magician's apprentice | what if i wanted to break (rp for the_death_card)

[onebehind]

For all that the fight lasts maybe forty seconds before Jack gets a hand on his radio, for all that he and Jack have done this dance a hundred times before, it's the hardest thing he's ever done. He can't hold back, after all, and he can't pretend to fall for any of his little tricks. If he does either, Jack will know, suspect, and as much as he'd love to tell him, he can't. This is a test of faith, he is Jack's test of faith, and so he has to keep playing along and make it look good. It helps, he thinks, that he won't use his magic with Fuller in the other room, and Jack knows it.

It doesn't help that, for as hard as this all is, it's also easy to forget that this isn't just a game for how often he and Jack have sparred, none of it real, and so, that in mind, when he does get the radio, he slips.

"You little shit," he breathes, and while the corners of his mouth don't twitch, he doesn't smile, nothing here worth smiling about, he still freezes. The world freezes on an inhale, and half of him hopes Jack gets it now, calls him out, because he's tired of all this, while the other half is busily swearing internally. Either way, he knows he's given something away.

Comments

[onebehind]

"North, north," he corrects, being purposefully obtuse, now. That misstep won't throw anyone directly behind them, but anyone further out will start off headed in the wrong direction, if only for a minute or two before someone corrects them. He can write it off as just not being familiar with New York, anymore, later, for all that he apparently lives in Vegas. "We're headed north on the FDR Drive."

Though, speaking of the cars behind them, "Fuller, where are you?"

He needs the lifeline, and he doesn't want to reach out to Jack, even if, mercifully, he can still feel him.

[king_ofwands]

Alma shoots him another confused look but doesn't respond again, returning her attention to the road and keeping up with Jack.

Jack's side of the connection is still open - he has no intentions of closing it again now that he knows he doesn't have to - but he's distracted, too, with the road in front of him and keeping an eye out for the other Horsemen as they approach the bridge.

"Right here," Fuller says into the radio a moment later. "Trying to catch up to you now."

[onebehind]

Dylan doesn't get the chance to answer, hands shooting out to brace himself reflexively, as a truck swerves in front of them. He breathes out, as she wheels around it, and takes another breath in, holding it as they turn onto the bridge. This is it. The rest of this little ballet has been a cakewalk compared to this. This is the hard part, this is crunch time, this is where, if anything's going to go wrong, it will, and God, he hopes it doesn't.

"Good," he tells Alma, despite all that. "Just stay with him."

[the_death_card]

Alma doesn't respond, just shifting gears as she keeps her attention ahead of them, lips pursed in concentration.

Jack weaves easily between cars, swerving around a taxi and then cutting hard into the right lane to slip past a bus. There's also a feeling through the connection like a huffed breath out, like he'd been holding it and is finally exhaling - just before the bus swerves into their lane, cutting them off.

Alma slams on the brakes - but so does the driver of the taxi, which means they're, for the moment, boxed in.

[onebehind]

Dylan mirrors her, slamming on imaginary brakes, too, reflexively. When he relaxes, and he feels Jack's relief wash over him, he lets out a breath and dumbly, dizzy almost, declares, "You're behind a bus."

Mentally, finally he dares to reach out for Jack, his own relief adding to his. They're done now. The hard part is over. Now Jack is, like him, behind the scenes until the end.

[the_death_card]

Alma yanks the wheel back to the left to get back out from behind the bus, and ahead, the decoy car deploys from the front of the bus while, unseen, Jack pulls ahead and away, disappearing into traffic.

Jack reaches back through the connection. He's good, he's got the rest of this under control, and he'll see him at the park - and, most importantly, he loves him.

[onebehind]

Dylan returns that love and fiercely, then pulls back, not quite closing off the connection again but at least turning the volume down on it. It'll help, going into the crash knowing that it's not really Jack in there, but it's still not going to be entirely acting that gets him through the next several minutes. He's still going to feel what it might be like to lose him, even if it's not real, not real, notreal, and he doesn't want Jack to have to suffer through that, too. He'll survive, though, and yes, he'll see him at the park.