RP Pirates of the Hard Nox 2

Unfortunately, the spider wasn't particularly adept at opening doors. Mal had briefly considered equipping it with some small hearth in its abdomen, something to set the crossbow bolts ablaze, but had been so indecisive about where to place it that they ended up scrapping the idea completely. Not that trying to burn down the Nox would be a particularly fruitful venture, of course, but at times like this it was nice to have options. The navigation system was also fairly poor. The machine reacted to sound and sight, not memory and intuition. There was no map of shortcuts embedded in its gears; and, without Mal's tether to guide it, it couldn't make use of theirs.

So, in order to continue, it had to break down the door.

Using four hind legs to balance itself, the machine launched the rest of them into the wood, attempting to pulverise it enough that it could crawl through without much resistance. It was blindly following the sound, the cry for help beyond the wood- and, once it eventually managed to breach the door, it would continue to give chase.

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Oh, for crying out loud- they couldn't leave him alone for five minutes, could they?

Mal scowled at their unfinished work, genuinely considering whether they should just ignore the pathetic whelp and continue with what they actually had to do; but he was a prisoner, technically, and prisoners had to be dealt with. Besides, he could have broken their new toy. That alone was worth the tremendous effort required to pull away from their task.

They heard a muffled scream from the lower decks; him, no doubt, it couldn't have been anyone else. Based on where they last saw him, and what he kept screeching when they did, the stairs going up from the lower deck seemed likely to be his destination; if not where he stood right now. Of course, he might have managed to get lost down there, but then the problem would've sorted itself out; the spider would've caught him, and they'd find a body in the brig. In this case, it was best to act on the more pessimistic instinct.

That was often the case, Mal found.

Using their rope system to swing themselves to the appropriate side of the ship, Mal climbed their way up to the upper decks from the outside in, eventually landing in a hallway. They unclipped themselves, and replaced some of their tools- second wrench went in the jacket, curved dagger went in the hand. The first wrench was to remain in their grip, however. They needed something to throw at him.

Then, they slowly made their way through the ship; sticking to the walls as stealthily as they could, making sure to avoid the floorboards they knew would creak. Hopefully, if Ronan was where they thought he was, they'd see him rounding the corner any moment now.

If not, then they'd have to continue forwards- and hope the spider was making similar progress, wherever it was.
 
UmbraSight said:
Slowly, slowly, Nessa’s chest rose and fell with long breaths as her eyes drifted closed with a flutter of lashes. She could hear footsteps out in the hall, a distant almost dull noise. That was strange was it not? She’d have thought that everyone would have gone off to the dance, Mal aside. The steps came to a stop outside the door, followed by a quick knock.

“Mmh?” a wordless murmur escaped her as she opened her eyes a peek. Someone at the door was it? Nessa released a breath as she lifted herself up onto her elbows. Presentable? She could feel silk at her fingertips, the rolling cloth of her dress.

“Aye, I am.” Nessa said, her voice low, as she ran the back of her hand over her eyes. She frowned. “Hah? Do you hear someone yelling?”

—————

Now had that been directed at anyone? It seemed to answer her question but it didn’t feel like it had been directed at anyone at all. Aamir clearly had his sights set on the girl, Eliza was it, and his intentions were never not clear. What it was Eliza was looking for, Winter hadn’t the slightest notion, but if she were looking for trouble then she’d found some for herself. This other man though, he seemed content to address the air between them all, which was hard to read.

“Oh? As long as there’s good drink I’m content.” Winter said, with a tilt of her head. “Though, if you haven’t come to dance then is there anything you’ve come to talk about?”
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He rested both hands on the head of his cane. "Nothing in particular. I was recently employed to do something new, well, something I haven't done in awhile." He'd sailed before of course, in his younger days. No where terribly interesting, and certainly nothing untoward had happened to him. "Thought I'd come here and enjoy myself for awhile before the time comes."

