Final Fantasy: Darkness Descends

[ChobiChibi]

Shayna-na-na-na-na-naaaa~
Muse- Knights of Cydonia

The Ninja was never really realistic with exactly what she could and couldn’t do, especially concerning monsters, but she was always willing to give it a go. So whilst this Dragon was distracted by some of her fellow survivors, she quickly scurried up its tail and onto its back, where she began to hack and slash at it, but not really getting anywhere. It hadn’t really helped that people were trying to kill it; maybe it would have stayed still rather than stomp around if they stopped attacking, or perhaps she’d be char grilled, and since the latter wasn’t really appealing, she was glad she was getting at least some form of support.

Even if it did cause her to stumble forwards and backwards more often than she hit the bloody thing.

However, it didn’t matter. As per usual, the girl seemed to have more balance on an uneven, slippery surface than she did on solid ground, much to her surprise. Also, much to the annoyance of the Dragon, who was quite content with trying to throw her off in the time it didn’t spend trying to roast people.

As she fell back into one of the Dragon’s spiky bits on its back and clung to it for dear life, her attention shifted onto something completely different. No, she didn’t want to hurt it anymore, but that pretty, shiny scale that she’d managed to loosen looked very appealing to her.

“Screw Ivalican treasures!” She declared, mostly for the benefit of herself, taking precarious steps forward. “Dragon scales will sell for higher! That and I’ll look like some awesome Dragon slayer.”

She wibbled and wobbled, lurching forwards as something obviously distracted the Dragon. Looking down, she saw Adair below, sword in hand, narrowly missing a nasty blow from the tail. Deciding she needed to start acting a little faster, partly for the safety of her comrade below and partly because she felt a little bit sea-sick up here, she threw one of her shuriken forwards, dislodging the scale she was after just enough that she’d probably be able to pull it free. However, Dragon scales are tougher than most things, and despite the obvious damage her shuriken caused, it came to a stop, and slid off the dragon’s back, again just missing her pirate friend.

Shayna, the ever-determined thief, pulled upon the scale with all her might.
Gravity did not concern her, she knew she wouldn’t fall, as long as it kept moving. She dug her heels in as much as she could, using all remaining strength in her rather tired arms in an attempt to get it free.

All was well. Until Sori cast Stop.

It stopped so abruptly that the poor little girl lost her footing, freeing the scale as she tumbled towards the unforgiving ground below, her other shuriken having slipped from its holding place and fallen ahead of her.

Dear Yevon... She prayed as she closed her eyes. Please don’t let me be impaled by my own weapon. Break my back if you so wish... Also, don’t let the pirates have my scale, and make Adair feel guilty so he gives me my hat back... Oh, and tell-

She was interrupted, not by being impaled, not by one of Sori’s spells hitting her on her decent, not by meeting the cold, hard tiles...

No, instead she landed softly, which she was very much grateful for, until she saw what it was, or rather, who it was she landed on.

Damnit... She cursed, frowning. I’m never going to be able to ask for that hat back now...

“Would you PLEASE stop throwing things at me! I was trying to SAVE YOU!” He called, muffled by his sleeve. “First a pointy star, then another pointy star, and then yourself!”

“I wasn’t throwing things... I was dropping things.” She corrected, quietly getting to her feet, admiring her pretty Dragon scale.

“I was just trying to help!” He remained on the floor, his head still buried in his sleeve.

“Thank you!” Shayna replied simply, confused as to why he hadn’t got up yet.

“I shouldn’t have bothered really...”

“Adair... Why are you still down there? I’m stood up...” She poked him with her foot, her head tilted to one side.

“Some gratitude I get for-”

“I’ll fix your hat!”

He looked up at her, his eyes filled with adoration. “Really?”

“I have plenty of Chocobo feathers.” She smirked, mostly to herself. “Rest in peace, Bobo...”

As he got to his feet and she picked up her weapons, the shiny, priceless scale safely in her bag, the Ninja’s ever observant eyes glanced back towards the Dragon’s tail, her heart racing as it started to twitch. “Guys, this thing is starting to move again!”

Quickly, she grabbed hold of Adair’s arm, dragging him away, as they were both practically right underneath Mr Angry Dragon, and since she’d not broken her back from falling, she’d rather not get squished by angry paws.

