thoughtformed | [Audio]

What's the matter, Aisling? Is something wrong?

I'm... not sure. Please come out.

[Pretty sure that's one of maybe half a dozen times, tops, that she's said please. Whatever it is, it's important to her.]

Right. Of course. Whatever you need.

[ Having armed himself with a handgun, Jack approaches the forest with only a marginal feeling of apprehension, this having been the place he disappeared the last time he went out on his own.

As soon as he entered the forest, he cleared his throat and called out for his friend. ]

Aisling? Aisling, are you here?

[Aisling's there, dropping from the trees a few yards away. She seems nervous, almost skittish, coming directly over to him and reaching out to try and grip his hand. She almost never initiated physical contact. More so after his abduction, but the number of times could still probably be counted on one hand. She looks up at him, eyes wide and luminous like a cat's.]

I'm here. Will you come?

[ Jack looks up when he sees her and puts on a warm smile for her when she takes his hand. Something has the poor dear spooked. ]

Of course. Lead the way.

[ His smile fades into a worrisome frown. ] Is everything okay?

[She shakes her head, and starts off. The forest is quiet, but not supernaturally so. All the normal night noises make themselves heard, so it's not something scary to them.]

I... don't know. It shouldn't be here. I don't...

[Her voice hitches, and she stops for a moment. Finally she looks up again, the uncertainty clear and out of place on her usually confident face.]

I don't know where it came from, and I don't know why.

What did you see, Aisling? Is it... did something hurt you? [ Jack can't imagine his upset if something had hurt dear Aisling. He squeezes her hand gently and looks around for any offending monsters or creatures that might have done the imagined deed. ]

[She shakes her head.]

No. Not like that.

[Evasive, but true.]

It's a little further in. Come on.

[Further in indeed. It's a bit of a hike, actually, with some of the rough terrain, but she instinctively finds some of the easier ground for him, mindful of his recent injuries, even if he has recovered. She slows as they approach a group of oak trees. They're old, and tall, but several thick branches sprout lower to the ground - only a little over six feet up. Snagged in some of the tighter-laced twigs is something that glints and glitters, even in the shadow-splintered moonlight.

Aisling stops some ten feet away from it and points, her fingers tightening in his. Even this close, it's clear that the thing is a strip of ragged, yellow cloth. It's embroidered with some sort of design in golden thread. At the end, weighting it so that it doesn't sway much in the light breeze, is a golden pin. A cloak broach, a sun-wheel held in place with a heavy golden pin, a scrap of orange fabric still fastened to the other fabric.

She doesn't go any nearer, instead keeping him back a moment.]

It doesn't feel like anything bad, but. It looks like something I know.

Like... something you know? How much like something you know?

[ At least from what Jack can tell, it looks harmless. He releases her hand to approach it, his gun out and extended. He moves slowly, carefully, and crouches as he nears it. He then nudges it with the tip of his gun, a little relieved when nothing happens. It takes him a moment or two to untangle the cloth from the branches that it's been caught up in, but he manages to do it without tearing anything, though the twigs are a little worse for wear. He takes a moment longer to examine the mysterious cloth, frowning and looking over the glittering pin with a great deal of wonder. Where did it come from? What was it? How did Aisling know it? Unsure of the answer, he turns to the fae and holds it out to her. ]

Do you recognise it?

[Aisling has her arms crossed, hunched into herself, eyeing the scrap of fabric, but uncoils a little to take it gently. It's definitely been torn from something, and some of the torn threads are tipped in something dark and hard, not at all like the soft silkiness of the rest of it. There's something like reverence in the way she lightly stokes the embroidered suns of the border and runs a finger around the brooch's circle]

I know it. If it's real. If it is what it looks like.

[She's started to shake. Just a little, but enough to make the gold thread look like waves of shining wheat in the wind. She clutches it close to her chest - a small child hugging a favorite toy - and looks up at her companion with eyes too old for her face.]