Alexander smiled, only half turning his head to watch the other pair begin their dance out of the corner of his eye. A servant passed by and he selected a different drink than before, hoping he'd prefer this one. "I think it's important to have a little fun before a major change, don't you?"
 
"Rake," Aamir supplied, at the inquiry for his name. "Aamir, if you'd prefer. Which you are quite welcome to prefer." Undoubtedly 'Eliza' wasn't expecting a real name, but it was no trouble of his whether or not she believed him. "And I'm here for much the same reasons as you, it turns out. A bit of fun, a bit of collection, a bit of a surprise, a bit of a score to settle."

He shrugged, turning the motion into the lead for a little twirl, giving her just the barest moment to think about that before reclaiming a hand at her hip and adding, almost idly, "A night like this, the rumors will be flying. I want to hear them, to know what people are saying. I want to know who's here, and what they can do."

A smile sat upon his features for just a moment, but it didn't sink in, nor did it stay. "I have a girl to rescue, you see."
 
That was a statement lacking in particulars, wasn’t it? Winter turned the wine bottle in her hand as she listened, her thumb planted over the mouth of the bottle. She kept an ear on Aamir, another voice in the mash of noise but she had to keep aware of him all the same. She let her cane slide back down into her free hand, though she kept from tapping it for the moment.

“Depends on the change I’d think.” Winter said. She raised the bottle to her lips, moving her thumb to take a splash before quickly closing it again. A good wine, maybe she could get Sky to snag a few more bottles before they left. Might depend on how much trouble he caused, that. “Though yours sounds like it’s quite a big change, what’s the new job you’ve gotten yourself?”
 
A servant boy from the Floating Isles, and the pirate captain sitting before her - they were one in the same. Alys' expression softened at the thought; he must've had to keep his shirt tucked in and shoes polished, especially while in the presence of nobility. Was he obedient? Or did he get into trouble often? He must've, to have ended up where he was now. So many more questions, questions about the noble families, about his father, yet she knew she shouldn't pry - not now. At least, not about the deeper stuff.

It was terrifying though, how easily she believed him, and how good it felt to believe someone so easily.

Wordlessly, she approached as he beckoned, placing his gun beside him on the table and offering him her scarred wrist. It'd healed as best it could, now an angry pink line that reminded her of the Teller. She watched as he attached her new bracelet; not as a replacement, but something significantly more pleasing to the eye.

Once it hung from her wrist, Alys met his gaze. "Don't tell me twelve year old Caleb learned to dance for a stuck-up duchess. Or princess," she teased, unable to help herself.

"Help me pick out some new rings?" She began to take off the dainty ones that adorned her fingers. Dainty, pretty, but completely inexpensive. Alys had banked on this; opting to impress with fakes (from afar), and later leaving them behind, replacing them with these. After all, she didn't have pockets or much space to store them.
 
That would have been alarming, if they had cared. So long as it didn't involve them or their crewmates, Eliza didn't care what anyone did tonight. They followed his steps, twirling with the music loosely, doing more of what felt right rather than what was expected.

They perked up a bit at the mention of rumors, though. So, he wasn't just a party-goer, then? They should have figured as much, given the questions he was asking, but he also seemed so comfortable in this environment, they weren't sure to begin with. "And what rumors would those be? I've only just arrived, haven't had the chance to get my ear to the ground."

Their own question was forgotten near immediately, though, with Amir's final statement. "Now that's much more interesting than whatever else these folk are talking about. Mr. Amir, if you don't mind my asking, what type of girl has caught your attention in such a way that you feel the need to rescue her? You don't seem the type to be so committed."
 
He took the hat off first and then the mask, putting it next to the pistol while Alys removed her rings. He chuckled. If she wasn't so careless when removing them it wouldn't have crossed Caleb's mind the gems might be fake, but of course they were.

"Took me a while, but it was worth it." He smirked, picking out from the drawer what he assumed was an emerald ring - It was hard to tell under the pale moonlight peeking through the curtains - And putting it on Alys' right hand ring finger. It wasn't the perfect size, but nothing a tinkerer couldn't fix. Caleb curled up their fingers and brought her knuckles to his lips.