She caught a glance at Temzi as she ran, who had slowed the Dragon and was attacking. Suddenly, she felt a little better about the whole situation as the wind somehow picked up a bit. It was odd. She shrugged it off, glad that someone was keeping the monster occupied whilst they could escape.

[Pichu Luver]

Adair Stroud

“I want my ship.”

“Pardon?” Shay asked, as she dragged him away from the dragon. Adair wasn't paying attention to where he was being leaded, he had officially had enough. He was jumping... cave. After being crashed, nearly stomped, just about sliced, almost drowned, all but skewered/impaled, concussed, slid upon, made to belly flop, a gymnastic wanna-be, near killed by not so friendly fire, he was done for the day and checking out.

He gave a self assured nod to confirm his thoughts.

“I want my ship.” he said more firmly and pulled his arm free of Shay. She blinked and looked at him like he was mad.

“Oh masked wonder, your ship is encased in ice.” Selene said, her voice full of sarcasm.

“And there HAPPENS to be a dragon in the way of your cowardly exit.” said Sori, eying him with distaste.

“I minor inconvenience under the current set of circumstances. Good... whatever hour it happens to be.” With florid bow he turned smartly and ran (jogged, energy wasn't his to be commanded) back at the dragon.

“It's MY ship!” Sirius called as he ran.

He heard someone say something to the effect of “we better go save his ass” but you know... he had a dragon to deal with before he left. No one ever seemed to think that he would do the honourable thing and save all their lives. Of course he WOULD save their lives. He was good at that. Well sort of... maybe... possibly only his... on a good day... when the Besaid Aurochs won the Crystal Cup.

That it had happened only once 400 years ago was a detail that Adair didn't care to remember. He wasn't good with details, only impossibilities that suited his grandiose dreams of life fulfilment. Life fulfilment today consisted of leaving this wretched cave with all his faculties intact, and ready to use the minute he left this hell hole as he most assuredly would.

Because the Besaid Aurochs had won.

“EH! Beasty! Your IN my WAY!”

The lizard turned to him, fury in its pain filled eyes.

Adair instantly re-thought his plan.

With an abrupt left turn he hoped onto a knee of the reptile-ish creature, swung on a scale and landed on the dragons wide back. He slid down the opposing side and continued his run at the ship. The lizard, and everyone else present, gazed at him in shock as he hadn't even taken a swing at the creature's hide.

It was then Adair felt the intake of air behind him but he continued his non-nonchalant jog at the ship. Just when he heard the hiss of super heated air expelling from the dragon lungs, he leaped to the side and dove behind a convenient rock he had his eyes on the second he had slid off the dragons back. The fire missed him and surrounded the Wolfstar, currently encased in one to many layers of ice for Adair to even contemplate the thought of abandoning the cave for truly.

The Wolfstar groaned as it became super hot, melting most of the ice around it.

He peaked around the rock and saw the others looking at the ship—and himself—in disbelief.

“Why is everyone always surprised when I do something SMART?”



552/14

I'm feeling uninspired, ¬¬''' apologies if it isn't up to Adair's usual spontaneity.

[Crystal Tears]

Selene

“Why is everyone always surprised when I do something SMART?”

Selene had an answer, and in all honesty it should be very apparent to Adair. He didn’t walk normally; he swayed from side to side like he was constantly drunk, lacked something known as common sense, and had a rather mouthy moogle in a bag which also contained rum and potions. Not to mention that hat on his head, how could he even think that any one of them could take him seriously? When he presented himself in such a manner that made him look more like a lunatic man-whore than semi-intelligent person; let alone a pilot of an airship. As the group dodged the flames, claws, tail and the occasional maw full of razor sharp teeth, Selene made her way to the still hiding skypirate.

“In answer to your question,” She put a hand on his shoulder and peered out on the other side of the rock, watching the monster attempt to hit Nii and come close. “Maybe you should take a moment to reflect on your actions.” Selene smirked as Adair looked a little perplexed. “Specifically you’re walking ability.” With that she came out from behind the boulder and fired. The icy shot tore into the beast’s head, drawing its attention from Shayna who was trying to get one of her shurikens out of the ice.

