abraxaslogs | [ CATCH-ALL ] look at me, look at me

The second introduction Jack makes for Sabine goes (hopefully, probably) markedly better than the first one had. It's the one he'd actually been intending to do when he set out, when he started gently tugging her along through Castle Thorne's massive and winding hallways.

He brings her back to the room he's been sharing with Kyle.

There are four beds inside, but only two spaces seem occupied — it's not hard to discern which one belongs to Jack. His nightstand and even one half of his quilt on the bed proper are covered with books. Also, should Sabine happen to glance under it, she might spot a reflective pair of eyes peering out from beneath the bed back at her. That's not who he means to introduce her to, though.

He's aiming instead for the ninja very much not hiding underneath the bed.

The two of them slip in; he shuts the door behind them, and then awkwardly clears his throat.

Man, he's so bad at... people words, and pleasantries, and socializing like a human being.

"Hey, Kyle." Completele with a little wave, and then a gesture at the red-haired elephant in the room. "This is, um... this is Sabine."

There's a weight to the name, a poignant heaviness. It's probably obvious to her that Jack expects the name to be familiar and significant to Kyle. They've talked about her before — which is significant, considering he never, ever talks about her.

"Sabine, this is my teleporting ninja roommate friend, Kyle."

As weird as he is at introductions, it does feel good to have the two most important people to him in the entire faction in the same room together.

Even if Round One has left Sabine with more questions than can have answers yet, she follows Jack easily. Happily. There's nowhere else she would rather be. Not even for the answers about a lock-box angel; there's a lot she needs to be caught up on. There's still this little catch her chest does, regardless of breathing, when she looks over, and he's still there. Actually there. (She is.)

As Sabine looks over the room, the bed covered in books earns a fondly bright curve of a half-smile, even as the presence under the bed is as familiar as it is universally out of place. Shouldn't be here either; is—the same as both of them. As so many people on this planet are in that equation, she knows.

No time really to stick to that (yet) as Jack turns to introduce her to the other person in the room. The hesitation before her name lends to a searching, concerned glance back to Jack first, and she gives a soft squeeze of his fingers in her hand. She knows this is hard for him; how hard he had to tie those knots to keep something of her forever untouchably available at the edge of his thoughts and bury the rest of it so far down. All at the same time.

Sabine knows the density of that wall far, far too intimately.

But he manages and goes on past it, and she raises a hand giving a small wave of her own. A flutter of fingers that, unlike Jack's wave and Jack, despite five years without people, manages to look at ease with friendly. "Hi. "

At least until her brow crinkles, with a small snort of amusement. "Teleporting ninja, huh?"

Kahlil is on his own bed, neatly made despite him sitting on top of it and a large tome open in front of him - one of the library texts that namelessly references the gods, as though pouring over again might reveal something he didn't notice the first time.

It doesn't.

He lifts his head as soon as the door opens and he hears two sets of feet instead of one. There's a flicker of surprise first when he sees a woman (another redhead), then confusion and recognition muddled together as his gaze flicks from her unfamiliar features to Jack's expression for some further confirmation.

"The ninja part isn't true. He just keeps telling everyone that."

Another flick of his gaze from one to the other as he unfolds from his place on the bed in one graceful movement and stands there with an air of uncertainty.

"Hello."

"He's definitely a ninja," it's not a correction so much as just a mild insistence — of the two of them, having several years of Teenage Mutant under his belt, he can confidently say he's more of the ninja expert. It is his firm opinion that anyone who can karate through a portal with a crazy blade completely qualifies as a ninja.

But that's not really the important part of what's happening right now.

He gestures at Sabine.

"They just pulled her through, I- I found her at the hospital." A beat, and then the completely unnecessary clarification, "Alive."

Sorry, he's just. Still completely fucking baffled, and amazed — Kahlil may be able to see the evidence of it on him. The tear tracks he'd hastily scrubbed away in the courtyard. The way his eyes are still a little red. The bits of grass clinging to his back from the tumble they took, which maybe... makes slightly less immediate sense, but is nonetheless there.

He literally just went out for a check-up, and now he's coming back with a whole entire girlfriend.

Kind of a significantly larger step up than that one time with the unexpected raccoon.

Edited 2023-05-15 04:36 (UTC)

Sabine looks between them and this tête-à-tête ninja vs. not reference that reads as something worn in by this point, and she has to wonder what the evidence and argument on the opposing sides might be. At least until that last word.

Alive; that offkey, one-second later addition of Jack's, only serves to remind Sabine that Jack is still missing when she 'died' for a given enough definition the world had made paperwork and phone calls to officialize it. She supposed this—even if it was wildly out of the correct turn of time—was a more straightforward way than the last to counter that.

"It's been a few days, actually, but everyone's been everywhere with what happened,
and I was trying to help out wherever anyone needed some hands."

She still doesn't entirely know what all of it was either, but she'd thrown in to help where she could, as she could until she could make a better heads or tails of whatever had happened to her between the last thing that made sense and waking up here. At least one small part of too many mysteries had solved itself.

There, he really settles on Jack's appearance as his own expression shifts to one of concern. He starts to take a step forward - and some kind of realization comes over him as he stops himself before he instinctively moves closer to Jack.

"You must have a lot to catch up on," he starts slowly, a knit at his brow. "And you probably want to relax -"

He turns, picking up the large book from his bed and closing it shut with a dull thud, tucking it under one arm.

"I should bring this back to the library." A nod to both of them, a small smile to Jack. He starts to step by them to get through the door, clasping his shoulder. "I'll come back later to get my things, that way you two can have some privacy."

"Um. Okay."

The abrupt departure leaves him blinking, vaguely confused — but honestly? He's too distracted to properly piece together the full context of what's unfolding here. In a few weeks he'll look back on this moment and understand, but for right now, wrapped up as he is in the shock, all he can think to do is wheel around to Sabine. Finally processing what she just said.

"Wait, you've been here for days?"

And just like that, the boy was lost in the sauce again. A total roommate fumble and failure on his part, an inconsiderate friend in this moment, but — could anyone really blame him? He's having his mind blown today.

"It was nice to meet you, Kyle—"

Sabine called before the door had closed on the man slipping out. Noting down another face and name she hadn't known, though she was sure to pick up more on him soon enough, but that was pushed to one said as Jack was turning back to her with that repeat of her words, and it was her turn to look a little chagrinned.

She should have figured out that double-beat tug earlier than the last hour.
She only had to look at Jack now to know what the only thing that sound could be was.

"—and, yeah, most of it helping to take care of the townspeople who were rescued."

"Don't forget to warn her about the raccoon under the bed-"

is shouted from down the hall.

[ CATCH-ALL ] look at me, look at me

𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑙𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘

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