[PP-F11] Jack be Nimble, Jack be Quick

[Vex Vexxus 1]

 Sitting upon a tree; a solitary quiet tree that stood between a fork in the road that led both into and out of Taft sat a figure dressed all in white; fine pressed cotton, freshly laundered. He hummed a light-hearted tune, balancing a dagger upon a single gloved finger. Every so often he’d toss it into the air and caught it again.

There was not much to do, on call for the boss, and Khione was still not talking to him ever since he outed himself as a Laughing Coffin member. Little silly woman - worried she too would be exposed. If she were so concerned, why join in the first place. Such worries, naught but a prison of the mind. How silly, how drole…

Vex was also on ‘Alice’ Duty, whatever that entailed. The bosses new pet project, most favourite child, if Vex was someone who cared, he’d be jealous but he didn’t. Tybalt had a certain adoration to Vex, but perhaps that was only because Vex needn’t required much pushing. All Tybalt had to do was make a single offer and he was in.

The dramatics of wonderland, a good show, and all that was and is in between was fun and all. But Vex really couldn’t care a less. Alice though…Oh sweet little Alice. Formally a young and innocent Ceres. She took to it like a moth to flame. Literally. Destroyed by the shimmering lights she had sought. Built up into something new, and Tybalt was oh so enthralled with the end result it gave Tybalt more free time to do what he wanted.

Ahh….but what did he want to do.

What to do…. 



Vex | HP: 180/180 | EN: 36/36 | DMG: 1  | True Tier 3


WC:277

Edited yesterday at 10:53 AM by Vex Vexxus

[Scar 0]

Three weeks. It hadn't felt that long. The days since Tybalt and Alice still carried the same bitter taste, smoke and silence, fragments of memory that refused to fade no matter how far he walked. The Eighth Floor had left a scar that time couldn't quite reach. The kind that followed in the quiet moments, when everything else went still.

The forests here were different. Alive. The canopy above was thick and deep, filtering the sunlight into scattered pockets of gold that danced across moss-covered roots. Every breath carried the scent of damp wood and earth, a calm that was almost convincing. Beyond the trees, the distant ring of mountains framed the world in a haze of green and grey, beautiful, but heavy with silence. Somewhere beneath them lay the hives, and the remnants of the antmen brood the locals still whispered about.

The settlement of Taft stood as the floor’s shining heart, cobblestone streets, high towers, and the cathedral whose bells could be heard for miles. It's people were devout, wrapped in soft white hoods and prayers to a god Jack didn't know. The knights, The Crusaders, patrolled the walls in armor bright as silver. They were said to be blessed, though their eyes told a different story: weary, uncertain, and haunted by the same name everyone else avoided saying aloud. The Forsaken Champion.

Jack kept to the outskirts, where farmland met forest. It was safer there, quieter. His steps were slow, deliberate, scanning the trees as if expecting the forest itself to move. He still felt the weight of habit, the phantom reach for a weapon that wasn't there. He exhaled instead, steadying his breathing, trusting instinct over steel.

The wind shifted, carrying a faint tune, light and almost playful. Jack's brow furrowed, eyes drawn toward a distant tree at a fork in the road.

Something, or someone, was there.

* * *

WC: 312

[Vex Vexxus 1]

“Ohooo~”

I noticed his approach, solid steps filled with purpose and determination. Eyes shifting around as though he were looking for something. Or someone. He was sans his little bird. I was going to ignore him initially, because frankly - I didn’t care. But he had a sort of wild determination in his eyes that I just found… so… very.. Delectable. I licked my lips. Finding my own form of fun.

“HellooOOoo~” I swung, hanging upside down from the tree, so his my landed smack bang right in front of the man. I giggled. “Well, if it isn’t the one eyed Jack.” I lifted a red gloved hand ‘boop’. Pressing my index finger to the tippy tip of his nose.

 

“What’s got you so down? Are you looking for wonderland?” 

 

Some people who ran into Tybalt would seek him out again, out of curiosity - or perhaps insanity. Both? There was a certain allure to the magic the man extruded, even if that magic was nothing more than the crumbling sanity of his victims.

“Oh!” I shifted, sliding off the tree branch and with a small flip and a flourish, I bowed. “Vex, at your service, little Jack!~” I lifted up my palms toward him, showing him I meant no harm. For now.

“I’m off the clock! So to speak. I have no need to see you bleed!”

I dusted off my pinstriped pants and then started to circle him, humming that same simple and light-hearted tune. I wonder, would this man be easy to hynotize? Mari was. Khione was, oh and Ceres, was almost too easy. Ah. Alice now. My bad…my bad…

How strong was his grip on reality?

