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 Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 4:42 am
"Well, you'd like to think, bein' a brigade and all, the Brigade's at least ten times as many", Beatrice muttered, her eyes disdainful and fixed on Kurt Cobbs as he barged further into the room. She poked his sword further away from him with her foot; a rather obvious gesture that he, despite being now turned away, couldn't possibly help but to at least suspect, what with the scraping sound it made and all. She wasn't really sure what sort of an emotion she wanted to provoke yet, but it still felt like an inappropriately appropriate thing to do.
"So, does McGoldarms know you're tailing him specifically?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 5:10 pm
"We met. Once or twice." he said with a chuckle. He unbuttoned his vest and lifted his shirt. Various scars were riddled across his chest and abdomen. He looked back at Beatrice and gave her a snarky smile. "I am more than certain of what he's capable of. If anything this is proof that I'm not to be taken seriously; even without a blade." he retorted, obviously making it obvious he noticed the captain kicking his sword away.
His attention returned to Penn at the window and her seemingly bad attitude. He could not shake the feeling he felt when he looked at her. It was the feeling one might get from meeting an old friend.
Or an old lover.
"Look, this is personal for me too. And no offense, but I doubt you could handle Goldie on your own." he said to her, in a calm tone.
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Friendly Conversationalist
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Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 6:08 pm
Silence again from her. She had to let this thought boil down. This man met the Man with the Golden Arm... fought against him... and lived to tell the tale. A worthy ally, maybe? All he wanted in the end was information.
The air around her still remained hot, but now the demoness faced this 'Sky Demon.'
"There's only so much that I know of this man, and all of them are from rumors." She sighed; at this point, Penn would love to share information... if she had any.
"However, I can attempt to ask the ones he's killed."
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Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 7:20 pm
The girl crouched in the dark, furiously debating with herself. Had they seen her? She didn't think so. They hadn't said anything or moved in her direction--she was good at listening to footsteps. Had they been here all along? Likely. There was nothing in the air, and she doubted anyone would come to a place like this on foot. Was there anything else she needed to do here? She'd planned to spend more time searching for certain faces, but not with someone here. If they were armed, a fight was certainly more trouble than she wanted. If they were unarmed... Well, what was she supposed to do? Tie them up? Boot them off the side of the ship?
Run, then.
She glanced at the sky surfer. Three running strides or half a dozen quiet steps. Well, if she was right and they hadn't seen her, quiet was safest. She moved slowly from a crouch to standing and took a step, taking great care not to trip over a body or make a board creak. The light was much better now, which was both a curse and a blessing. She took two more cautious steps, then peered over her shoulder towards whatever was behind her.
It was dead (and quite horribly dead too), it was moving, and it appeared to be eating one of the bodies. Rethinking the earlier plan, she lurched forward, jumped onto the railing, and untied her board. It appeared to have noticed her. A head turned. There were no eyes.
How is it looking at me, then? the detached part of her mind asked. The part of her mind attached to what she was doing had pulled the board away from the railing and into the sky.
Man, I hate the undead. And it was eating- Creeps me out. I wonder how-
Her train of thought (or maybe lack thereof) was cut off abruptly as she crashed right into the side of one of the ships. She must have blacked out for a second, because the next thing she knew, she was clinging onto the railing of the ship and she had a monster headache.
Brilliant. Way to lose my head completely. Just because some underworld wonder made it onto the same ship as me. Lovely. They'll find me any minute.
She hauled herself on board and prepared herself as best she could to meet the others.
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Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 8:46 am
Beatrice sighed as the rather cryptic and strained dialogue carried on. Penn seemed weary of it all, too. And on top of everything, wasn't it getting rather stuffy in here?
"Look", she started. "What I don't really get is—"
A peculiar noise outside caught her full attention, and she let everything else slip for a second. Her hand was quickly back on her rapier, and after another few seconds of listening she considered herself certain of there being someone else around. She turned towards the half-open door, but not before she had fixed her scowling gaze on Cobbs for a while longer.
"Brought some friends, did you now?"
She did realise, that so was probably not the case after all—if less than half of his claims were true, there really was no point in him mindlessly marching a few lunatics in here and begin killing left and right. Assuming, of course, that there wasn't something to this that she was still utterly oblivious to; you never know.
