▲ my life is just constantly existing at ungodly hours
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Feb 15, 2021 16:24:57 GMT -5
Post by achromatic on Feb 15, 2021 16:24:57 GMT -5
"I really am sorry," Mars' voice was quiet, "I wouldn't have dragged you into this if I knew."
He turned to Charlie as he spoke, his expression changing to a bright one, donning the impression that they truly were simply on an adventure, and not running for their lives. "We'll be there soon enough," he grinned, "have you ever seen a pirate ship, Charlie? Maybe you'll finally see one today."
The man turned back to the road. It wasn't far now–wait. He spotted movement on his right. "Careful, someone's out there," he warned, as he readied his pouch, the water whipping forward as his second limb. Whatever it was, Mars wasn't sure whether it was friendly or not.
Sure enough, a couple minutes later and an arrow shot through the air and quickly, Mars' ice whip stopped it in place, slicing it in half. "Get inside the carriage," he commanded, "and get down with Charlie. I'll handle this."
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Feb 15, 2021 17:01:36 GMT -5
Post by nostalgic on Feb 15, 2021 17:01:36 GMT -5
Gods, this was too much. Elise scrambled down the front, pulling Charlie with her, and shut the both of them inside the carriage. Charlie did not seem like he'd be repeating his display of power anytime soon- the first manifestation appeared to have drained the boy.
When Charlie clutched the front of her skirt, frightened in the darkness by the commotion outside, Elise smiled down at him through her own fear. "Don't be scared, my love," she soothed, stroking his curls. "It's part of the adventure! Mars will protect us from the bad guys, and then you'll see the pirate ship and be a pirate yourself!"
She could only hope it was true. She was sorely lacking in magical ability and Charlie... well, he was only five. There was little he could do to protect them, at least that he could control.
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▲ my life is just constantly existing at ungodly hours
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Feb 15, 2021 18:21:58 GMT -5
Post by achromatic on Feb 15, 2021 18:21:58 GMT -5
The water whipped around through the trees, and shouts of pain erupted from the nearby trees as the water struck. Fuck, there were more than one, Mars thought as he snapped the reins, the horses moving faster. Another barrage of arrows, and Mars had to bring up a shield. Every attack meant more water was wasted; he couldn't create more on his own. He needed some cover.
Veering to the right, the went through the forest rather than the road, the path bumpier this way. "Hold on," he called out, "we're taking a shortcut."
Straight through the forest, the road could be seen ahead, towards the cliffs. They were almost there, he thought. Just a little more.
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Feb 15, 2021 20:24:51 GMT -5
Post by nostalgic on Feb 15, 2021 20:24:51 GMT -5
Elise did not have many choices available for her in terms of things to do to fill up this post, so she sat still in the carriage, mumbling soothing words to her son.
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▲ my life is just constantly existing at ungodly hours
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Feb 15, 2021 20:54:23 GMT -5
Post by achromatic on Feb 15, 2021 20:54:23 GMT -5
Finally, they were there. He immediately stopped the horses before leaping off, opening the door to the carriage. "Come on, we have a bit of time before they catch up," he spoke quickly, his eyes darting around, "there's a footpath down the cliffs towards the ocean. You'll see the ship there; tell them you're a friend of mine and Bradley's guys are here. They'll let you on."
He moved towards the road, looking around at the forest around them.
"Look, you want me, right?" he called out loudly, "well I'm all here, just let the kid go. They had nothing to do with this."
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Feb 15, 2021 21:32:34 GMT -5
Post by nostalgic on Feb 15, 2021 21:32:34 GMT -5
Elise followed his instructions, smiling at Charlie as she led him down the footpath, keeping close to the cliffside as they descended to the sandy beach. Gods be damned, if Charlie fell or hurt himself, she'd kill Mars herself, powers or not. She could hear Mars calling to their pursuers, but she couldn't divert her attention to listen.
Thankfully, though, they reached the cliff bottom without incident. There was indeed a ship anchored there, and when she waved and called out what Mars had told her to say, they let her on without a question. A few soldiers moved off to ascend the cliffs, presumably to help Mars.
They were ushered into a room they were to share with a tall blind girl, one who welcomed them and sent one of the loitering pirates to fetch a strong cup of coffee for Elise. Elise sank onto the bed, wrapping her cloak tightly around a shivering Charlie, and waited in a shocked silence to see if Mars would make it down.
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▲ my life is just constantly existing at ungodly hours
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Feb 16, 2021 5:05:12 GMT -5
Post by achromatic on Feb 16, 2021 5:05:12 GMT -5
It didn't take long for the thugs to reappear, and huh, five of them. Great.
"Come get me," he sneered, the water he was holding onto wasn't much, but it'd be enough.