“You know, little Alice still screams about her one eyed Jack sometimes. You’ve left quite the impression.”

WC: 296

[Scar 0]

The voice came out of nowhere, a playful lilt that didn't belong in a forest this still.

"Ohooo~"

Jack's eyes followed the movement of something, and immediately an image flashed in his mind, white hair,sharp and layered, swept to the side like a blade of snow. Before he could even process it, the man swung down from the tree, upside-down, red glove pressing a single finger against the tip of Jack's nose.

"Well, if it isn't the one-eyed Jack."

Jack jerked back, a reflex born of instinct and memory. His boots dug into the earth as he covered his mouth and nose, breath tight in his chest. He wasn't going through that again, not another hallucination, not another trick of sight and sound. He couldn't. Raven wouldn't survive it twice.

"What's got you so down? Are you looking for Wonderland?"

The word hit him like a shard of ice. Wonderland. Again. His eyes narrowed, the brief shock giving way to something steadier, harder. The man's tone was teasing, melodic, too similar to them.

Vex flipped down from the branch with a flourish, bowing low. "Vex, at your service, little Jack!~"

Jack said nothing at first, just watched him, the crimson gloves, the spotless clothes, the unbothered grin. He didn't drop his guard.

"Alice.." he finally said, voice low behind his hand. "You're with those two, aren't you?" His weight shifted slightly, boots angled toward the open road. Every step, every breath measured. He needed space, an escape route, before this man decided to twist the world again.

"Who are you three?" he asked, tone controlled but sharp as drawn steel.

Because if there was another trick of Tybalt's design.. Jack wasn't going to be the fool twice. 

* * *

WC: 288

[Vex Vexxus 1]

The man immediately covered his nose and mouth, I tilted my head to the side. “Hmm?” I never did quite catch what little Alice did to the man, just that her whole little schtick was with flowers, roses in particular. Oh. Ohh. I see…It made sense, why he was practically twitching on the floor, smart. Alice was smart. I hadn’t pegged her to be, I thought in all honesty she was a little bit of a dimwit. “Ah!” My grin grew slow, languid. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to fool around with any roses today, little Jack.”  I hadn’t a clue what his actual name was, and I didn’t care.

If sweet little Alice wanted to call him Jack, I would too.  The man jerked back and I took a long step forward, following him. “Those two?” I asked, though I knew exactly what he was talking about. “Yes. Yes, in a sense. Yes. In another, no.” I shrugged. “Ask the right questions and you get the right answers.” 

I was bored and I wasn’t quite ready to give up all my fun, not so soon. I reached out and grabbed his hand, giving it a hard jerk forward and a quick shake. “Be more polite, good sir! It’ll take you oh so far.” I let go and took a step back, allowing him the sense he had space, enough to flee if he so chose, but I knew he wouldn’t He had that look in his eyes.

He wanted something, he thought I could give it to him.

“Who? Three?” I turned to look over my shoulder, seeing no one behind me. Of Course, I knew what he meant. I wasn’t insane. No, I was perhaps the most sane of Tybalts merry troupe. But oh I so loved playing the part. “I see only…me.” I paused, clasping my hands together in front of me, offering him a wide grin. My words slow, with purpose. I wanted him to know I was fully aware of what he meant.

I wanted him to wrack his brain and ask the right questions.

“I could reintroduce myself, if you are hard of hearing.” A scrape of a foot and another low bow was offered to the man.

“Vex, Vexxus - “ A pause for dramatic effect.

“Of the Laughing Coffin, at your service, One Eyed Jack.”

WC: 394

[Scar 0]

"Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to fool around with any roses today, little Jack."

His guard stayed up, but something in the man's tone made Jack believe him, at least for the moment. He lowered his arm that had been covering his mouth and nose, though he maintained distance, every step measured, eyes sharp.

"Those two.." Jack's voice was low, controlled. "Alice.. Tybalt.. Are you.. working with them? Or following them? What do you know about her? From him?" Each word carried suspicious, but also urgency. He had to understand the scope of this before it became dangerous.

"Ask the right questions and you get the right answers."

Jack clenched his fists. Of course, he was being toyed with. That's all these people do… toy with others. But he couldn't afford to flinch. Not now. 

Then the man's hand closed around his, giving it a hard jerk and quick shake.

"Be more polite, good sir! It'll take you oh so far."

Jack didn't move, didn't flinch, though the gesture rattled him slightly. His expression remained cold and unreadable, but inside, his mind raced. I can't let Raven meet anymore like this. I have to be ready.

When Vex reintroduced himself, "Of the Laughing Coffin, at your service, One Eyed Jack," Jack froze for a heartbeat, the implications sinking in.

