[PRP] Indulgences - Jack + Ripley

[medigel]

It was a Friday night and Jack had decided to treat himself by going off island and resupplying his dwindling alcohol supply, along with a few other odds and ends like books, snacks, and smokes. He was alive and uninfected and for the time being unfettered. Time to waste the night away.

Enoh Love

Text to R.I.P.ley:
You down for that whiskey tonight? I got a fresh bottle.

 

[Enoh Love]

He had recently gotten back from his off-island trip with Otto, and was pretty beat. Emotionally, physically, in every way possible, really. It had been a long trip, though it had only been twenty-four hours. So when his phone lit up with a text, he was pretty much on it.

medigel

Text to Jack: Always. Where?

Apparently, his 'say as few words as possible' rule also applied to text messages.  

[medigel]

Enoh Love

Text to R.I.P.ley:
My room's fine. Give me 10 minutes to clean up and then come over.

By clean up, he meant dropping his still not completely unpacked bag in the closet, taking the reports and files off his desk and into drawers, and then exchanging the converse he had used to get supplies for comfy loafers. Glasses were out on the desk as was said bottle of whiskey, though Jack still looked like well-dressed hobo. He probably had to do something about that someday.
 

[Enoh Love]

medigel

Text to Jack: Okay.

If Jack wanted him to bring something, he was fairly sure the other man would have said so. That wasn't to say he was about to go there empty handed of course, but it was on his own accord, not on request.

As was asked, Ripley waited a full - and exact - ten minutes before he left his room, heading down the long hallway to eventually place himself at Jack's door, his 'gifts' in hand. Namely - a couple bottles of Powerade, and some leftover snacks from Ian's visit those few months ago.

He knocked, and when the door was answered, he raised the bag of goodies as if to say I come baring gifts.  

[medigel]

He swung the door open, glanced at the offering, then nodded a little. "Yo," Jack greeted, letting Ripley in. "Been a while since the library chat, huh?"

Almost a year, actually. Jesus, time went by fast.

Jack's room was an unnaturally bland space with two pockets of color: a converted coffee maker with a mug that read I <3 JACK SPARROW next to it were by the bed, and the pitiful bookshelf on the other side that housed several out of date magazines and grim looking books. Everything else, save for what he had swept up before Ripley had came, was organized to the point of looking boring, like it was following a floor plan.

Without being prompted, Jack began to pour their drinks, gesturing for Ripley to take the desk chair if he wanted. "Promise I'm not infected," he said with a wry little smile.

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"Indeed." He agreed distantly, as he casually surveyed the room, viewing everything with the mild interest of someone who hadn't seen it yet, and had been mildly curious. Deep down, he found it rather amusing that Jack's idea of decorating was startlingly similar to his, right down to the boring, floor-plan like organization.

His gaze narrowed for only a moment on Jack; he understood a dig when he heard one, and that one? That one was painfully obvious.

"Very funny." He sighed, taking the offered seat and settling into it easily, his arms folding across his stomach after depositing the bag he had brought on the floor by his feet.

medigel

 

[medigel]

"I deal with things by making fun of them," Jack explained with a shrug. "Believe me, I had some concerns back there." Not particularly about the others, but about having to deal with both an infected Finn and a paranoid Ripley at the same time. He shuddered to think what would have happened if both strains of virus had been contracted.

Good thing he had a Sun dog practically at his beck and call.

"Do you remember much about what happened?" he asked as he finished pouring and swirled his glass.

Enoh Love

sorry, internet went dumb after night class unu

 

[Enoh Love]

"I didn't know you had a sense of humour." Ripley deadpanned, though he at least gave a slight smile a second or two later, somewhat amused by the idea and willing to show he wasn't being that serious about it. He hadn't had much experience when it came to Jack though, so for all he knew, the guy could be a prickle bush that moonlighted as a closet comedian.

"Everyone did." He both corrected and agreed all at once; at the time he had more than one concern, but now that he was sobered up and able to think about it objectively, he had several more to back the original up. It could have gotten much, much worse.

"I remember all of it." He admitted after a length silence, apparently his internal weighing of options ended with honesty as the best policy. "Every ridiculous moment." He sighed, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, pinching the bridge of his nose.

medigel

 

[medigel]

Jack nodded. "Great. Saves me the effort of explaining things." He assumed Ripley was of the same opinion that he had to be put down before he spread his infection around--even if that meant getting a rather nasty punch from Chel.

He took a sip from his glass. "It's Irish, if you were wondering. I don't have ice, so I hope you don't mind taking it neat." Jack stuck to casual conversation because he didn't quite know what to make of Ripley yet: one mission where half of it was spent in the dark and also infected didn't make for good impressions.

But considering he hadn't made a gay joke at his expense, Ripley was already doing pretty well.

"Did you ever find out what you ran into back there?" Jack asked. "I heard noises, but that's it."

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"You're welcome." He offered a thin smile, before the comment about the whiskey made him look down at his drink.

"If it has an alcohol content between thirty and seventy, I'll take it." Whether or not it was a brand was only a portion of it, but when it came right down to it, he didn't drink for the taste. It was the burn and the tingle, as it should have been. "Though the forty to forty-six range is favourable." He shrugged, and left it at that, though he finally took a sip, and found immediate satisfaction in the telling burn.

"No." It wasn't a fun thing to admit, but he really had no other options. "I thought it was a wall. Then started moving." Looking back on it, he probably should have left the moment he felt movement, but alas, hindsight and all.

