old. alone. done for.

CAPTAIN HOOK  —

YOU CAN ROMANTICIZE ME ALL YOU WISH, BUT THE DEVIL WRAPPED IN SILK IS STILL THE DEVIL;

The name which you now bear has not always fallen from your lips when you offered a handshake and introduction. It’s come in pieces. James comes first. A simple name, something old-fashioned and elegant. It suits you. The last name is something of an accident. It tumbles out before you can catch it, a word more than a name, sharp and threatening. It’s not altogether bad, and so it sticks. Then, formally, your first name shortens even further to Jas, and you’re not quite sure if it’s James abbreviated or meant to be initials, but you like it. You begin signing all your letters this way. Most recently, your title has changed to professor. It rolls off the tongue, makes you sound official, adds a pompous skip to your step, or at least explains the reason it’s always been there. Your rebirth was something both sudden and slow, inexplicable as the darkness which looms just behind your eyes and in the way you bare your teeth. But mystery is always sinister, the unexplained only a dare to look closer and be devoured by what you find. +LISTEN.