"Mars get down!" a shout made the man immediately duck as a spear came shooting from behind him, impaling one of the men in the shoulder. He turned, looking to the other pirate gratefully, before his water whip slashed forward, turning into ice disks that flew towards the thugs, scattering them for a moment.
"Marius," he laughed, "thank Frey, I wasn't sure how long I could hold them off."
"What the fuck did you do this time?" the other man seemed unimpressed, "come on, let's go."
"What about the spear?"
"I can get another one back home," the other man snorted as he ran back to the ship, Mars following quickly behind. Soon, the ship came into view.
"Let's go!" Marius shouted at the crew as they began to work, raising the plank once more as the two jumped forward, hoping to avoid the thugs right behind them.
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Feb 16, 2021 7:30:04 GMT -5
Post by nostalgic on Feb 16, 2021 7:30:04 GMT -5
Elise heard the distant shouting, and the lurch of the ship as it moved out to the sea. She glanced beside her, surprised to see that despite everything going on, Charlie was curled up on the bed, sound asleep. Poor thing. Elise kissed his forehead and tucked him in, before accepting the coffee and heading up with the girl- who introduced herself as Rose- to the top deck.
"Mars, what did you do to this poor woman to make her so angry at you?" Rose called out, as Mars's thoughts came into range. Elise looked at the collection of pirates, wondering if she should have left Charlie alone, after all. "He'll be fine," Rose turned to Elise, misty eyes focusing on her. Elise felt her skin crawl- so this was a mind fairy? She'd heard tales, but they were rare enough as it was.
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▲ my life is just constantly existing at ungodly hours
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Feb 16, 2021 8:44:43 GMT -5
Post by achromatic on Feb 16, 2021 8:44:43 GMT -5
This really was a close call, Mars thought. Too close, in his opinion.
"Remember our best friend, Bradley?" he spat, the humour on his tongue hid an irritation that seemed to bite, "lovely guy, thought he'd get us by telling a certain lord or what that we were in town, and now I have a scar to show for it." He neglected to name who, but it was clear that Marius understood. They had plenty of enemies everywhere, but there was only one that the light fairy worked with recently.
Marius frowned. "So what do they know? We were out in town; the trade went fine. Did hear something about how a big security family signed a contract with the lords that control Vela's port. Something about Raynes I think, they got new soldiers down at the old port, but they didn't seem to care about us."
"Guess they told their guys to go after the one with a missing arm," his tone was tinged with sarcasm, "at least we didn't piss off one of those bigger guys."
Marius snorted. "Well that'll work, you are pretty unique and special, Mars," Marius smirked, crossing his arms.
"Oh fuck off," he rolled his eyes, before looking towards Elise, looking a little more guilty, "uh...found myself in her barn and she helped patch me up. I didn't think they'd find me so far out of town, but I guess I was wrong."
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Feb 16, 2021 22:11:09 GMT -5
Post by nostalgic on Feb 16, 2021 22:11:09 GMT -5
"Well, I just came to make sure you weren't dead," Elise said coolly, turning away. "Now that I know you're not, I'm going to bed." With that she disappeared back into the belly of the ship, making her way to Charlie.
Rose laughed, amused by the entire situation. "Ooh, she's pissed. Something about burning about your food, Mars. Hope you like your meat blackened." With that, she too turned to go to bed, leaving the rest of the pirate to deal with the aftermath.
It was late the next morning with the pair woke again, drained from the previous night. Charlie ran up to the deck in his clothes from the day before, a groggy Elise right behind him.
"Mars!" Charlie called, spotting a familiar face among the crowd. The boy ran to him, throwing his arms around his legs. His curls were disheveled from sleep, but his brown eyes held none of the fear from the day before. "Are we pirates now, Mars? Where are we- what ocean is this? When do I fight a kraken like you?"
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▲ my life is just constantly existing at ungodly hours
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Feb 17, 2021 6:52:27 GMT -5
Post by achromatic on Feb 17, 2021 6:52:27 GMT -5
Mars gave Rose a dry smile. "Guess I'll get used to it," he replied, looking more tired than usual. There was nothing he could do about that but keep apologizing and hoping that one day, she'd accept it.
The open sea was where Mars called home. Soon they'd be out of the bay and into the ocean, he thought, finally. He was tired of the land, at least for now. The sea was a terrifying place, but it was where he felt free, and breathing in the sea salt smell, the breezes that seemed to fill him with energy. He was an early riser, after all, for that brief moment of silence before the rest of the crew woke.
An excited shout made him turn around as Charlie immediately ran towards him. A chuckle left his mouth as he hoisted the boy up on his hip, turning towards the sea once again.