It's my mother's. Why is it here? Is it a trick?

I don't know. [ Jack lifts his head to scan the area, looking perhaps for the person who dropped the cloth. Finding nothing, he pulls her into a hug and strokes her hair. There were odd things appearing all over the island... those cars in town that morning, the bull, and of course how could anyone have missed Lady Liberty in town? ] Just... one of the small blessings that the island likes to give sometimes, I guess.

[For once, Aisling doesn't just tolerate it and then pull away, like a cat. She leans into him, absently holding the bit of cloth to her lips.]

It doesn't feel like a blessing. It feels like someone's watching. Someone knows what we want. I don't like it.

Well, who knows? It's something to consider for sure. [ To be quite honest, it wasn't something that Jack had even considered, but now was something he wasn't sure he'd get out of his mind. The constant nagging of someone watching them all the time. Listening. Knowing. He tries for a smile again. ]

But aren't you glad to have it, Aisling? I mean.. if it's upsetting you, I'm sure I can find a safe place for it.

[Aisling clutched the fragment fiercely, her whole body curling around it a little. She pulls away a few steps, wild-eyed with fear that this small reminder of the life she's lost might be taken from her.]

No! It's hers! Of course I want it!

[She stops abruptly. She didn't mean to react that way. He meant well, and hadn't she asked him out here, after all? She uncurls, turning to him with an apologetic, forlorn expression.]

...You check things for anything strange. I can't feel anything, but... Maybe it would be better if you and Ianto checked it, first.

[Slowly, painfully, she extends it to him. He wouldn't hurt it. He would get it back to her. Of course he would. He was her friend. Her family here. One of the few she really trusted.]

[ Jack thanks her for her giving it to him and takes it back from her, examining it a bit more closely. Everything looks fine and ordinary, like normal cloth and metal. Just to be safe, he opens up his vortex manipulator and runs a quick scan of it. It's a simple scan, but the readings checked out. ] Nothing strange about it. Nothing more than everything else around here... It's clean. [ He smiles and hands it back. ] Nothing to worry about.

[The little fae watches him anxiously, fingers interlaced so that she won't do anything she'll regret. When he pronounces it safe, something in her releases. She straightens subtly, the sorrow tempering to grief past and joy remembered. She takes it back gratefully, wrapping it about her hand with the brooch in her palm, and then darts in to hug her Captain hard about the waist.]

I'm really glad you came. I'll make it up to you somehow.

I'm glad that I did too. I can see why you were so upset.

[He hugs her back and smooths her hair before tilting her head up to look at him. ] You're okay, though? Everything all right now?

[She gives him a genuine smile.]

Yes. It scared me, but I'm all right.

[She grew more sober and thoughtful, releasing him enough to look at her prize again.]

...She did not have your gift. She couldn't be here.

[The sombre change of tone pulls the smile from his face. He watches her with the item in her hand and sighs. It's a shame, really, that someone so sweet has to be so sad.]

I'm sorry, Aisling. If I could bring her here, I would do anything in my power to make that happen for you. Everyone needs their mothers. Even me, sometimes. I miss her a lot.

[She shakes her head, swinging that gleaming sheet of hair. This pain is not new to her. It's the renewed hope that is squeezing her heart too tightly. This place is so strange, and if it pulls in people from the far future, might it also pull people from further past...?]

It's not your fault. We can't know how things will happen. And we can't bring them back.

That's true... But it doesn't make it hurt any less.

[Jack shifts himself to sit down completely and he pats his leg, inviting her for a sit.]

But we have to remember that even if someone is gone from the world, they're never really gone if we remember them, right?

[Now that she's more or less recovered, Aisling folds herself down to sit cross-legged right across from him. Is that what they tell themselves, now? That memories will make someone live? She's never heard of a magic like that. But maybe it's true, somewhere. Just not at home. She cocks her head curiously, a little distant.]

Does it help?

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