"Laughing Coffin.." Jack repeated, testing the weights of the words. "So.. it's not just Tybalt and Alice? There are others?" His gaze narrowed. "Are you.. in a guild? How many are there? Are you all.. dangerous? And Alice.. Why does she call me One Eyed Jack?"

The forest seemed to hold its breath with him. Jack's jaw tightened. He wasn't going to be fooled. He needed answers, all of them, and he wouldn't stop until he found them. 

There's more at play here than I thought. And I'll figure it out.

* * *

WC: 313

[Vex Vexxus 1]

I laughed, watching him lower his hands - slowly, ever so slowly. My, if I wanted to, I could have done him in ten times over by now. He thought he was being slick? Safe? Sly? Still, no use bursting his precious little bubble yet.

I shrugged when he started asking me questions about Alice. “Ohh, does she tickle your fancy? All I know is that she's the bosses masterpiece. You were too addled to notice, no? How he dotes on her.” I pressed my palms to my cheeks. “Oohhh..you should  have seen it! Ahh. she slipped so perfectly into wonderland, Oh Alice! Yes Alice! My sweet little Alice.” I would dote on her too, she was like a dear sister to me after all.

As close to a sister as I would….could ever have, that is. “Please, do look after her when you Marry!” I pulled out a handkerchief from my front pocket and dabbed my single uncovered eye with it. “Parting is such sweet sorrow, is it not?”

He asked more questions, one after the other, and in such a demanding tone. I suppose I did tell him if he asked the right ones, he’d get the right answers…but wow, he just latched onto that didn’t he. “Greedy little piggy aren’t you?” I asked, voice lowering. I didn’t appreciate that. The dark tone shifted. Lasting only a moment as my face brightened again with a loud and sharp clap of my hands.

“Right! You don’t know? Really? Truly? Never heard?”  It was odd to meet someone who had never heard of our little troupe before, but I wouldn’t get hung up on that. The less he knew, the better.

“You aren’t playing fair One Eyed Jack. You’ved asked me so so many questions, but where is my chance? What would I ask you?”

I stepped closer. “Why are you so interested in our dear, sweet, Alice?”

Another step. “Are you naive? Or just stupid?”

WC: 327

[Scar 0]

Vex's laughter grated against his nerves, but Jack didn't flinch. He held his ground, eyes narrowing beneath the shadow of his bangs. When the jester finally spoke, voice dripping with mockery, "Ohh, does she tickle your fancy?"

Jack's response was immediate, flat. "Tickle my fancy? No."

No hesitation. No humor. His tone carried the weight of someone who'd seen enough madness to know better than to joke.

Then came the next wave, sing-song words that twisted through the forest air, manic and bright.

"Ahh. She slipped so perfectly into wonderland, Oh Alice!"

Jack's jaw tensed. "What did you mean by 'slip into your Wonderland? I also heard the name.. Ceres." He drew the word out carefully, watching for Vex's reaction. "She became.. crazed.. after hearing that name."

The jester's theatrics didn't make it easier to follow, the way he pressed his palms into his cheeks, voice lilting like a mock prayer to something only he could see. But Jack kept watching. Studying. Every twitch, every inflection.

"Please, do look after her when you marry!"

That earned only a slow exhale through Jack's nose. His reply came cold and controlled. "I don't plan on marrying her," he said evenly, "but she clearly needs someone to look after her."

It wasn't affection, it was duty. Something quiet and heavy, buried deep under the surface.

When Vex clapped his hands again, the forest seemed to tighten with sound.

"Right! You don't know? Really? Truly? Never heard?" Jack's mind started racing. Why's he so surprised? Of course he'd heard of player killers. But not like this. Not organized. A group. A troupe.

He didn't like where this was heading. His muscles stayed loose, ready, but his hand twitched uselessly at his side. He wasn't armed. No sword. Not this time.

"You aren't playing fair, One Eyed Jack," Vex said, stepping closer, grin widening. "You've asked so, so many questions, but where is my chance? What would I ask you?" 

Jack braced himself.

"Why are you so interested in our dear, sweet Alice?"

Another step.

"Are you naive? Or just stupid?"

Jack instinctively took a step back, matching distance with distance. "I'm not interested in her," he replied, tone cutting through the space between them. "I was out and about trying to figure out the eighth floor, and she appeared before me."

His gaze hardened. "That's all."

For a moment, silence hung between them, the forest hushed and waiting.

Jack's pulse drummed steady beneath his skin, but his mind was sharper than ever. He didn't know what game Vex was playing, but he knew this much, Laughing Coffin wasn't a rumor anymore.

