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 Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:19 pm
And while the small group was going on with their conversation after Owle had picked up a few of the scattered sandwhiches, Prishazan was on his way to the captain's rooms. "May I enter," his deep voice sounded calmly through the heavy oak door. And upon a word with said captain, Tagis made her way downstairs a minute later. Prishazan, who had then also accomplished his own errand for his boss, went into the control room. So - what else was there to say about him beside the fact he was the first mate and not actually the talkative type? Well, for starters, the bald man was tall, and maybe had even an inch more than Sunstrike. His skin was tanned from many, many hours spent on the sea - and all over covered with thin, brown runes. Only his face and the area around his clavicles (and possibly some more private spots, too) were held free from these tattoos - or should we better call it one full-body tattoo? What else? Oh, yes. His eyes were of a soft brown that definitely contradicted his rather reserved behaviour and to some even eerie appearance. "Now what the...?" Tagis nearly laughed when she found Sunstrike hiding under the bed. "I guess something worse is the matter than you spilling the last milk?" Both brows raised, she waited for an explanation. * Since there seemed to be no more questions for the moment, Lucind told the others that she would go and have a word with Tagis concerning their further journey. When the first mate told her, however, that the captain was in a meeting with their cook and didn't wish to be disturbed at the moment, the Half-Siren decided to stay in the control room with Prishazan, having small talk about the Azumerian sea, the magnificent navigation system of the Fairuza and the like. Well...as far as it was possible to chat like this with the man... Also, Lucind now had a distinct idea of whom Tagis was talking to.
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Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:30 pm
"You remember..." Sun looked uncomfortable, well, more uncomfortable then being under the bed. "When I said I had to get out of town quick?"
It was times like these that Sunstrike decided that he believed in Fate. She didn't rule him...but she was a complete b***h that liked messing with his being from time to time. Probably due to the fact that he was currently running away from her.
"You're guests happen to be what I'm running from." He scowled at her then, not because he was mad at Tagis, just because he was sulking in general, as if he should have been given some hint or a get out of jail free card.
He tried not to feel the pull of his own eye up on deck, tried desperately not to feel anything, but irritation kind of came with the exchange and Sun was known to pick up bad habits from the people he hung around.
"How are we going to fix this?!"
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Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:10 pm
For a few moments, Tagis didn't say anything, but said down at the bed's end. She'd figured who Sunstrike was talking about: it could've only been Lucind and the other two, since the redhead had been asked to serve them - and the Azumerians had been in their cabins all the while.
When she spoke, a grin was still to be seen on her full lips, but seriousness filled her words.
"Running away...yeah, an exhausting game to play it is indeed.
It always helps, but doesn't make things better.
The spirits know I'm not the one to tell you what to do now - nor do I have a clue about the reason for your flight.
But accepting this twisted situation as a chance to sort out things might be one possibility to deal with it.
The sea is patient, you see. And when you expect it least it can give you answers. Or...forgiveness...some kind of peace, at least."
The woman was leaning on her knees while she stared on the floor.
Then, one of her brows was cocked once more and her voice sounded much less grave:
"However...if those guys aren't really your friends..." She scratched her head. "Dun think the Siren would go off that easily. Can't tell for the others, though. Ye see, I wouldn't want this nice boat to be ruined just because of an ordinary enmity. I'd rather make you walk the plank first..." Her grin had broadened.
"Well, maybe there is a chance to get you off board during the next hours, granted we came to meet a ship that crossed our course.
But...hmm...why not take your time to think about this before making any rash decisions?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:23 pm
There was a silence under the bed as Tagis spoke, and then carefully there was the feel of some one moving underneath and Sun eased himself out.
"Scary things happened, it's hard to explain," He looked a little lost and more frightened for a second, prehaps a small relapse to the being he'd been in the tower, before he gave her a look that was very direct.
"I'm not so much as running....as thinking...quickly...in what was supposed to be the opposite direction of Vahn. A strategic retreat, if you will. You wouldn't REALLY throw everyone overboard...would you? All that water kinda, wouldn't be good for me."
He tapped the side of her boot.
"I'll think a little harder about it, now that I've got nowhere to go. Won't be long til he starts wondering what the hell is wrong with him anyway."
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Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:48 pm
"Ah..." Was her only reaction to his first words. She wouldn't inquire for any details and just stared down at him thoughtfully.
"See...I like you. But I'm getting well paid for bringing Lucind and the others to Azum. Also, I need the...doesn't matter."
The young captain smiled and shrugged at him. "I have to make a living, so I'd rather get you off board - not by throwing you over the railing, dun worry - than ah...losing the money and the ship probably as well."
Tagis was serious about it. Nevertheless, she wanted to help the redhead and hoped he would decide to sort out things with the others.
"But...if you don't change you're mind and absolutely don't wanna get into contact with Vahn, Lucind and Owle then we can first try saying you got really sick or something."
