Jack Harkness' room :: Mid-2005 timewarp AU :: Milliways

[othercaptjack]

Jack's room is mostly basic, it has to be said.

In fairness, he hasn't had much chance to make it his own - it has only been (ahem) somewhere private to go that is not the TARDIS for when he visits Milliways.

And since he is not Bound, for most of the time it stays empty, storing just some clean clothes and basic necessities (well - basic if you're Jack) and not much else.


There is this to be said for it, too:

The door may be locked, but it is not booby-trapped.

Lucky for some.

Comments

[oneman_onevote]

Havelock is briefly tempted to ask how much worse this King's vengeance could possibly get, since Puck's death was apparently already on the cards.

Possibly this is not the concern, however.

(Just because Havelock is mostly lukewarm towards his fellow man, doesn't mean he can't understand that some people are not the same.)

"Is he likely to do so?"

[puckishly.livejournal.com]

Puck's head doesn't move, but his eyes flick down to glance at Havelock. He smiles.

"I'll not answer thee, ser, 'til I am answered." That's only fair, right? "Of what in particular did Hellebore speak to you?"

[oneman_onevote]

Havelock turns a pale gaze on him once more.

"Why, he was telling me of your grievous crimes against the king."

His voice is entirely bland.

"And throwing out veiled hints as to what the consequences might be of your keeping away. He seemed under the impression that I knew you well."

[puckishly.livejournal.com]

Puck's expression twists into a grimace.

"Was he."

This mostly-question could mostly apply to most everything he has just said.

[oneman_onevote]

"Indeed."

Havelock's glacial expression may indicate how very much he was bothered by the various revelations of that conversation.

(Or: it may not.)

[puckishly.livejournal.com]

"I expect the crimes were terribly grievous in the telling of them," Puck sighs.

[oneman_onevote]

The assassin's eyebrows raise.

"To me?"

There is a note of dismissal in Havelock's voice now - evidently, whatever he was told, he did not think much of it.

[puckishly.livejournal.com]

Puck does raise his head at that, eyeing Havelock curiously.

"Or perhaps he was somewhat less convincing than he hoped." He's aware that mortals don't always conceive of loyalty in the same way-- and certainly they are a race of oath-breakers, when not compelled to keep one.

[oneman_onevote]

"Most likely."

Then again, Havelock is a contrary boy by nature.

[puckishly.livejournal.com]

He smiles.

"So I do not strike you as a particularly perfidious brand of criminal, then?"

[oneman_onevote]

Havelock shrugs.

"You found reason to dislike your servitude, and you left. So far as I can tell, that seems to be the extent of it - the greatest injury I can see that causing is to your king's pride."

Which might be a crime in itself!

"And I do not set much store by kings."

...Or not.

[puckishly.livejournal.com]

Puck laughs, though only very quietly-- he has not forgotten that it is best to be stealthy for now.

"Hellebore is not so clever as some of my kin," he says.

"Belike another of the court should have put it better."

[oneman_onevote]

"I'm sure it would have been a fascinating tale," he remarks dryly.

"If possibly less believable."

[puckishly.livejournal.com]

He blinks.

"Less?"

[oneman_onevote]

"Hmmm."

Havelock is pretty sure he's got - whether Hellebore intended it or not - a fairly truthful version of events.

...Havelock reads through the lines a lot.

[puckishly.livejournal.com]

"You found reason to dislike your servitude, and you left."

The voice is Havelock's, though it issues with thoughtful softness from Puck's mouth. He shakes his head and glances at Havelock, as if he'd like to laugh again or smile or snicker rudely.

Instead, he pauses.

"If I understand aright," he says, "the king shall be dreadfully busy just at present. But now that Hellebore shan't return ..."

A slight, faint shrug.

"It were one thing to track an erring servant and arrant knave ... but the murderer of a knight of the court is something else entire. I cannot say what he will do, should he come to suspect the two are the same."

And if he's honest-- though saints protect him from it-- there is part of him that wishes Oberon should come for him. Call it an ounce of vanity and a pound of affection.

Or is it the other way around?

[oneman_onevote]

"Ah," says Havelock, soft.

There is something in the way Puck speaks of the king - but perhaps he imagines things.

(It's unlikely. But one must consider all possibilities.)

"And could he not be prevented by anything or anyone here? I know the rules are enforced, but only by patrons."



Any all-powerful being crashing Milliways is everyone's problem, after all.

[puckishly.livejournal.com]

Puck's face: now entirely baffled!

"I have told you it shouldn't come to strife," he says. "Not for any other than myself. No matter who should come-- my lord, another messenger, the white-armed and dainty-footed Titania herself-- I have no friend here, nor any particular enemy to take an interest; the entire business shall be most clean."

[oneman_onevote]

And Havelock thought he was cynical.

...Perhaps in Ankh-Morpork he might have agreed, but he has seen the reponse this place has to infractions of the rules. Uneven the place's justice might be, but patrons certainly band together against interlopers.

(The current situation notwithstanding.)

And Hellebore was not the kind to make friends well among mortals. Puck... Well, he is abrasive - but he will talk to people, and has lived here peaceably enough.


Mildly, "Think you so?"

[puckishly.livejournal.com]

"I have no reason," says Puck, but he doesn't look so sure, "to think otherwise."

What exactly is the mortal getting at, anyhow?

Puck has been training himself to quash hope-- but all the same, he can't quite help feeling a little now. Brain-eating shambling corpses notwithstanding.

[oneman_onevote]

"Stranger things have happened."



...Speaking of.

The door rattles on its hinges momentarily, and there is a gutteral snarling sound from outside.

Havelock freezes, tense and ready to spring for the door should it be brought down.

[puckishly.livejournal.com]

Puck jumps, grabbing for the bottle. Upon giving the matter a moment's thought-- but no more than that-- he pops into view a few feet from Havelock, draining said bottle of its contents.

He thinks it has a rosy future as a bludgeoning tool.

Also: now he feels tingly.

"What is strange," he murmurs dryly-- though not so dryly as he might like. "That I think?"

[oneman_onevote]

"Right now?" Havelock says, blank and innocent as the emptiness of the bottle in Puck's hand; "Most everything, I would imagine."

[puckishly.livejournal.com]

"Do speak plainly," Puck mutters, very softly so that the increasingly loud groaning does not have cause to turn on them with any especial directness. "As I suspect my brains shall soon be set a-swimming."

(This is probably an exaggeration.

Probably.)

[oneman_onevote]

(That, or spilled across the floor!

Um.

Not by Havelock. Probably.)


"I try never to do that as a rule," he says, approaching the door cautiously to check the strength of the wood, and the weight of the frame against it once more.