There seemed to be a long moment (it really wasn’t, but it appeared so), where the Dragon and Selene stared at each other. The Calypso has cool mist rising from the barrel, and a small slot on the side still shone a bright aqua. The lizard snorted, smoke rising from its nostrils, as the two fiery opponents glared at one another. The attacks from the others seemed to bounce off as it stomped forward, opening its mouth wide. She could see the back of its throat begin to glow yellow, the flames were on their way. That was okay, while it had been distracting by the gunner; the others had regrouped (except for maybe Adair). Sirius caught Selene’s eye and nodded, twirling his sword, signaling at least most of them were ready.

A second later the flames were streaming at her, and she rolled out of the way, embers wisping against her face a tad as she came out the dodge and fired as many shots as she could in a short time span. Icy bullet after icy bullet smashed into the Dragon’s face, doing little damage although, they seemed to be a larger threat when there was a considerable amount of them. Nii fired next, leaping up onto a icy pillar she aimed he rifle and expelling from the barrel was a blizzard bullet, snow and ice smashing into the creature’s side as Temzi rushed in from the left and forced his spear into the back leg of the creature, red hot, boiling blood spilling into the field. Sori fluttered up, twirling his cane another icy blast crashed into the monster’s back, tearing scales. Shuriken’s followed, slicing at the weakened hide and causing more blood to splatter onto the floor. What surprised Selene was the sudden dual strike from Adair and Sirius. The two pirates came at the thing from different sides, Adair’s blade bubbling and dripping water on the ground as the Captain’s blade sparked and trailed static energy. Scales flew off the beast, but still it remained adamant. The final attack should’ve came from Seta, but at the last moment, something went horribly wrong.

The Claret Dragon roared, seeing the Viera coming it snarled and swiveled around. Its jaws clamping shut on the bodyguard before swinging it’s head back and forth, tossing Seta around like a ragdoll. Selene’s world seemed to stop, her vision tunneled and all she could see and think about was that limp form in the monster’s jaws, being shaken before tossed to the side, out of view. Selene didn’t think about the consequence of letting her guard down, she ran for her friend.

Perhaps it wasn’t the wisest decision, as the body was far from what it used to be; no long did Seta look unnaturally pristine, but torn. Blood was everywhere, and man was practically gasping for breath. Selene didn’t feel her age anymore, she felt lost, like she had when she was a little girl and had only just met him. She was back there again, nearing the body slowly, she knelt next to him, fear stricken across her face.

“S-Selene…” He groaned, she supposed he tried to have a comforting gaze, but as he gurgled and small traces of red escapes his lips, he had failed at his attempt.

“Seta…”

He reached into his coat and grabbed something from the interior pocket. Selene felt numb, as if everything that mattered had just faded away. Slowly, his arm shaking he handed it to her, a small red pouch with a dark brown, folded piece of paper. Hesitantly she took it, and looked down at it before a moment, before gazing back at him, reaching out when her free arm and taking his hand. His eyes were pale and lacked life; the red had gone from fire to ash. The woman didn’t like that; she wanted him to look lively again. Her hearted pounded and tears threatened to poor down, and her mind was went too wondering, why him?

“Sel…len..e…” He choked.

“Damn it Seta…” She sniffled, and half-chuckled at her own words. “You’re even stoic…” The girl trailed off, not want to finish that sentence.

A small smile played on his lips. “Y-your… f-f-father… would… b-be… p..proud…”

It was supposed to make her smile, and though she didn’t want too, Selene forced a small one for Seta. His hand went limp then, as did the rest of him, lifeless eyes staring into nothing. Her world seemed to crack and threaten to shatter.

“No..” She whispered, heart pounding much too fast to be healthy anymore. Fear gripped her insides but her angry soul was quickly turning that into black rage. He shouldn’t have died, the plan should’ve worked, everyone else was fine, and most of them were less skilled than Seta… Her shoulders slumped and she dropped her head, closing her eyes tightly, a few tears dropping onto the cold floor. Seta… Shaky she reached out and gently shut his eyes.

The roar of the beast tore her out of her state. That thing was responsible, and that witch was too. But only one could be dealt with at the moment, and oh, did she plan on dealing with it in the swiftest of manners. She slipped the pouch and paper into her pocket and stood up slowly, looking over her shoulder at the creature. Selene mentally cursed herself, in her terror she had dropped Calypso, and it now lay far from her and near the dragon. Reason seemed to flutter out of her mind, as she charged for it.