"This is the bay," he chuckled, before pointing to a land in the distance. "See that?" he turned to the boy, "those are Nyre's islands, and beyond that, is Kama's jungle. You wanted to be a jungle man, right? Hopefully we'll never meet a kraken again, but maybe if you're lucky, you'll see a kelpie one day."
He saw Elise following the boy, and his expression turned a little more serious, more distanced. "Good morning, I hope you slept well?" he asked Elise.
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Feb 17, 2021 9:13:28 GMT -5
Post by nostalgic on Feb 17, 2021 9:13:28 GMT -5
"I want to fight a kraken!" Charlie insisted, leaning forward in Mars arms to peer out at the water. Perhaps it was only a trick of the light, but a large shadow seemed to stir below the surface, though it faded away when Charlie realized his mom was beside them.
"Very well. The rocking of the ship lulled me right to sleep." Elise rubbed her hand across her eyes, meaning to be more sarcastic than she was. But it was early, and Mars was being nice to Charlie, and Elise couldn't exactly be rude to someone Charlie liked in front of him. "Are we headed to Maline, or somewhere else? I can only borrow Rose's clothes for so long."
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▲ my life is just constantly existing at ungodly hours
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Feb 17, 2021 9:52:05 GMT -5
Post by achromatic on Feb 17, 2021 9:52:05 GMT -5
He had originally intended to go back to Maline first, but thanks to their little...problem, he knew he'd have to stop by Esso'tera first. Their coastal city wasn't exactly glamorous. It was more like a fortress really, and as much as Mars prided himself in his trickery and his wit, Esso'tera was no joke. The risk of angering the people there and getting dished revenge was higher than anywhere else; those people were savages.
"We're stopping by Esso'tera first," he decided, "unfortunately, it's not somewhere you can settle properly, I'm afraid. You'll have to stay with us a bit longer until we can get you somewhere more...safe than that." As much as Elise was angry with him, he'd never forgive himself if something happened to her out in the wild; Maline would always be the safer option. Esso'tera was simply too dangerous for a single mother and a child so young.
He turned to her. "We can go out in the city and find you the supplies you need, but I won't let you go unchaperoned in Elden. It's not safe there."
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Feb 17, 2021 13:08:09 GMT -5
Post by nostalgic on Feb 17, 2021 13:08:09 GMT -5
"Fine," Elise agreed, though the bitter part of her thought that it was unfair that another man was dictating what she, and her son, would be doing. She knew that was unfair to Mars, though, so she didn't say it aloud. Leaving Charlie with Mars, she made her way down to the kitchen, expression curdling at the dirty state of the room.
After some time, she managed to scrape together a respectable breakfast- even if the ingredients were sorely lacking. It was clear none of the men were experienced cooks, and Rose was blind. It was clear by the way they pounced on the potato hash that they hadn't had home cooking in a while. As promised in her thoughts, Mars's was blacker than the rest.
Elise spent the rest of the journey to Esso'tera scrubbing every inch of the kitchen and arranging the tables in the mess hall into a livable and workable arrangement. Charlie alternating between following Mars and Rose around, occasionally peppering other sailors with questions about what they were doing and why.
When they disembarked in Esso'tera, both mother and son were better rested and dressed, and Elise had a running list in her mind of things she needed to buy while they were in town. Groceries, mostly, but some clothing for her and Charlie as well. "Lead the way," she said to Mars, watching as Charlie scampered off the boat after him.
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▲ my life is just constantly existing at ungodly hours
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Feb 17, 2021 13:21:20 GMT -5
Post by achromatic on Feb 17, 2021 13:21:20 GMT -5
The rest of the journey to Esso'tera was uneventful, something that Mars was grateful for. It was nice, to have someone who knew how to make the ship feel a little more home–at least for the other sailors. She clearly still held a grudge towards him, and well, burnt food wasn't as bad as the stew they fed in the navy, nor the gruel they fed in prison those few times he had been caught.
It only took a day or two to end up in Esso'tera, and he was reminded how much he disliked the desert country. It was so dusty. The cities were beautiful in a certain way perhaps, and it was the easiest port to sell stolen goods, but the arid heat and the dryness just made his skin itch.
"What do you need to get?" he asked, "we have a day or two here, and everything's on me." He just hoped she wouldn't get the most expensive of things; as much as they were comfortable with the amount of money they had, he couldn't use all of it when Lacaille was off limits for the next couple of months.
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Feb 17, 2021 13:36:15 GMT -5
Post by nostalgic on Feb 17, 2021 13:36:15 GMT -5
Elise listed off the items, which were reasonable enough. Years of living on an allowance had stifled her spending habits. When they were around Charlie, she was courteous enough to him, even if she burned his food at every meal. Charlie took one of each of their hands as they walked, eyes wide with amazement at the bustling city.
