Re: log: marvel, mutant manor - jack/rachel
At the mention of violating a woman he loved, there was a brief, old flare of anger. It died out quickly, but it was still there. Sore spot. He glanced up at the birds flying by overhead, then back to the woman. Could he trust her? Most likely not. He was standing at the foot of a floating staircase, though, and he got the sense that if she was lying, he'd know about it. It was in the way she trembled when she spoke of her father. There was too much reality in that for her to lie convincingly about what was up the stairs.
He stepped up to meet her. "Is this real?" he asked, looking down at his feet on the steps, then up at another bird as it fluttered by in a flash of color and light. He felt calmer than he had in weeks. It smoothed off some of the rough edges of his wariness, allowing his curiosity to the fore. No, he concluded, after a moment. This was a dream. If it was a dream, it could only go so badly. He was used to nightmares, and he could take one more, if he only got to find out what was at the top of the stairs.
"Your father," Jack began, as he took another step. "He tried to bottle it away." Just a guess, but a safe one. He had seen what that could do, felt what it could do. "I sometimes wonder if I would have been better off with bottling." He smiled, just a little. "It's not something I've ever been very good at. Too much poetry over the years, I guess. Rots the brain."