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 6:59 am
"Nah, nah, I'll do what I set out to do, it's not your fault, specially if you're just doing your job." He pulled himself out from under the bed and stood up. Except for a few creases along his clothes, he was fine...how the hell HAD he fit under the small bunk?
"I'll cook for you, Captain. And if I run into them again, I'll just roll with it, and try not to get your ship destroyed in the process."
He grinned, and desperately wished there wasn't such a good possibility of that happening. Sun honestly didn't want to explain why he'd run before Vahn got back to him, that the wounds on his back were not healing as they should and the ones to the inside weren't much better.
Truthfully it was a really, stereotypically, female reason that he didn't want to. He felt...ugly, scarred, and overall too much like damaged goods for someone that he figured would need a whole companion.
~
"Monster."
“You seduced him in a weak moment, far from his lover…and who could blame him? As pretty as porcelain, warm as cinnamon, you’re the stuff of ecstasy, Sunstrike. It would have been all too easy…you’ve torn him apart inside, and he’s certainly not the only one. It’s probably more of a mercy, taking you away like this..."
~
Sunstrike shuddered, as if cold for a moment, and then shook himself out of it. He was still lost, searching for a reason to keep going when he was supposed to be dead to this world. The only thing that kept Vahn from being that reason, was the fear that the other man had never had the choice to be the focal point of someone else's, of Sunstrike's, existence.
That grated on Sun, the forcefulness of his own love. Probably as much as the denial of all that love grated on Vahn, though the salamander would never admit that to himself. It just didn't seem real, an emotion that felt that strong.
And what Henry had told him just seemed to confirm the fact that Sun wanted to live in perpetual fantasy. Hadn't he destroyed everything that had any meaning to him before? What were the chances that he'd build it all again, and then go mad when rejected?
None of this showed in his expression as he held out his hand to help the captain stand, in fact he even grinned.
"Did you manage to get any of the whole sandwhiches?"
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 3:43 am
"...? Ah, yes. Had a few before you strewed the rest outside on deck," she chuckled. Tagis had been staring at Sun's profile, wondering what kind of man she had standing right in front of her who wore such a haunted look.
Getting up as well, she tilted her head and her eyes wandered over the wooden floor. "I can be wrong...but I think you're a good guy.
So...if you don't know where to go - or if Azum can't give you what you're looking for: there'll be a free bed on this ship here."
With that, the woman prepared for leaving but stopped as something else had just occured to her.
"Oh, by the way. Ye ever prepared squid??"
Within a second, she was her usual whirlwind-self.
"I love squid...! =3 Doesn't matter if baked, cooked or fried. Prishazan said he might get us a few for dinner so... Oh yea, any idea what else we might have tonight? It's the first evening and the first evening at sea is something special, so maybe we can find something nice for dinner...!"
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 3:58 am
"Squid..." Sunstrike wracked his brain. "Calamari?" He thought about it. Enki used to be able to cook the stuff, of course the Leviathan was able to cook anything from the sea.
"Lemme dig around and see if I borrowed any kind of recipe for it, I know I got a stack of them at one point...s'least I can do if I've got a free bunk. As for what else..." He thought about it. "Probably rice and maybe just some kind of mix of shrimp and fish to add in with the squid."
He looked relieved to be talking about something else. "Thank you, Tagis."
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Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:18 pm
The conversation seemed to be at an end and the way Owle was nervously flitting about was more than obvious to even someone as dense as Vahn.
With a turn of his head he just seemed to grunt something and move away from the two women.
There was a lot he should have probably been asking...some smooth talking to done and some apologies to be made...but honestly... what was the point.
The future was a big..kinda highway...type deal. And Vahn had passed every available exit there really was. He'd long since blown through the warning signs and was headed right for the still being built bridge.
He was on a road to self destruction without even realizing it.
Owle was going to find someone better.
Lucind was getting the help she wanted.
Sunstrike would get the solitude he desired.
The world was going to continually move forward.
And Vahn was going to....
"....."
He stared out over the bow... wondering how much longer it would take until their destination was reached.
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 7:27 am
Owle sighed, a big heavy expellation of air. I can't believe I'm doing this...
She took one step after him, as he moved away.
"If you want to talk..."
Owle could certainly notice pain...or perhaps she mistook some other emotion for it. The way he turned away, like he thought he wasn't wanted...
He's not, though, is he?
Just because I can't stand him as anything approaching a relationship, doesn't mean I don't care...
Just because I don't love him, just cause I want to stab him sometimes, doesn't mean I don't pity him.
The silence stretched on.
"Well," Owle said at last, dropping her arms down to her sides. "I'll listen."
I won't like it, but I'll listen. And it'll be better than watching you just give up on everything.
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Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:40 am
"You ever...feel like your whole life is just centered around getting one thing done... and then anything else afterward could go to hell for all you care?"
He kept his back to her, refusing to see her eye to eye, letting his face betray him.
