Goriel and beyond

[Jack Rothwell]

"We're done, Eli."

He watched Desiree walk away from him, too stunned to make a reply. Sudden pain shot through his hand, distracting him, making him look downwards and see the blood running between his fingers. He opened his clenched fists with an effort, turned slowly and went through the nearest door that led below deck.

[Alberich]

Tim didn't see Eli and Desiree walk away from each other (these being the two he wanted to get near and talk to, and also run away from and never talk to again). Seeing as Brad and Lillith had each other, and Argus was with Harker, whom Tim didn't want to get near at all, and he was through talking with Rose and the airman, Tim kept to himself once more. Yet he would be eay to find for anyone who wished to.

[OOC: Is there going to be an airship battle with the other group?]

[OOC: Is she cute? Listen, bub, / You just wanna give her drits a rub. / She can slay anything, / Then go play with a ball of string...]

[Drusia]

He watched Desiree walk away from him, too stunned to make a reply. Sudden pain shot through his hand, distracting him, making him look downwards and see the blood running between his fingers. He opened his clenched fists with an effort, turned slowly and went through the nearest door that led below deck.
Tim didn't see Eli and Desiree walk away from each other (these being the two he wanted to get near and talk to, and also run away from and never talk to again). Seeing as Brad and Lillith had each other, and Argus was with Harker, whom Tim didn't want to get near at all, and he was through talking with Rose and the airman, Tim kept to himself once more. Yet he would be eay to find for anyone who wished to.

I wait a moment to see if Eli has anything else to say. He doesn't. I leave - I don't want to be near him right now. He gets angry so easily, and I'm sure he isn't happy with me... I want to be near Rose and the others.

Unfortunately, Rose seems busy and I'm not sure I can handle sewing right now and -

I run into someone and fall over. I look up and see Brother Tim, looking surprised.

"Sorry," I say, "Sorry... I just... sorry."

-- Desiree

[Alberich]

"Sorry...Sorry... I just...sorry."

"Oh, no, pardon me!" said Tim - not stammering for just a moment, anyway. There were two matters he really wanted to know about from Desiree. The more important involved Eli. But the more immediate was the one that would rob him of his rest until he knew. So go for it. Ask her what happened when she was unconscious, and you were "put to bed," and Rose couldn't see, and the desk clerk said it was Desiree who got you the room...

"Um, ah, say, do you have a moment?" - he scratched the back of his head, but she seemed to be being polite about it. "I was, ah, wondering, about, you know. About. About wwwwhen, well" -- tongue-tied, he mimed Harker forcing the mystery draught down his throat -- "that, Harker, after Harker, that." Idiot, you sound drunk again. He straightened up, cleared his throat, and looked her straight in the eye, determined to damn well talk like a man. Whatever kind of man he was now.

"I mean, what happened?"

[Graybeard]

[OOC:

[OOC: Is there going to be an airship battle with the other group?]

None was planned, and there would be a timing problem -- between the launch times, the ineptness of the Bonny Read's navigator, and the likely higher performance of the military craft, I'd expect the Veracian party to be at least a couple of hours ahead of the other one by now. That other airship was just intended as a random Farrelian vessel, created to give Jamie and company a little target practice. Of course, anything is possible, so if people really want to have a fight between the two groups, the following can be retconned away ... but it was more what I had in mind. Sareth, gonna borrow Kattie for a minute:]

"Ah hah!" a voice came from Captain Wrackham's cabin, as he received word of the approaching airship. "It's our old nemesis, the Queen Alice's Revenge! I'd bet my eyeteeth on it! Battle stations, everybody!"

Kattie rolled her eyes in Shorty's general direction. "We left the Queen A a wreck on the east coast, and besides, I've owned his eyeteeth for about five years now. He keeps making these bets, but he never pays out, the bastard. But sound general quarters anyway."

Shorty suppressed a smile. "Aye, aye." Moments later, an alarm bell rang through the ship, startling Rip, up in the crow's nest, so much that he almost fell over the railing.

-------------

Sister Rose was starting toward Desiree when she observed the collision between the priestess and the priest. Although she'd feel guilty about it later, she breathed a momentary, silent prayer of thanksgiving. Tim and Desiree didn't really have any issues to work out, as far as she knew, but an encounter between the two of them might clear the air, and besides, it was nice to have someone else available as a confessor/peacemaker; the duty got taxing, and that was one of a junior priest's jobs, wasn't it?