The Claret Dragon snarled, attempting to ram Selene with its head but ultimately failing. The girl scooped up her weapon and rolled out of the way. With that she leapt up onto one of the slabs of ice and into the air, white energy beginning to gather and spark around her gun.

Gods hear my prayer; give me the strength to avenge Seta. Give me the power to return this beast and any other to the deepest depths of Hell…

Selene didn’t even notice she wasn’t falling anymore, but however in the air with white energy all around her, sparking and disintegrating the icicles around her. Selene just wanted revenge; a sudden hatred for this monster was controlling her.

As the energy gathering in the Calypso reached its peak, she fired. A massive, shining white orb flew from her to the dragon, followed suddenly by thousands more, tiny in comparison, maybe the size of a bullet. The first struck and the creature was down, crying out in shock and pain as the thousands shining bullets tore through it.

Then the light was gone, and Selene dropped.

In her daze, she barely noticed her attack had struck the paling. It was half-destroyed, the mist in it turning all sorts of colours as the entire room began to shake. The Dragon groaned, unable to stand or attack. Its body began to disintegrate, hundreds of pale hued spheres trailing white fluttered into the air, disappearing, leaving where it once was, a familiar, unscathed mask.

Selene found herself panting, she was back to being much too exhausted to move, and very upset, though now she seemed to be able to hide it better.

“Selene! Are you alright?”Sirius questioned, nearing her. She didn’t make a sound, only pushed him away and attempted to stand. The woman managed about two steps before crashing back down on her hands and knees.

“Uh… Guys…” Shay gulped, chuckling nervously. “Not to alarm anybody, but that bomb it looks-“

There was a very bright, red and yellow flash, then temple’s rumbling worsened; the paling began to spark, and the ice wall began to crack. In fact said crack spread quickly, running all the way to the Wolfstar, which was still half frozen. Small spurts of water hissed out of the cracks, that would quite noticeably getting worse.

To tired… Selene thought. To care… Her eyes started to flutter, and those damned grey edges and yellow spots returned. As Sirius gently picked her up again, obviously taking her push as an actual invite to sweep the woman off her feet again, she heard Adair’s panicked call.

“EVERYBODY ON THE SHIP!”

* * 1596 * *

Alright people, The Claret Dragon is dead, I just gotta explain one thing.

A powerful overdrive takes more energy than a normal one. As there obviously has to be cost for being able to unleash hell on someone, or heal a party, or both. Power is also dictated by emotions, anger will fuel certain Overdrives better, but it isn’t good for a healing. That’s all.

Oh, and get on the ship. ^_~

[classy_cat18]

Nii – Al Bhed Gunner

“EVERYBODY ON THE SHIP!”

I ran in the opposite direction of everyone else, towards my machina Kumas. He was once more immobile. This isn’t good. Nii can’t drag him back myself. I removed Kumas’ chestplate, then opened my bag and searched through it.

It was time for my brother’s special technique.

Shay returned and stood next to me. “Nii, this isn’t time to be messing around that stupid machina!” the ninja shouted at me. I heard her yelp as a big ice block crashed just a couple of feet from us.

I merely smirked and put on my goggles before raising the wrench. “Yfyga (awake), machina!” I shouted in my native Al Bhed accent as I brought it down on Kumas’ head. There was a shower of sparks from his inner workings that my goggles shielded from my eyes. His markings blinked once, twice, three times….

Died…

Then finally flickered on for good. I gave Shayna a wide grin. “Brother’s special technique always works!” I joked.

Kumas rose to his feet and ran for the airship, Shay following and I tailing the two while carrying the machina’s chestplate. The three of us quickly climbed into the cargo hold of the Wolfstar where the others were waiting. “Cutting it kind of close, aren’t we?” Sirius asked us, sounding annoyed.

Shayna glared at me. I slid off my goggles and put on a solemn face. “Nii already told you that Nii is not leaving Kumas. Kumas is important to Nii because he may be the only memento Nii has left of Brother.”

“What?”

I quickly shifted to a more important topic. “This airship is still damaged. Take Nii to the engine room.”

Adair took care of that, leading me to the engine room. I took a look around and nodded. “We can’t start this up until I take care of the broken wires. You’ll have to help Nii with that.” I narrowed my spiral eyes. “You can do this, right?”