"We could stay here a little longer..." He whispered.
 
"Oh, anything involving pirates," Aamir answered the first question, easily enough. He gave his dancing partner a wink. "Good to know what everyone's doing, isn't it? We can't all burn down Fen Manor. That was the Nox I believe - though things will be different with them. New captain, I've heard, and I'm curious what they'll do next. If they're going to burn down Leimor, you see, I'd rather not be in it at the time."

Not that he would particularly blame them. In fact, he might even encourage them.

"And as for the girl, she ran off with pirates a while ago. And I think it might be more of a problem for her than she imagined."
 
"Someone help me!" Ronan shouted, again with no response. The spider's legs started moving again and he ran up the stairs, glad that he was at least able to provide a distraction but knowing it probably wouldn't last very long. He made it up to the upper floor and was happy to see someone in the corridor, a short-lived happiness when he recognized who that someone was. It was his first time seeing Naveen without the mask, the monster he truly was. There was blood all over his clothes - someone else's, he assumed - and his hair was greasy and entangled, nothing like how he usually presented himself. He walked out of the engine room and up the stairs, in too much of a hurry to even spare the johtunn a glance, thankfully.

Ronan had a difficult choice to make; he could either stay there and wait for the spider to catch up to him, join the other murder machine or the third option: checking if whoever Naveen had left behind was still alive and hope it was someone who could help him escape or at least not die.

"Leo!" He gasped, recognizing the dark hair from the doorway. He rushed towards the fallen man, noticing the blood staining his chin when he put his hands on his shoulders to give it a little shake. "Are you alive? Please, be alive…"
 
“Mm? And do what?” Alys asked sweetly, though already aware of the answer. The look in his eye gave him away, as did the need to have her within arms reach; not just now, but since their night began.

She looked at the band around her finger, and watched him kiss her knuckles, lips curling upward. But when the slight warmth from his lips disappeared, she retracted her hand and reached for another ring. “They’ll be looking for us,” she responded knowingly, briefly glancing towards him. “If they had any sense, do you know where they’d look first?”

Perhaps the second ring had a gold band? She couldn’t tell in the dim light, but the tiny diamonds that adorned the sides couldn’t possibly be hidden - only in complete darkness. It slid down her middle finger, ensuring that the first didn’t get lonely. Then a third joined, just because.

Once one hand was adorned sufficiently, tastefully, she placed it on Caleb’s knee. “And I won’t be caught. Not tonight.”

She still had another hand, as well as her ears to decorate, and she’d stuff as much as she possibly could down the front of her dress.
 
UmbraSight said:
That was a statement lacking in particulars, wasn’t it? Winter turned the wine bottle in her hand as she listened, her thumb planted over the mouth of the bottle. She kept an ear on Aamir, another voice in the mash of noise but she had to keep aware of him all the same. She let her cane slide back down into her free hand, though she kept from tapping it for the moment.

“Depends on the change I’d think.” Winter said. She raised the bottle to her lips, moving her thumb to take a splash before quickly closing it again. A good wine, maybe she could get Sky to snag a few more bottles before they left. Might depend on how much trouble he caused, that. “Though yours sounds like it’s quite a big change, what’s the new job you’ve gotten yourself?”
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"I'm leaving on a ship,"he said with a smile. "It's been awhile since I did anything of the sort, but it was calling to me again. One last trip around I think might do me some good." He traced his fingers over the cane. If he were being reasonable, it very likely would be his last trip around. He wasn't getting younger and the sea was a young man's game. There was no shame in all that, it was reality, and he'd not allow himself melancholy or shame over such a silly thing as age.

"Too long in one place I think eventually does a man in."
 
Ah, was he an old sailor then? Settled down once and now looking for a change of pace? It fit together she supposed, though was it a ship of the sea or the sky? The party, to her ear, had lost its shape some in the middle where the sounds pressed to one another and melded into a mass of indistinct bodies. Aamir and his current girl were a noise in the clatter, like a peach softened with age. She tapped her cane, three quick times in a tight triangle, and the mass untangled itself, to her relief.