"I hope you had better luck." He remembered Jack being there, and then he was gone. What happened to him after that was beyond him.

medigel

 

[medigel]

He began to frown at the mental image. A moving wall full of unknown liquid. His mind started to go down the path of living boil and had to be deviated with another burst of whiskey that burned it away. "Considering I got out of there with no bite marks and a vial of antivirus, I'd say so," Jack said with brisk satisfaction, turning to sit at the foot of his bed across from Ripley so he wouldn't look like he was hovering.

"Finn mentioned you two had some sort of agreement, which is honestly a disgusting affair I should warn you, but you should feel proud of yourself nevertheless. He doesn't always get this attached to his bed buddies," he added thoughtfully, though his gaze was still one that was sizing Ripley up on his reactions. "Or at least attached enough to try and cover their asses while flying in the face of logic. Hell, he still passes Wynaero texts every now and again even though I haven't seen her in months."

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"Congratulations." He said quietly, though he meant it. From what he understood of the chaos that day, very few people got out unaffected.

If Jack was hoping to gauge his physical reactions, he would likely be quite disappointed. His expression never changed as each bait was metaphorically placed before him; but internally, he was curious. Was this just an attempt at a power play? Some quiet, ultimately useless threat of 'I know a secret'? There was no secret to hoard away to begin with. The idea that Finn was attached was simultaneously ludicrous and obvious; nobody got into an arrangement like their's without some form of attachment - himself included - but anything beyond that was almost laughable.

"Finn made a call based on the facts available to him." Ripley started, lifting one shoulder in a careless shrug. "No visual bites, no cough, no blood lust. There was no obvious hint of the otherwise quite perfectly uniform infection. My only symptom was paranoia. There was no telling what the treatment would do to someone who was never infected." With that particular strain, anyway.

"Wynaero...that would be Fini, yes?" He mused, sipping his drink once more. "I don't see why he wouldn't, she's a fantastic lady and a good friend." Very sharp, very pretty, he liked her. Though as he finished talking, he lapsed into a brief silence, his gaze moving momentarily to the swirling liquid in his glass.

"As for my relationship to Finn," he started, imagining now he was getting to what Jack really wanted to get a reaction over. "I suppose it's a good thing I'm a very private man, hmm?" He looked up at Jack once more, and offered him a rather pleasant, apparently unaffected smile. "Not that it's anyone's business what - and whom - I do in my spare, private time. Just like it's none of mine to wonder at uncalled for opinions." The smile remained, as amicable as ever.

xmedigel

 

[medigel]

Jack gave a low laugh, pleased to find resistance.

"I don't know you very well, Crowell, but I knew enough that panicking and lashing out didn't seem to suit you. Knocking you out was the best course of action whether you were infected or not. Finn just makes shitty calls with good intentions." Sometimes.

They did kill a woman once to survive the trials, which he supposed was also good intentions.

"But I think you knew that by now, of course," Jack continued more casually. "You'll have to forgive me, I like to learn about the people who think agreeing to anything with him isn't a bad idea. There's a reason we tend to stay as a pair of bachelor assholes."

Idiots, of course, because they were both a special brand of idiots.

"Now," he touched the glass to his lips and then decided against it, "the last time we honestly talked was, what, over a year ago almost? I remember it was in the library. Something about Halloween geography. Ever move forward in that?"

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"Indeed." Ripley agreed, however distantly, to the idea that Finn made shitty calls with good intentions. He failed to see that as a sign of attachment though. Finn always made unusual calls and sometimes did rash things, but that was just Finn. As far as Ripley could understand, it had likely meant nothing more than not wanting a damaged bed mate.

"Forgiven." He mused, pausing in his study of Jack just enough to take a sip of his drink. "Though - from one socially inept person to another - I hear you're more likely to learn something useful about someone if you don't insult them first." As it had always been, his tone remained unaffected. Casual, musing, careless. He wasn't too hung upon the way things were going, and he didn't seem insulted in the slightest.

But he also didn't supply anything else about himself or his status with their mutual friend.

He didn't agree that he knew it was a bad idea, or that their relationship - using that particular word loosely - was just fine, they laid down necessary rules and whatnot. Hell, he probably would have agreed that he was an idiot, but he didn't. He hadn't even said a word and his personal business had been opened to ridicule; he wasn't about to supply the information needed for more.

Though the change in topic was somewhat a relief. He mused at the information he was being given, his gaze going distant as he recounted the last time they had 'quality time'.

"Sounds about right." A library trip a year ago, back when he didn't know which way was up in this place. "I have been reading up on it in my spare time." But he had yet to begin to specialize in anything that wasn't 'staying alive'.

"And yourself? I hear you recently came back from an outpost."

medigel

 

[medigel]

"Is it an insult if you don't care?" Jack countered with raised brows, and then his mouth tugged into a self-deprecating half-smile. It almost seemed physically impossible for him to not toss something negative every other sentence. Being in conflict with someone to any degree was somehow easier than being at peace. That probably wasn't healthy.

He nodded to Ripley's question, nursing his whiskey some more. "Longer than the usual external missions. I think I clocked in close to two months," he said. "Shitty mission overall. Famine's been making clones of us."

Nevermind, mentioning it alone was enough to make him want to burn his throat and liver drinking the rest of the whiskey. Jack settled for another big gulp and a wince.

Enoh Love