originaljackass | Ch. 1 - There is no plan without Jack of Fables

Entry tags:

[action],
[voice]

Ch. 1 - There is no plan without Jack of Fables

[Voice]

Hey Kennedy, meet me at Good Spirits. We're going to have a drink.

[Despite his fantastic lack of an intro post, Jack is actually already settled into Luceti, having already been around for over a week now. Having noticed the large quantity of people who walk around with weapons, Jack has already looted the smithy for a pistol and a perfectly preserved Confederate Officer's saber he'd kept since the war. Sure, it had no special powers and would probably shatter if he used his full strength hitting something with it, but damn if he didn't look cool. Hell, he even has his old officer's hat to go with it.

He'll be available at Good Spirits both before and after meeting Kennedy (if indeed the poor sailor shows up) to be poked and prodded. Or if that's not your thing, he'll be taking his time on his way home in spite of the heavy snowfall (which barely bothers him anyway), whistling a forgotten tune, and wondering what a man is to do in a moneyless economy when his greatest ambition is having lots of money. Which he already had in the real world.]

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[Yes, Archie is intimately familiar with that score, too. But the potential implications of this statement are unsettling him further.]

I think you should explain yourself, Jack. What are you going to do?

[He notices that it struck a nerve there. He considers that for a moment, files it away for later, and carries on.]

I'm going to play the game. Fit in. Convince people that Jack here does have a heart, cares for the little people, and isn't out for himself. People are in trouble? Jack will be there. Need help painting your house? Well, I'll give you some advice, but I'm not that generous. And for the babes? I can do suave.

And when you've earned their trust, you'll do what, exactly? [Archie pours himself another drink.] Collect their debts?

Haven't thought that far ahead. It'll keep me from getting tossed out of town, for one. Once I find a way out of here, they'll appreciate a leader they can trust.

[He's finding his whole attempt to scope out the place for escape is proving more difficult than he thought. He finishes off his.... well, he's not sure how many he's had yet. Another glass, anyway. He holds it out for some more.]

[Archie slides the bottle toward him.]

You do realize you've just confessed--to me, for whatever reason--to being a manipulative little weasel, don't you? For someone trying to undermine an entire town, you're not very subtle about it.

[He refills his glass, then offers Archie a pat on the shoulder.]

I'm not worried about you telling. Besides, I could always use a wingman. [A sidekick.] And even if you're not interested, what's to gain from ratting me out? [And he gives a casual glance with eyes more ruthless than usual, that suggest it would be in his best interest to keep this conversation to himself.]

The satisfaction of seeing you fail, of course.

[He doesn't like the look in Jack's eyes. It unnerves him. But he's not going to get under someone's thumb again. If he lets that happen this easily, this early on, it'll be the Justinian all over again. And the Justinian was a long, long time ago.]

[He pulls his hand back and becomes more lighthearted, stroking some of his hair out of his face.]

Now, don't be like that. Maybe my ambitions don't seem noble to you, but the end result works out for everyone. See, when people used to talk about me, they talked about the heroic giant slayer. The kid with the magic beans. The enigmatic Jack Frost. This place has got more magic than it knows what to do with. Maybe I just want to relive the glory days.

[Archie was just about to respond--something about end results that he'll never remember now--but hold the phone.]

Jack Frost? Jack...of the beanstalk? You're saying you're that Jack?

And plenty more. I'm Jack of the Tales, the most popular Fable around. Period.

[And with his popularity, he cannot die. Well, not easily anyway.]

[He's not sure if the man is a lunatic, a liar, or...well, he do some pretty unusual things when Archie first met him.]

Where in the fables does it say you can break all your bones, snap them back into place, and continue as though nothing happened? And you claim you're from my world?

[You can't just make up stuff like this on a dime, now can you?]

Mundys. Mundys say that. Long story short, the homelands wasn't working out for us fables. Invasions and war tends to have that effect. Once we ended up in the mundy world - that'd be yours, we found out that everything we had done back in our world... had been spread as fairy tables, fables, and legends. Those of us who are really popular are harder to kill. Can't say I know why it works that way, but I don't look a day over twenty-five after five hundred years.

Five hundred. [The smile is fading, although he makes an effort to hold on to it to show he doesn't believe any of this.] I take it twenty-ten was around the year you came to my world, then?

Seventeen hundreds, actually.

[Or... somewhere around there. ~~Canon is vague.~~]

[Then this guy would remember Archie's time.]

Right. What year did the frogs kill Louis?

[Any historian could bluff their way through this, but whatever.]

Early '93. I remember it clearly because of how much I didn't give a damn at the time.

[Ask the same question of a modern-day average Joe and see what answer you get.]

Who won the war?

[He doesn't know the answer, but he'd like to hear what Jack has to say.]

Nobody. Ended with a truce. Say, what year did you say you were from again?

[Don't ask Jack what the war was all about. He fought for the Confederate side. He didn't exactly bother to check what their side was all about. Fable wars are about good vs. evil. Mundy wars are horrible, pointless things.]

Eighteen hundred and two. It was January.

[A truce? Suddenly Jack isn't an irritating oddity--he's a source of news.]

Sounds like you just missed it. [It occurs to him that at this rate, Archie is going to be an annoyance if he keeps asking questions like that. He's running out of things he can remember from reading the weekly newspaper back in those days.]

You know, betcha the library has history books for around that time. You can find out all you'd like.

[He tops off Jack's drink with a sigh. Well, it would be just his luck to get killed in action just before the war ended. The thought of spending a day at the library is more appealing than spending it in the bar, but he can't wait to have one question answered.]

One more thing. Did you ever hear anything about a man named H-Horatio Hornblower? Of what happened to him?

[It may be a long shot, but it's hardly inconceivable that Horatio became a war hero after all. Horatio always had all the luck Archie seemed to be missing.]

[He downs the drink and doesn't answer for a good while, before giving Archie a perplexed look.]

Ain't that the name of a mundy book?

Really? They wrote a book about him?

[Whether it's a fictional account or a real story, Jack couldn't tell you.]

Sounds familiar, anyway.

[Whatever. This is the best news Archie's had in a week! More than a week! Maybe they have it at the library. It might give him a sense of closure to know how the rest of Horatio's life played out.]

Thank you. [He tops off Jack's drink again, then his own. Grasping the glass, he lifts it in a little toast.] Now. You were saying about people dying and your plan and all?

[Getting back to foreboding stuff, now that his spirits are lifted. If he doesn't know Jack's plans, how can he thwart them?]

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