“Never was one for staying too long, myself.” She joined the army for that problem of hers, and lost more than she cared to give. ”What sort of ship will you be sailing with?” she asked, lifting her cane.

“And heading somewhere that sees more sun I hope.” She added with a smile.
 
It was no surprise that Amir had heard of what had happened in Fen Manor. By this point, just around a month after the incident, it would be a miracle if anyone hadn't heard. For gods sake, they'd burnt half the city down, a raid like that would hardly go unnoticed.

The thought didn't affect Elize, though. No, they'd drank enough, been far enough removed, for just long enough to be able to not care. It was the pirates of the Hard Nox who'd done the deed, after all, not them. "Hmm, I'd heard of some of that as well. Wasn't aware of the new captain... you say they're in port here?"

A small pause, before they continued. "Do you think your girl you're trying to save could be with them?"
 
Alys already knew the answer, but she was set on driving him crazy. Sure her reasons made sense, but it wouldn't be Caleb's first time doing something on impulse and ignoring every reason why he shouldn't - Like trying to fuck his quartermaster who he was in love with, who also happened to be the only person with incriminating proof on what he'd done.

"You're the boss." He said, sliding down the table and heading to the windows, trying to find one that wasn't locked. "At least for tonight." He smiled at her, pushing the frame up.

With a perfect exit route ready to go, Caleb returned to the table and stuffed the real jewels Alys hadn't used to adorn herself into his pockets, along with his mask. The pistol was put back in it's holster, his hat on Alys' head and his hand on hers, helping her through the small opening that'd take them out to the balcony.
 
Just for tonight?

She’d taken what she could. Displayed enough of her new riches to remain tasteful, while sliding necklaces and bracelets that were wide enough up the sleeves of her dress, to rest above the crooks of her elbows. Smaller pieces; a brooch and a set of colourful earrings - ones she thought Juniper might like - were stuffed down the narrow space at the front of her dress. The edges dug into her skin uncomfortably, and she silently hoped that the clasps didn’t come undone to stab her.

One adorned, glimmering hand clung on to Caleb’s, who provided a sense of stability while she slowly climbed through the opening. It was a process; one leg, followed by a string of audible curses as she attempted to stuff part of her dress along, then the other leg, and finally, the rest of the glimmering fabric.

Finding comfort in the night air, the sound of a barely contained chuckle caught her attention. Glancing towards Caleb, she raised an eyebrow in question, while simultaneously straightening her posture and adjusting the fit of her dress. “Are you laughing at me?” She demanded, struggling to hold back the grin that threatened to appear on her face. “I’d like to see you try… anything in a gown. And this - ” The fae gestured to the massive hat atop her head. " - fucking hat."
 
"My sources say they are. And at least one of them is very reliable." Winter's information, Aamir would trust without question. Sky, not so much - although given that Sky was apparently in a bother about one of the Nox's ladies, Aamir felt it was a decent enough corroboration. The Nox would be somewhere around here, and undoubtedly so would it's captain. Aamir wondered who it would be this time. He glanced around the room, but not for too long - he had a dance to attend to, after all.

"And, unfortunately, no, the girl isn't with the Nox. That would be too easy. She's with the Truth Teller."

And how would 'Eliza' react to that, he wondered?
 
Caleb couldn't help but chuckle, watching Alys fight with the window in her gown and his flamboyant hat. Her curls weren't as tight as they were when he first saw her that night, but he found it prettier like that - Less uptight, more like her; or at least that's where his mind had taken him to. At that point, each time he saw Alys she looked the best she'd ever looked, even right now, looking like an idiot.


"I'm not laughing," He lied, scratching his beard with the intent to cover his smile. "And don't say that, it's a great hat." His hand slid down to his vest where he'd pinned Alys' pin and he walked up to her, picking up the curl that fell over her ear and pinning it back. He raised his eyebrow. "Can you fly in this or will I have to carry you?"
 