"That every person has some sort of fate or thing to carry out and then it's time for the next person in line?"
He slid his fingers along the edge of the ship's railing.
"I've been kinda hogging that line for a long time now..."
He was the hero.
Or maybe the greatest pretender ever known.
And while he had been disillusioned with his reasons for carrying on before... whatever made him that kind of guy had long since been lost.
He had no real friends to speak of.
He had more enemies than he cared to have.
And nothing but a string of failing relationships.
He couldn't even decide to stick with one sex.
"After this trip...is done. I'd like to see you in the Firebrand...at least one last time. Before I have to go."
He turned, jawline set even as he brushed past her.
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Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:45 am
Tagis winked at Sun and waved her hand. "Not for this. - See ya."
Once she'd emerged from the ship's she would find Lucind waiting for her: the Half-Siren was keen on having a few words with her about a certain cook. Tagis knew then that Sunstrike's presence on this ship had already been unrevealed and that any form of confrontation wasn't likely to be prevented.
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Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 8:12 am
After Tagis left, he scrounged up the recipe's that he'd spoken of and headed towards the galley. Maybe it's time to stop running and just ask...
He was sensible enough to handle any of the answers, right? He was half in a daze, even as Tagis had to explain to Lucind why Sunstrike was aboard her ship.
Maybe it wasn't just the lack of the salamander that was slowly killing Sun, maybe it was the lack of something more important. That was it then, he'd make something, leave it going and hunt out the others. Maybe if he talked to the girls first, he'd be able to finally confront Vahn.
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Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:05 am
Owle opened her mouth to answer his question with a Not really, no but something stopped her. Something made her wait, watch as he carried on, let him get that last sentence out, uninterrupted.
"Yeah...of course," Owle answered, with something like relief. He wasn't asking her to...to be with him forever or something, to make things like she'd once hoped they'd be, once thought that maybe they were. But he had never been hers, not even that night.
He was asking her something that would have happened, anyway.
Owle would always be in the Firebrand, as long as she lived. It was one of her reasons to keep on living, one of the reasons why no single quest had ever subsumed her so totally...because, in the end, it was something to go back to when all of it was over.
"And Vahn!" she called out after him, even as he turned away. "I don't believe in fate. I escaped mine, a long time ago, and continue to every day I live. After...sometimes, there are things...that seem to consume me, stuff I have to do...but after, there's always people to go back to. You've got them, too."
Sun and Lucind, if no one else.
Some part of her balked at admitting that she, too, would be disappointed if he never turned up again, if she didn't keep running into him...
But she let him walk away, and if he said nothing else, she would take her own course, continuing her circuit around the ship for a moment before heading below decks. Part of her wanted to be alone for a minute, as if the depressing aura around Vahn was palpable, and needed shaking off...but part of her knew she still needed to give Sun that hug.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 8:48 am
"So you really had no idea of his connection to us?"
Lucind leaned against a very old, very precious looking wooden chest of drawers in the captain's room, inspecting a handy statue made of jade: it was some kind of raptor, maybe a god or a holy patron, for it was all over ornated with jewelery.
"What if...?"
Grinning broadly, Tagis stood at the heavy, round table that was placed on the right side of her room, pouring a golden liquid in two bronze cups. After corking the bottle she passed over one of the cups.
"I can only try to imagine what powers everyone of you has - so why would I feel the need to bring me, the crew and the ship in such a risky situation? - Cheers!"
Lucind raised her cup then took a sip. It was a strong wine, more like hard liquor. "Figs?" She guessed.
"Plus dates and escaramboles, a popular and expensive, apple like fruit from Azum's west. Plus different spices. Like it?" The black haired woman downed the rest of her drink and went to get herself some more wine.
"Very much so. If I had known that before, I would've exchanged it for some bottles of our Siren wine." Lucind welcomed a second round, too.
"Hah, no problem. I can show where to get more - and how to charm the merchant and beat him down. But then again, that's your specialty, so I bet ye dun need my help anyway."
Lucind chuckled. "I'd never dare using me powers for such vile, cheap actions.
- And well, if you only knew a bit of the guys background, you'd done anything but bringing Sun on board." The Half-Siren smiled lightly, obviously a bit worried, and put back the jade statue.
"Truth to be told, I don't really know what's going on, why he's on the run. Haven't seen him for months. But...I don't really think the boys are going to fight...seriously fight.
On the whole, I have to admit I'm quite happy he's here. I'd feel all the more safer with all three of them by my side. If Sunstrike decides to leave once we've reached Semyon, well...couldn't stop him then."
Flopping down on a large wooden armchair, Tagis nodded at the other woman. "You've still got the others. By the way, they should arive in about three days."
"Yeah, but like I've said, I'd prefer not having to call them. I give them credit for following me and risking their reputation...and place in the Siren society.
I hope I'm wrong with all my assumptions and forebodings anyw-" She looked at the door. "Owle's walking downstairs. Seems she knows, too."
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