He hesitated before responding. “I always had a mechanic deal with the keeping up with this beauty.”

I sighed and handed him a pair of work gloves and a lantern. “You are now Nii’s assistant. We’ll start on opposite sides of the room and meet at the middle.” I lit my lantern and held it up to my face. “Nii hopes there isn’t a lot of damage.”

“Yes, let’s pray that old Yevon has future plans for us,” Adair said.

I snorted and let my Al Bhed accent come back. “Yevon wouldn’t care if Nii dropped dead ten minutes from now. While the rest of you are sent to the peaceful Farplane, Nii will be quite content wandering as a spirit.”

“Later rather than sooner, I hope.”

“Absolutely. Let’s get to it; Nii is sure that you have enough functioning brain cells to be a reliable assistant.” I changed gloves, noticing the way that Adair saw my tattoos. “It’s a family mark. Brother had the same tattoos.”

“Where is your brother, by the way?” he asked me as I picked up my lantern and started connecting wires.

“Nii is sure he’s dead. He was returning to New Home the same time as the attack. Nii is concerned about the crew members that he left on this continent with me.” I looked back at him and smiled. “Nii is sorry about the trouble that Nii and Kumas caused. But Al Bhed have little to rely on, when even wise Yevon turns us away.”

“Nii…” I turned my head to see Shayna at the doorway.

“Nii has a second assistant! Help him with repairs!” I tossed her a pair of gloves and pointed to Adair and his lantern.

618 words! I'll put Sori's post up later.

[Pichu Luver]

Adair Stroud

Adair was seething, it was the only reason he sounded even halfway normal and not his slightly drunken but very much eloquent self. Being commandeered by an Al Bhed was not something he enjoyed considering he was Spiran and knew how to fly Ivilician technology only by trial and error (or inebriated officers and illegally obtained instruction manuals). Due to his instinct for the aeronautical kind he was good at improvising solutions to the most obtuse situation. When acting as the pilot. The engine was only likely to get him killed or... sparky. Fixing it was well beyond his normal capabilities.

“Finally! Saved from this mad woman and her dastardly ways!”

“This here engine room.” He flailed about to indicate his point. “Is in need of repairs. Seeing as how my masterful skills are of the piloting kind, I have little to no rudding idea what any of this does, except possibly kill me if it's in a foul mood, I will leave those who know more. My capabilities extend to the pilots chair and focusing energies where needed.”

Shay blinked at him and Nii attempted to get a hold of his coattails as he slid sideways and out the door.

“Nii needs your help!”

“Fair lady I seriously implore you to understand that the only help I'd be is by providing last minute entertainment as I kill myself in a spectacular fashion. Involving something that would probably result in pyreflies of the psychedelic colouration and my voice tuned to a perfect C.” he bowed acknowledging her expertise even as she seemed miffed. “So Shay being a master thief will have infinitely more nimble fingers then I who swings a overachieving pointy club.”

With that proclamation he turned to go but paused. “Oh... You (he pointed more or less in Nii's direction) stop referring to yourself in the third person. It makes you sound pretentious, and the only one allowed delusions of grandeur is myself.” He jigged out. “Now where's my rum?”he questioned the ship as he disappeared down then hall.

It was a rhetorical question, seeing as how it was attached to him but infuriating people was a skill he loved to employ. Doing his version of a run he passed Selene in the med bay, who seemed considerably out of it.

'Poor lass,' he thought, 'she hasn't had a good day.'

He almost made it to his post as pilot when a large piece of ice yet to be melted impeded him. Sirius was seen through a small hole so Adair figured he could make it to, it just needed some encouragement. He brought out his ever trusty sword with symbols he didn't rightly understand and bashed the hole bigger.

Sirius looked over in shock as the ice fell a bit more. “Adair, could you not fit through? The ladies don't like a pirate with flab.”

“Course I could but my clothing is in such a sad state that making it last is of the utmost imperative.”

“Getting us out of here might be more important.”

“True enough! I was... waylaid by repairs I was not fit to complete. As you well know.”

While this talk was going on he had sat in his seat and strapped in... looking at ice, but that was only a momentary problem; by the looks of the water gushing over the thankfully still intact windshield anyway.

“Sirius I trust you noticed the holes to the ship?” Adair asked as he flipped switches and looked important (technically he was raising what was left of the shields; to protect the Wolfstar slightly from the spazzing pillar behind them.).

