioning if he tried, at this point, and the captain seems utterly determined to avoid actually answering the question no matter how extremely obvious the dodging might be.
That's fine, though. As far as Jade's concerned, the consistent dodging is just as good as confirmation anyhow. Which...makes for interesting implications, all told. If Skulduggery Pleasant is indeed the first passenger to ever witness the inside of the captain's bridge by active permission...just what was it, that earned him the privilege? What does the captain see in him, that he's never seen in any of the countless thousands of other souls sifted through the engines of this ship?
...Is it truly a good or a bad thing, this distinct favoring?
Questions he'll have to mull over on his own, probably; Jade doubts the captain would want to answer any of those, either. So...it's a bit of an impasse from here, isn't it? Not much else to be said. There's a slight pause, in which Jade idly weighs the pen sword in his hand, looking as if he's just about to offer it over--but at the last second, another final question occurs to him unbidden. Unrelated to anything else spoken of so far, here...well, sort of unrelated, anyway. And it's coming out as soon as thought turns to it, before he can quite stop himself--]
--Speaking of Skulduggery, though. As I'm sure you're aware, his body scattered on impact back there on the excursion...yet even upon his revival a day afterward, those bones persisted. Did you have...some sort of existing bone stockpile, that you pulled from to piece him back together? [--Don't need to know, really don't need to know, don't ask, why are you--] If so, does such a stockpile exist for generally fleshier sorts of bodies too, when you resurrect them?
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It's always good to have spares.
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[It's about what he'd already guessed anyway, though the validation is...hm. Only leads to more questions, really. How are the materials preserved? How does he manage to piece together anatomies from countless different worlds? And for that matter, most pressingly of all, how does the resurrection--
No. He told himself he wouldn't pursue this, and he's not going to, regardless of the way there's something intent and unpleasantly familiar rearing up in the back of thought just at this little bit of information already.
It's another beat of hesitation, as if he's about to say something else...but Jade's expression simply flattens into neutrality, after a second or so. With no further pretense, he actually does hold out the ridiculous bundle of taped pens for the captain to take this time.]
Well, here you go, then. Per our agreement. [.......] Honestly, I haven't the faintest idea what you're going to do with this thing.
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I'm going to have it, of course. [said with a certain amount of "duh" in the inflection.]