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Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2010 4:55 pm
It hadn’t taken long for Sinsario to skin his corpse buddy, no residue not even blood,was left because he ate as he sliced, and when he finished with the skin, he broke the bones and sucked at the marrow inside. He wondered why people don’t eat bone marrow much anymore; that stuff is full of nutrients. He’d seen some cultures in uncivilized lands far away eat the marrow but the “sophisticated” bunch never did. Nor had he until he learned.
The second corpse he picked was taller than the first and was much more disgusting; he definitely had syphilis. The early stage of it anyway, probably picked it up during the voyage. Sinsario did not want to mess with that one and tossed it to the side. The third corpse was a good one! Like the first and just as healthy. No point in skinning him besides that was dull already. Sinsario instead opted to just dig in, and sunk his teeth into the flesh, using sharp head movements to tear the flesh like an animal. Very brutal and perhaps freaky to look at…if the girls caught him now, Beatrice would condemn him to hell or something; Penn might roll her eyes or something whatever. But he was pretty hidden and they’d only catch them if they looked hard enough anyway.
Even so, Sinsario was completely oblivious to everything else, though the stillness of sound about him was appreciated.
He wished it would last longer; unfortunately he heard sounds and got eye contact with another girl. She was on a railing, untying something when they saw each other, she might have shuddered. A second later she was up in the sky with her own flying board; apparently. Awh great; was the first thought, she’s going to go to some official and tell them about him. Though he hadn’t needed to worry just yet as she instead crashed into the aide of Beatrice’s ship and hung from the railing. The girl managed to get herself on board and tried to compose herself, probably trying to ward off the embarrassment.
It was just too damn funny. Sinsario howled with laughter. It’s always fun when serious faced individuals face monster embarrassment. Wonderful!
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Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2010 6:11 pm
The outside world finally got through Penn's rock-hard head and she noticed that Beatrice was acting defensively over what seemed to be someone else having boarded the ship.
"Maybe we should greet this new person, if you don't mind me interjecting," Penn said. Her friendlier tone came back, and she began to head towards where the noise originated. The demon's right hand was now formed into the shape of a "gun," and you could see the air around the index and middle finger tips look wavy.
"I always liked showing hospitality to strangers. Karma and all that."
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Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2010 1:27 am
Beatrice had to chuckle at Penn's last remark. She used to like the idea of karma, but lately she felt that showing faith towards that sort of belief would probably do her more harm than good.
"Fair enough."
First some more glaring at Cobbs, then she quickly strode over to the door and threw it wide open. She hadn't entirely expected the sight of a mere young girl, yet there she was, right on deck, looking fairly worn and dizzy. Could be a ruse, but—oh, enough with the paranoia already!
"Welcome, miss," she said, rather indifferently. No point in being overly hospitable. Some satire never killed no man, though, so she added: "What brings ye to me unswabbed deck?" and crossed her arms over her chest.
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Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2010 11:54 am
She only had a few seconds to appraise them before she'd have to say something. Better play up the dizziness a bit--though that wouldn't be tough. She glanced around with mild brown eyes.
The ship captain looked fair, but tough, and the girl knew that she'd be the most sympathetic. Or, at least, she was the one that probably wasn't psychotic. She had a sense of humour, something that warmed her to the girl. She was wary of all of them, but she found herself liking this captain instinctively, which wasn't something to ignore.
The other was a demon, and she was smiling--something that sent shivers down the girl's spine. The girl doubted that she'd be able to sleep around that one, for fear of not waking up. Show no weakness; show no stupidity, and above all, show no fear.
The third member of the odd group was just inside. She wasn't too concerned about him--anyone who purposefully made a dramatic entry was usually not worth worrying about, and he probably had the least status around here.
The girl looked at Beatrice and smiled wryly. How to approach this? She scratched her head, ruffling short-ish purple-black hair. Truth was always good. She couldn't play this group. There was no established group dynamic, and they seemed to be people that had just been thrown together by chance. Too many different personalities; too many different morals. An attempt at manipulation would probably wind up with her very dead.
"Sorry about that. I was headed up from the wreck down there and caught a gust of wind wrong. I was still getting used to the board. Now it looks like I'm going to have to start over again."
The girl looked over at the demon, doing her best to look her straight in the eyes without shuddering. "I'm unarmed," she said firmly, hoping that the gun-shaped limb would go back to normal as soon as she took her eyes off of it. She turned her gaze back to Beatrice.