“Yes...your piloting skills were lacking earlier.”

Adair frowned, “No they weren't, you're alive. Anyway tell everyone to get in a room without holes...” He flailed at the window as he looked over the sensors monitoring the ship, “that will likely flood us a tad when it goes. Screaming and gurgles over the com system does not help my concentration.”

Sirius was possibly giving him a look combined of 'your concentration only worries you?' and 'you're telling the CAPTAIN what to do?'.

“Yes.” he answered, powering up the Wolfstar's weapons which still worked thankfully. He had a feeling they would need them. He closed the cargo doors and listened as Sirius gave the instructions, then as was routine grabbed it out of his hand. “I'm giving you one minute to get to the private rooms on the starboard/right hand side of the ship, bridge, med bay or engine room. Then I'm sealing it all. Go.”

Sirius was used to Adair acting like he knew what he was doing in an flying emergency, but the others possibly were not. Sori appeared on the bridge about thirty seconds later and Adair believed he heard Temzi clank into the med bay.

“Right, if you would Captain.”

Sirius sealed the sections of the ship and Adair flicked the com to the engine room.

“Ready?”

“NO!” was yelled over the com and Adair felt his ire building. “Nii can't route the mana to engine, broken by ice. Cannot start!”

“No hissy's luv I can do that for you right quick. Is the auxiliary engine pipes okay?”

There was a pause before Nii gave her assent, warning the power would be lower because of smaller pipes. “All I need is goose, not a sparrow, transferring. Shay, Nii strap yourselves in. By the doors leading to the extra engine.”

The dials for Adair stopped reading red and went to the happy blue symbol he so loved. Some were purple but it was a enough to get them the hell out of the Shiva damned hole.

He hoped.

“Adair?”

“Aye, aye. Sori you strapped?”

He saw Sori nod, looking a fair bit more tired then normal. He had got himself into a chair on the bridge and after seriously tightening the straps he was alright.

“Passengers, please hold onto something.” Sirius said, ever the gentlemen even when in serious peril.

Adair fired off two volleys into the ice and it exploded in front of him. Some pieces dinged the windshield but it was made of sturdy stuff. The water gushed free and as expected Wolfstar screeched at him about flooding. Thankfully all the supposed Chocobo's were for now free of water (the sensors were still whacked).

Adair thrust his controls forward and the Wolfstar gave him the lumbering goose he expected.

“Come on girly, killing me would only leave you here to rot.”

The Wolfstar grunted but powered forward through the water gushing downward. Adair peered forward but Sori was the first to comment,

“Is that ICE?”

Expletives came forth from Adair mouth, none eloquent. He turned but the goose he had couldn't react fast enough to the ice shards coming down from the surface of what looked to be a very large and deep lake. He tried but a few screeched down her hull. He almost slammed the com to the engine room, mistakenly hitting the button for all rooms.

“I lied! I need a sparrow! DO SOMETHING!”

He thought he heard Al Bhed curses but then he perceived a clanking and Temzi came on.

“My fair, slightly dazed lady here says that by transferring power to the engines you could increase the yield of mana.”

Adair paused, “Do that! It sounds smart!”

“Nii asks from where?!”

Adair paused and Siruis answered, “Stop life support from the flooded rooms, only to med bay, here and engine room. Is Selene alright my good knight?”

Adair hit buttons and the power reading spiked to the engine room.

“Enough?”

“Selene says that the man she just saw float past her window was more useful to her then you. How I am not sure...”

“Yes!” both Shay and Nii called, though they sounded distracted so Adair hoped everything was alright down there.

Wolfstar became the cunning wolf with a sparrow's agility once more and Adair made the ship side slip to the left. He avoided a huge chunk of the Zephyr by doing that and he soared upwards. He nimbly avoided the ice pillars and other such debris. Only a few dings graced the hull. He shot above him and the ice, which was cracking, broke and separated.

“ADAIR! The wiring can't take too much more! Its sparking like crazy!” came Shay's panicked voice over the com.

Adair didn't respond but changed the power to the shields.

“Adair...” Sori's voice said slightly worried.

“Really that doesn't seem smart...” Sirius said, concern in his voice.

“The lady asks what Adair is doing that is not intelligent...” Temzi questioned.

“Nii asks the same.”

