shatterverse | (no subject)

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Jack is driving along one of the many roads on this big ol' wide continent in the Coraline, with all the windows open and a self-satisfied grin on his face. There's a bass guitar in the back, along with a couple amps (one of which actually goes up to 11 - he found the best); his cutlasses and guns are resting happily on the passenger seat and he's whistling while he looks out for other useful things to bring back to the farm.

(He's also looking for a friend he's missed recently)

There's no joy like the simple joys, and of them, Jack's favourite has always been the open ~~sea~~ road, knowledge of being useful to his friends, and a warm woman waiting for when he's done roaming.

Yo ho.

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The sound of the approaching vehicle catches Mai's attention and she stops to watch. Her hands tuck into her sleeves automatically and her eyes narrow.

At Jack's greeting, Mai simply stares quietly.

Jack grins cheerfully at her, and leans across the passenger seat to open the door there. This does little more than make it easier to talk to her.

"You're lost."

"Not really," Mai contradicts. Which... was sort of true. She may not have known where she was, but it's not like she had any destination in mind to be lost on the way to.

"Someone must have lost you," Jack says calmly.

"Where are you heading?"

That question sounds rather rhetorical.

Mai's eyebrow quirks in a sort of 'why do you care?' manner. Then she shrugs and gestures vaguely in the direction she was walking. "That way."

Jack grins, as if she'd shared a massive joke with him.

"May I offer a faster way of getting there? Walking is only for those with no choice."

"I don't know you," Mai points out.

Which isn't an answer in the typical sense.

"That can be rectified."

Jack removes his hat, and bows from his seated position.

"Jack Hollins is me. Gentleman of fortune, once wedded to the sea, but now the road is my mistress."

Mai eyes Jack. Then eyes the weapons on the seat next to him. Then she eyes Jack again.

"Isn't that nice."

Jack gives a sheepish smirk and removies the cutlasses to the other side of himself. The guns, he slips into his sash.

"And now there's even room."

"Isn't that nice," Mai repeats. She makes no move to get into the car.

Jack grins at her.

And grins.

And lifts his nearside leg onto the seat so he can twist and face her. Jack never wears a seatbelt.

And then he waits.

Mai waits as well, her hands still hidden in her sleeves. Despite being dirty, the silk robes have held up surprisingly well with very few rips or tears.

All this grinning makes Mai think, for just a moment, of Ty Lee.

Jack's looking as he sits. Reading and thinking and analysing and altogether being too smart for his own good.

He leans back against the door, and tilts his head.

"From where do you hail?"

The question is considered for a moment, and then answered with a question. "Why do you care?"

"Conversation," Jack says cheerfully. "I like meeting people."

"I don't," Mai replied flatly.

"Then we have a conflict of interests."

Jack, it seems, is determined to win.

"Were this my world, your face and clothing would root you as Nihonese. But you are neither that, nor of this world."

"Oh, good," Mai's voice remains flat. "You're not blind."

She was worried there for a moment. Really.

Jack guffaws quietly and winks at her.

"And yet the style seems familiar. I've seen someone from the same area, I'm sure."

In fact, the more he studies the girl's imprint, the more he's sure he can place her home world...

"You have no idea how much that reassures me."

Jack winks.

"I have some idea."

Though his grin fades slightly as it occurs to him.

"Fire Nation?"

Sokka's enemies. And she particularly is no friend of Sokka's.

It's odd, because the boy back at the farm wasn't an enemy to either.

Mai stiffens slightly, but that's her only reaction. Well, other than her hand tightening around one of the knives at her wrist.

"Maybe."

It's possible that the surprise is why her reply is so obviously lame.

"You'll miss."

It's not a threat, nor a particularly worried warning. More a mild statement of fact.

Then, just as mildly, as an explanation:

"Myself, I bow to no king, and have fealty to no nation."

"Miss?" Mai asks with false innosence.

Then she shrugs, "Well good for you."