And if Alice was tied to them.. then she was already in far deeper than anyone realized.

* * *

WC: 454

[Vex Vexxus 1]

I hadn't the faintest clue what Alice initially saw in this man. He seemed so uptight, so boring. So rigid and set in his ways. "Such a prison..." I said with a sigh. My initial excitement at messing with the man was beginning to dwindle. I could just stab him and send him on his merry way - the thought of his crystal turning from green to orange as he helplessly attacked the first player he sees ….there was a delight in that… “If she doesn’t tickle your fancy… why the interest?”

But would the enhancement hold long enough for him to do so?

I wasn’t sure.

“Hmmm….Hmmm…” Distracted, I thought about it. He was talking, yapping about something, but I wasn’t paying attention. I bounced from one foot to the other. This city was quite popular…all I had to do was wait for a travelling party to wander through…okay…yes.. I think I was patient enough for that.

My smile returned.

“Oh my, my, my, my! Do forgive me! I wasn’t listening.” I curled my hand into a fist and bonked myself on the head. “Silly me, I’ve been a bad boy!” I just had to keep him here long enough for someone to pass by, hell, if it got too boring I’d bring Alice into the mix.

The man, boring and stoic and plain as he was, mentioned how he met Alice.

“Happenstance! What a chance!” I cried out, clapping my hands. “She’s been  very well looked after. Perfectly happy! Never sappy. Not with us! No, no!”  As he stepped back I stepped forward, pressing a single finger to his nose.

“You. My dear little one eyed Jack - were simply in the right place at the right time. Nothing more. Nothing less. Now tell me, what exactly did she do to you? A rose? A dream? Did you enjoy it?”

[Scar 0]

"If she doesn't tickle your fancy... why the interest?"

Jack's gaze didn't waver. His tone came low, even, not defensive, but final. "I never said I had an interest. I merely stumbled upon her," he said, the words carrying an edge that almost cut through the air between them. "And she attacked me."

The statement was simple, but the weight behind it was unmistakable. The memory flickered at the edges of his mind, flashes of petals, the smell of roses, the pain that followed. His jaw tightened.

Meanwhile, Vex swayed from left to right, humming to himself, as if the entire exchange were some sort of game. Jack's eyes followed his every step, calculating. The man's energy was erratic, unpredictable. Every small movement, every flick of his wrist, every glimmer of that single visible eye, told Jack that he was standing in front of something unhinged.

Then, without warning, Vex was right in front of him. A gloved finger pressed lightly against Jack's nose.

Jack flinched back at the contact, eyes narrowing. The touch was brief, but it carried more insult than harm. He wiped the spot with the back of his hand, as if removing a stain that didn't belong there.

"Now tell me," Vex purred, voice tilting upward with cruel amusement. "What exactly did she do to you? A rose? A dream? Did you enjoy it?"

The words echoed, sharp, mocking.

Jack's fingers curled slowly into a fist. The forest around them seemed to dim, the colors bleeding into memory. He could still feel it, the phantom pain of that encounter. The suffocating scent of roses filling his lungs, the ground tilting beneath him, the disorienting confusion that twisted reality itself.

For a moment, his breath hitched, a half-word caught in his throat. "She put he.." The slip hung there, unfinished, like something he didn't dare voice aloud. His expression hardened again.

"I'll never forgive her for doing that to me."

The quiet that followed was heavier than any threat. No rise in tone, no anger shouted into the air, just a cold, grounded truth.

Jack's eyes fixed on Vex once mode. He wasn't afraid of him. But for the first time, it was clear, beneath the calm, beneath the iron control, there was hatred. Real, unfiltered, and alive.

For a second, the world went still, the forest hush pressing in around them. Jack could hear his own heartbeat echo faintly in his ears, steady but heavy. The hand that had curled into a fist slowly eased open again, the knuckles pale from strain. His jaw tightened, but his voice was calm when it came.

"..You people have a habit of turning everything into a game."

He kept his eyes on Vex, not flinching, not blinking. The faintest twitch ghosted across his temple, a small tell of the memory clawing at him. "Alice, Tybalt, now you. You all speak like it's some grand joke.. while others are left picking up the pieces."

He drew in a breath through his nose, quiet and measured. "Laughing Coffin.." He repeated it softly, almost testing how the words felt on his tongue. "If that's what you call yourselves, then it's fitting. You laugh while everyone else ends up buried."

A pause. The coldness in his tone deepened, not anger, but something heavier, colder, coiled tight in his chest. "If she's really with you.. then that means you're using her too. She's broken. I saw it in her eyes."