She decided to leave the two to their conversation, although she worried a bit about Eli. Where had the half elf gone? If he didn't resurface fairly soon, she'd take a couple of the security people from the crew (recognizable by their red shirts) and go look for him. For the moment, however, she needed to get caught up on preparations for the arrival in Goriel.

"So how go the garments and insignia for Clan Cleiviein?" she asked when she reached Argus and the newlyweds, favoring Lillith with a wink she wasn't sure the others could see.

------------

Therese watched the young woman descend the far side of the pass, at first skittishly as she got used to the rolling platform-cart, but gaining confidence and comfort with the thing rapidly. It was sad, she thought, how thoroughly cowed the women of Goriel were. All indications were that this girl had plenty of potential, potential that she should be able to reach now, or at least approach. Couldn't the city fathers see that too, and let the oppressed part of their population help bring the city-state into the modern age?

Well, of course they couldn't; she'd been part of the Sisterhood for long enough to know that. She turned back with a sigh, and dug a working man's outfit out of her traveling pack, to wear over her armor; from here on, she'd need to be in disguise.

[Drusia]

"Oh, no, pardon me!" said Tim - not stammering for just a moment, anyway.
"Um, ah, say, do you have a moment?" - he scratched the back of his head, but she seemed to be being polite about it. "I was, ah, wondering, about, you know. About. About wwwwhen, well" -- tongue-tied, he mimed Harker forcing the mystery draught down his throat -- "that, Harker, after Harker, that." He straightened up, cleared his throat, and looked her straight in the eye, determined to damn well talk like a man. Whatever kind of man he was now. "I mean, what happened?"

As he appears to be too flustered to help me up, I go ahead and stand up on my own. He... makes some funny motions and - oh!

"Happened?" I ask, tilting my head, "I paid a porter to help me carry you up to a room and put you to bed. I was going to ask you to walk me back to the temple while Rose and Argus had some time together, but you couldn't even stand much less walk in the state you were in."

I frown. "Did you think I... took advantage of you?" I ask. His expression is answer enough. "Tim, in the state you were in, that would have been tanamount to rape. Rape is an abomination to Anilis - I would never insult her gifts like that. And anyway, I doubt you could have maintained an erection as drunk as you were."

I turn to leave, but pause. "If I ever decide to envoke the blessing of Anilis with you, you'll be awake and sober. I don't want my lovers falling asleep on me for at least an hour or two."

It's probably bad of me to tease him like this, but... I'm upset, and I want to hurt someone. Tim had the misfortune to be in my path, and... well, it's only cruel if he really has been mooning after me. If he has been, then he's been misleading me about his intentions. If he hasn't been, then this is harmless teasing. And if uses this as an opportunity to make a move on me... well, I could use a distraction. And contraception spells aren't exaclty difficult.

-- Desiree

[Drannin]

Argus raised an eyebrow. "I think the bracelets are fine," he commented, holding up a pair with twisting, geometric designs. "As for the clothes... well, they're certainly very... Harker." Where did the familiar get his ideas, anyway?

(OOC: Bad at fashion and associated descriptions. Help, anyone?)

[Alberich]

[OOC: My bad - I was writing in a hurry & didn't notice she was on the floor.]

"Tim, in the state you were in, that would have been tanamount to rape. Rape is an abomination to Anilis - I would never insult her gifts like that. And anyway, I doubt you could have maintained an erection as drunk as you were...If I ever decide to envoke the blessing of Anilis with you, you'll be awake and sober. I don't want my lovers falling asleep on me for at least an hour or two."

If Desiree had been using one of Rose's Empathy spells, she would've felt a huge wave of relief. With the tiniest subtle bit of disappointment. (Now, most likely, he'd never find out if he was any good as a lover. Which was how it was supposed to be. But he wouldn't be human if he didn't wonder, at least a little. That thought could wait for lonelier days.) The relief was so strong that her teasing blew right by him. A few words in fun were nothing compared to what Harker and Rose had put him through.

"I wasn't quite thinking like that," he said -- "I mean, I didn't remember anything, if I was unconscious or not, let alone what I might've been doing. But thanks....I mean, what you did was very decent of you." In fact, it was a HELL of a lot more decent than anyone else! - the thought was surprisingly vehement. It slotted in pretty well with the way he'd been feeling already. Desiree's way of being, in a human woman, would be the height of indecency, and probably would come with disloyalty, depravity, and misery. But she wasn't human. You couldn't hate her for that. In fact, he positively had to like her, off-limits though she was.