"This is way bigger than the market back home," he said, sticking close as they wound through the crowd and did their shopping. He reached for a piece of fruit once, and got his hand swatted, and then sulked in Elise's skirts for a few minutes while they browsed.
Once they were done, and heading back to the ship, he began babbling on about a story he'd imagined during the excursion. "What if when we got back to the ocean, there was a shadow water monkey? And he ate the ships like bananas? And what if he stomped around and juggled the ships after eating them? Wouldn't that be cool?"
"That's a very exciting story, my love," Elise told him, ruffling his dark curls. He beamed up at her, and when they reached the docks he broke away from them, running up to the water's edge.
"Here comes the shadow water monkey!" He called, waving his arms.
Elise clicked her tongue. "Come back, Charlie. You're too close to the wat-" Her admonition was cut short, however, by the manifestation of a literal shadow monkey, rising from the water and towering two stories high. It was made of the living shadows that had pinned down the thug in their kitchen a few days prior, and had no discernible features apart from an ape-like silhouette.
Elise thought it was an illusion, or a heat-induced hallucination, until someone else screamed. Charlie's shadow monkey leaned over, picking up a random ship and biting into it like a banana, sending broken boards of wood plummeting into the sea below. Chaos erupted around them, as sailors and citizens fled away from the eldritch beast.
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▲ my life is just constantly existing at ungodly hours
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Feb 17, 2021 14:16:05 GMT -5
Post by achromatic on Feb 17, 2021 14:16:05 GMT -5
Oh. My. God.
What the fuck was that? "Charlie?" Mars' voice fought against shaking, as he took a step back. How powerful was the kid? There was no way some child could do that, right? He had trained his magic for years, and he still had ways to go, but this kid...he had just discovered he was a fairy just days ago. This was impossible...what kind of dark fairy could do that?
He turned to Elise. "Stop him," he spoke, panic filling his eyes, "fuck. We can't–"
If the Umbras found out about this, he was never going to leave this city alive. They were so. fucked.
"Charlie, you have to stop," his voice was sharp now, as he immediately summoned his own powers, water on the shore flowing in and out, creating higher waves to push the shadow....monkey? away from the ships. People were shouting now, as other fairies came to help, blasts of fire attacking the creature. It was lucky that no one was looking at the child yet.
He was definitely going to ask questions later, he thought grimly. There was no way this kid was a normal fairy.
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Feb 17, 2021 16:24:20 GMT -5
Post by nostalgic on Feb 17, 2021 16:24:20 GMT -5
Elise was as shell-shocked as Mars, and much slower to react. That couldn't have been Charlie- the same boy that snored when he slept and played with wooden trains. He had summoned that... monster, that was destroying several ships?
"Charlie," she whispered, darting forward and shaking the small boy by the shoulders. "Charlie, that was... fun... but we have to go now! We need to go back to being pirates." The strain in her cheerful voice was evident. Charlie turned from his creation and beamed at her.
"Alright," he said brightly, and the monkey simply... dissolved back into the ocean, leaving a confused and terrified crowd behind. Elise tailed Mars back to the ship, keeping their heads low to avoid being noticed. Hopefully no one was watching who could connect them back to that creature.
And yet, an inconspicuous figure watched from the shadows, turning with a glimmer in their eye to go back to their headquarters. Luce would certainly want to hear about this...
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▲ my life is just constantly existing at ungodly hours
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Feb 17, 2021 19:29:33 GMT -5
Post by achromatic on Feb 17, 2021 19:29:33 GMT -5
Mars didn't even notice he had been holding his breath. Holy shit. Was he really going to have a kid like that on his ship? He grimaced at the thought of his beloved Kraken dealing with the same fate as the poor unfortunate soul who had his boat eaten by that thing, and he immediately pulled Charlie closer to him, glancing around and hoping everyone was too distracted by the harbour to notice the three of them.
"What else did you need to get?" his voice was strained, "perhaps I can get them for you....or we can wait until Charlie's asleep before coming out again." His voice held a tone that spoke plainly, that they definitely needed to talk later.
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Feb 17, 2021 19:39:48 GMT -5
Post by nostalgic on Feb 17, 2021 19:39:48 GMT -5
"I got most of what I needed," Elise responded, in a similarly tense tone. Right now she was focused on getting Charlie away from the scene of the crime. They made it back to the ship without incident, and Elise gave Charlie the new toy she'd bought him. He sat near the front of the ship, making the felt tiger climb one of the boxes.
When he was out of earshot, Elise turned to Mars. "Look I... I had no idea he could do anything like that. I have no powers myself- I assumed he'd be the same. I understand if you don't want us on board anymore- but at least take us somewhere safer first."
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