The air between them hung tense for a heartbeat. Jack's gaze flicked toward the treeline behind Vex, subtle, calculated, checking escape routes without breaking his stare.

"I'm not your plaything," he said finally, his tone flat, deliberate. "And if you think I'll ever let you or the others near me again, you're wrong."

His left foot shifted half an inch, weight ready to move if needed, the posture of a man done talking but still too wary to turn his back.

* * *

WC: 657

[Vex Vexxus 1]

“Attack! Oh Jack!” I gave a fake swoon. “No, no, no…” I tutted him with a single finger. What  a simple boring dull minded fool. “Look at you!” With a flourish of a cape and an outstretched hand toward the man. “You’re here! You’re alive! Attack? No, no Mon Cherie! A liberation! To be free!”  I twisted my palm and tilted my head, watching as perspective made it look like I was holding his face in the palm of my hand. I crushed it, then dusted it off on my vest.

“Don’t accuse my dear sister of such things! She didn’t attack you! She just tried to free you from that….silly…little…pile of meaty flesh that is your prison!” My laughter died down as I turned to face Jack. Smile turning predatory. “Now…” Quiet, calculated. Unlike my dear sister, and Tybalt - my self proclaimed papa, I delicately tip-toed that line. Some would call it between sanity and insanity.

But only those who did not understand true freedom would call it that.

“You got a taste.” A twitch of little Jacks hands, how they clenched into fists. The fire and hatred behind his gaze. Oh, oh! It got me going. THIS is what I wanted. This is what I craved. “I see you still dwell on that feeling…oh…I dont know where she took you, little one eyed Jack…but I see how your mind lingers - subconsciously wanting to go back…”

I tapped my head. “You should listen to me. It IS my profession. She only wanted to free you. The on who attacked you? The one who hurt you? Oh - that was the other…what was her name?”

I straightened my back. I do recall the man shouting it out, but what was it? “Mmmm…what was it again? It started with an A too. Ah, such similarities to Alice….do you think they could be sisters?”

"..You people have a habit of turning everything into a game."

HA!

My laughter rang out loud, fading into naught in the empty field around us. “A GAME? OF COURSE! WE ARE IN A GAME!” I threw my head back. They called me insane! They threw me in a cell and pumped me filled with drugs, and only when I was a good boy was I allowed some release, and that release just ended up being into Aincrad. Freedom. True freedom of the mind.

“OF COURSE its a game! Do you forget!? DID you need a reminder!?” A point at the crystal above his head. “Just look up! Go! Frolic! BACK to your little prison! But know this…my one Eyed Jack… we do not take threats to our happy family kindly. Do not fear me, fear Papa Tybalt.”

I gave him a wave and a bow.


“You, boring. Dull. contrived. A bore. A snore. I’ll bother you no more. BUT… We’re watching you.”

ANd with a throw of a smoke bomb, I was gone.

[Scar 0]

The instant the smoke hit the air, Jack's hand moved instinctively toward his side, but there was no weapon to draw. Just the weight of old reflexes. The haze settled, and Vex was gone, his voice still echoing faintly like a cruel ghost in the clearing.

Jack didn't move at first. The spot where Vex had stood still carried that faint, acrid tang of smoke and sulfur, hanging just long enough to sting back at his throat. His breath came slow, steady, deliberately so. He couldn't give into the adrenaline coursing through him. Not now.

"...Papa Tybalt," he muttered, repeating the name quietly, as if saying it aloud might strip it of its power. His mind replayed the entire encounter, each word, each movement, dissecting them with surgical precision.

A sister.
A family.
Watching you.

The words repeated like a pulse in his skull. His jaw flexed. They knew about Alice, about Tybalt. Now they knew about me. The thought settled like lead in his chest.

Then there was that slip, the other Ah. He could still hear Vex's voice mocking, twisting the name on his tongue. His hands clenched again, hard enough that the faint creak of leather could be heard. He doesn't know her name. He can't. He's just trying to bait me.

He exhaled through his nose. Calm. Control. Focus.

Jack's gaze turned toward Taft in the distance, the faint shimmer of its cathedral visible through the trees. The Crusaders. The city walls. Civilization, or at least the illusion of it. He had to get back, write down everything he remembered. Every word, every detail. If Laughing Coffin really had their eyes on her, he couldn't afford to wander blind anymore.

"Watching me.." he murmured, the words hollow. "Let's see how long you can keep up."

He started walking, each step measured, deliberate. He didn't look back. But his right hand, the one that had brushed his nose where Vex had touched him, wouldn't stop shaking.

He shoved it into his pocket before the tremor could betray him.

* * *

WC: 341

Edited 4 hours ago by Scar