She was going - that wasn't good. There was a serious matter still to discuss. "Wait -- " he said, his hand reaching out, but he pulled back from touching. "Have you another moment? I'm actually worried about Eli." Her next look was unreadable to him and not what he was expecting.

He invited her to a more private corner as he explained it further. And with what she'd said and done, talking to her was more comfortable than before, even on a dreadful subject. "Back in Port Lorrel - we fought a strong party of slavers at the docks. And he was using magic I've never seen before. He'd been studying a strange book before that, and this time - he was calling up...something monstrous." As best he could, Tim described what Tamina called a "galdy," though he didn't know the name. He refrained from the words "demon" and "devil" - he didn't know how the heathen would take them. His voice went lower and more urgent. "He banished it when he was ready, and he did it with ease, but I fear there's something of it still with him.

"I don't know what he's dealing with, or how he got there, but I think he's in danger. And I think this strange magic's involved. And -- " why on earth was he confessing to her of all people? instinct -- "I haven't told it all to Rose yet. I don't think she's equipped to get to it the right way. But if he's in the clutches of d...something he shouldn't be, I want to get him out of it. And you know where he came from and know him best of anyone - have you seen anything of what this might be?"

At the worst, if she told him she thought it was harmless, he could pretend to be convinced, and set himself up for his original tack. At the best - she'd saved Tim's body at the risk of her own, though he was a stranger. She might just risk more beside Tim to save a lover's soul.

* * *

With the call to "all stations," Udo forgot his hurts, seized up his staff, and belted up towards the gun deck. He shouted encouragement to everyone around him -- "Let's get those goat-blowing pirates!"

An unusually restrained crewman -- he'd come down a bit in the world -- tapped the ex-battlemage on the shoulder. "'scuse me," he said, "But we are the pirates."

Udo was stunned for a moment. "We are...?"

How cool was that??!!??

"...let's get those goat-blowing non-pirates!"

"I think these may be pirates as well."

"Oh, fuckin' weave, let's get 'em anyway!"

[Sareth]

Between the sound of the cannon fire, and the alarm, Jamie looked like she'd just woken up and been promised an entire week at the Dizeeneya's Whirl amusement park in Tsuirakuashita. The girl was moving at such a pace that she was actually going over, under, or through pirates who were rushing to their stations too slow for her pace. She whipped into the gun deck with a frightening giggle and leapt over to a gun.

"Who we killin? Who we killin?" She danced about a pile of cannon balls.

Shorty lumbered over. "Dunno yet."

"Okay," Jamie replied. She swept up a rammer and a cannon ball. "No problem. Let's load up!"

At which point Shorty grabbed the girl, walked over into a corner, and sat on her. When one of the crewmen arched an eyebrow at the stream of extremely filthy things being spoken from the area of Shorty's buttocks, the giant man shrugged. "XO's orders."

****

Lillith laughed at Argus. "I hate to admit it, but for once I think he's right on the mark. If half of what we've been told is true..."

The girl reached over into a small pile of garments. She fished a couple out and held them up for Rose's inspection. In the main it looked like a dress that bunched at the waist, but the hem of the skirt would barely have reached the middle of the thigh on a shorter woman. The top half looked loose and flowy, which would have been fine if it had also had shoulders. As it was it looked like it would take magic to hold it up. The second garment was of similar build to the first, only it was split up the side so highly the front and back were held together by two straps knotted in a bow beneath the armpits. A decorative bet made of looped brass rings had been loosely knotted about the waist. "We saved the most modest ones for you."

[Browncoat]

It didn't take Angrist too long to find Tamina. He was going to have her simply follow him and move at a more regular speed, but then he heard the call to arms. It was faster to carry her as he rushed. Of course, when he got to the deck, he saw Jamie's condition and realized that his fears were unfounded.

{She could probably write a book listing filthy sayings} Angrist gestured for Tamina to go distract Jamie. Maybe not the best move on his part, but to be fair, he didn't have much experience with either of them.

{Hmm, a fight between airships...Not sure they'll have much use for me and my style of fighting.} Angrist put his amulets back on. {Still, better to be prepared than not}

[OOC: If anyone wants to launch Angrist over to the other ship for hand-to-hand combat, feel free. Or he could be used to repel enemies who try to board. Otherwise, he'll probably have little to do with actual fighting in this battle]