It started as a sharp pain that quickly started to spread from Leo’s lip to his cheeks, tracing lines of cold flame under his skin that he nearly cried out from as Naveen’s cold hand wrapped around his head. With a savage jerk the searing pain ended, blackness swallowing Leo whole in that single instant. He could feel nothing, could see nothing, and in that endless black he realized his foolishness too late. Naveen had simply wanted to be free, and Leo had been his idiotic key to release.



He was prepared for the death he had earned, in a strange way accepting that the odds that he would have achieved a normal life after the one he had lead were astronomical. He was a foolish beast, and died as such. It was a fitting end. The darkness gave way, a faint lightening of the emptiness around him that came as sudden as the driving lance through his gut. Leo had known hunger before, but this ache was deeper, piercing from navel to spine and arching upwards into his throat. Had he not been dead Leo might have acted on this intense need, might have raced to the kitchens in search of something to soothe the emptiness inside of him.



He felt something on his shoulder, an odd sensation for a dead man that was made more strange when he felt his own hand move without his will. The dead did not move, though he could feel each tendon in his wrist tighten before the resistance beneath his claws gave way. Sweet warmth splashed across his face, and as the put within him grew to the scent of iron Leo’s eyes opened. His other hand reached to the thick throat before him, drawn to its warmth, to the pulsing beat that thumped just below the shallow skin there. His nails tore the thudding free, released sanguine life over Leo’s face and bathed him in blood that filled his mouth.



A single swallow, a sip, and a new flame roared forth within him. Desperately he scrambled at the freely flowing neck, lapped at the spilling blood before he sank his teeth in deep, drinking every drop that touched his tongue as if making up for the ambrosia he had let spill to the floor. Slowly, agonizingly the emptiness within him filled, painfully Leo tore through the veil of hunger, took control of his cold body.



He found himself sitting next to Roran’s body, less blood around him than one would have expected from the gaping wounds in his neck. Stickiness coated Leo’s face and chest, red stained his hands as the world came spinning back into his perception. Naveen was gone, and the young giant was as dead as Leo thought the vampire had left him. For several moments he simply stared at the body, at his victim, blinking slowly. As if underwater he slowly reached for the giant’s tunic, inching closer so that he could wipe the blood from his face. As the drying life transferred onto the surprisingly clean material Leo’s lips curled into a fanged grin.
 
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“Will I have to carry you,” Alys repeated, in a raspier and slightly deeper voice, straightening her shoulders and puffing up her chest, mimicking Caleb and his zealous confidence. “Have you forgotten how I took both Leo and Nessa for a ride in the Ice Lands?”

She strode past him, reaching the edge of the balcony and gazing out onto the garden below, but only momentarily. A dark pair of figures lingered below, occupying one of the benches, though they hardly interested the fae. Not with the stars above and a Captain behind her. Turning back around to face him, her wings unfurled to lift her body upward, just enough to sit on the marble bannister without having to jump up. One leg crossed over the other, Alys curled her fingers over the edge, sending a cold chill up her arms. Daring to lean her head back, her dark blonde curls drifted from her back, embracing the cool night air. Just a little further… and she might’ve tumbled down.

But she didn’t. Leaning back towards the balcony, towards Caleb, she smiled. “How’d you know where to find her room? Lucky guess?”
 
Eliza hesitated for a half moment, half stumbling midway through the dance as they stepped. They regained their composure a half moment later, clearing their throat. "That's- that is quite the crew to be after. I commend your bravery, if it is as much." They were suddenly uncomfortable with this conversation, if not with this dance, but they persisted still, following his steps with only as much grace as a drunken sorceress could manage.

"How, exactly, do you intend to rescue this girl then? From what I've heard of them, the Truth Teller is markedly worse than even the Nox." There was certainly some personal bias in that statement, but it was hidden in a veil of public opinion. Both ships had a reputation, certainly, but one was staffed by pirates, the other the souls of the dammned.
 
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