"I'm... Well, by trade I'm a pirate captain, believe it or not. Small-time, of course, which is why I decided to ground the ship until this missing ships thing is over. The crew's split up for the time being, so I'm trying to make a living on my own. Some of the men down there have bounties on their heads, dead or alive, so that's why I'm here." She sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm making a mess of this. My head got a pretty good whack a few seconds ago. My name's Kestrel."
She held out her hand to Beatrice, glad the ring was down the other glove. She didn't want to have to share her spoils. She needed that bounty.
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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 10:47 am
"Pirate captain? Hard to believe, really." She chuckled. There was something rather... unsettling about it. "Any reason that you'd be here, if I may know?"
The wavy air dissipated, and Penn's hand relaxed. For now, this lass would be kept alive. Should she pose an actual, legitimate threat... yeah, there would definitely be fireworks tonight.
((Blegh, no creativity this week...!))
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Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 3:32 am
"And since when did my ship become a nexus for weird run-ins?" Beatrice sighed to herself with a melodramatic shrug. She did reach out for a quick handshake, however, as she introduced herself as, well, Beatrice. Manners, manners.
"Very much hard to believe," she continued in response to Penn's remark as she observed the young girl; she wasn't all that remarkable. Especially not in contrast to the rest of the crowd. Beatrice would almost go as far as considering her a 'poor thing'. Then she chuckled, as her eyeing was interrupted by an unforgivably silly play of words that came to mind—boarded by someone who wasn't even used to the board. She pondered it for a while, and then couldn't help but to hint it:
"Sure y'didn't come by to modestly board us then, eh?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 12:13 pm
Kestrel smiled wryly. "It was your ship that boarded me, actually. And my... board."
She scuffed her feet. She would have to be very, very careful around the demon. She wasn't sure if it would be better to be underestimated or overestimated, although it would probably be a good idea to look more competent than she'd been so far.
"I really am a pirate captain, but we're a small crew. We'd never take on anything well-guarded. I usually wear an eyepatch, just so people will take me a little more seriously. The sword would help too, if I'd brought it."
She sighed and looked at her feet.
"Since all these ships started disappearing, the crew's split up. I can plot courses and fly ships, but I'm really not meant for bounty hunting or anything. I'm practically picking corpses for gold. Since I'm stranded, I'll help you out with whatever you're doing in return for passage. I can cook, drive ships, plot courses..." She looked at Beatrice hopefully before adding, "Oh, and there's something undead down there. I thought you might want to know."
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Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 5:57 pm
"Oh, now that's interesting. Hear that, Hawk," Beatrice said, and poked the ship's deck with the tip of her boot. "You'll be a full-fledged boarder in no-time!"
Then, apparently stuck in a melodramatic state, she burst into a hearty laughter as Kestrel got to remarking on her usual eye patch. Obviously, she had a keen eye for details, that girl. A keen eye, hah, get it? She was about to share that one as well, but the further mentioning of "something undead" made her come to. She wasn't sure whether she'd just smile knowingly or—bah, who was she kidding; what else was there to do?
"Yes," she said, then. And smiled knowingly. "Yes, I noticed. That's, however, not my concern. I think my sole invited guest here will have to explain that one to ya." She made a small nod in Penn's direction. "Or the guy himself, but I guess you might not be as keen to converse with him."
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Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:14 pm
"...ah, yes, the undead fellow munching on those corpses. That would be my crewmate, who was unfortunate enough to have both his tree taken and his ship wrecked by a particular band of pirates. I would rather call them demons, but that would be underestimating them. Despite this, he's a kind man, wouldn't harm a fly." Unless he was starved, maybe...
Penn decided to walk towards the ship's edge to see how he was doing. A few of the corpses formerly in the water were now on the ship, it seemed, and one of them was being eaten! She would observe this later.
"One would think that, with all these people here, we might have been brought to this spot for reasons other than a missing captain, who may or may not even be alive..."
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Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 9:20 pm
Kestrel turned slightly red, though she did her best to hide it.
"Oh. You know it. Him, I mean." She was about to add more, but she realized there was no need. The full, embarrassing truth would come out soon enough--there was no need to mention it now. At least Beatrice seemed more amused now and less suspicious.
Kestrel watched Penn walk over the side of the ship and gaze over the railing and instinctively tensed up. She almost missed the demon's comment. Why were they all here? It was strange, for so many people with such different personalities to all arrive in one lonely place at the same time. Suspicious, even.
"Fate, maybe?" she suggested. "Maybe we're all looking for the same thing and don't know it. Things might be more connected than we think."
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