Adair was still flying upwards, avoiding what he could but heading right for the broken ice. As fast as he could.

“Smart is overrated.”

He fired everything he had and burst through the ice. Screeches and shearing of metal surrounded them as more pieces of the hull flew off the Wolfstar as she launched into the air. Adair flew low and fast over the lake before putting the Wolfstar's stern/butt into the wind. He rose higher, using the wind as much as he could. Though he noticed how cold it felt.

“Captain I recommend weapons power to heating.”

“Agreed.”


1536/15

Yesh it was kind of Adair centric but he is the pilot... and he has been beaten plenty before now....

[Weasel Overlord]

Sirius fir Sterrl de Famfræn

[Captain and General Ruler of the Wolfstar]

dreams are made winding through my head

The ship! Sirius couldn’t believe his eyes. But more to the point, he couldn’t believe that it’d taken him so long to even notice her. His precious Wolfstar, cemented in ice, left alone in the dankest of temple-caves to die a lonely, wooden, shippy death. He shuddered. Unthinkable!

No sooner than he’d got aboard and the chaos of actually setting off was over, he was hugging the stern (and getting a lovely line of frost on his face as he rubbed his head against her. He patted the chilled ship lovingly.

“It’s okay love, I’m back. Daddy’s not going to leave you ever again! Poor frosty baby, don’t you worry, we’ll get you cleaned up in no time and Adair’ll be flying you through Ivalice’s lovely skies like you’d never even crashed!”

“Captain, are you talking to the ship? You do realise that it can’t hear you, right?” Sori piped up from… somewhere behind Sirius, whose attention was far too narrowly focused on his ship for him to care about such details.

“It? It!? She has feelings, you churl. Don’t talk about my ship as if she was some inanimate hunk of wood! She has a soul I’ll have you know.” He patted the Wolfstar’s ragged body again. “Don’t worry love,” he said in an exaggerated stage whisper. “You’ve got more of a soul than that sodding Moogle anyway.”

By this point, he was almost flat out on the deck, legs sprawled out behind him and arms wrapped tightly around his poor, broken baby’s planks of wood. The ice melting had dislodged a few planks as the wood swelled and contracted and swelled and contracted. She was going to take a good few hours to repair, Sirius knew that.

He heard the familiar sound of the Wolfstar gliding into autopilot, a staggered, careening sound of feet on wood, and then felt the non-too-gentle nudge of a boot in his ribs.

“Captain! While I’d love to leave you copulating with our dear Wolfstar, and I do know how much you’d enjoy yourself what with all the splinters and you really secretly being a bit of a masochist and all, but I think we might have some work to do. Maybe? Yes? No?”

“Bugger off Adair, I’m making sweet love to my ship,” Sirius mumbled.

“Splinters, Sirius! Think of the splinters in your arse! And in other less pleasant places to have splinters! I mean, not that there’s a good place to have splinters really, especially not in rum, or in the foot actually, that’s a pretty painful place to have a splinter and all, especially if you’ve gotta walk lots of places and it’s gone right in through the boot but what was I saying? Oh yes. Splinters! Wait, no.”

Sirius ignored Adair, as he was prone to do. He zoned out - the noise of his pilot and first mate’s chatter a pleasant background to the happiness he felt at finally being reunited with his ship. The ground was all well and good, but the skies were where it was at, really. He never really felt at home unless he was head in the clouds and stalking the decks of the Wolfstar.

The procedure to reroute weapons power to heating had been a minor one, and Sirius could feel the effects of it already as the ship heated up throughout and the ice began to melt.

“Adair,” he said, effectively cutting off his pilot’s rambles. “We’ll need to set some of the group to brushing all this water away. Can’t be doing with having it freeze up again if we go too high.”

“Oh, so we’re gonna be made to do manual labour, are we?” Another voice, feminine in quality this time, pierced Sirius’ happy reverie.

“Those dulcet tones could only be my darling Selene!” he exclaimed, scrambling to his feet and standing upright in a remarkably elegant fashion. Somehow, being back aboard the Wolfstar brought the Captain in him back to the surface, and he stood all the taller and prouder for it, despite the fact that he felt as if he’d been trampled by a herd of Chocobos being chased by a Chocobo Eater which had then proceeded to trample him too. With a side helping of unwelcome fire and a thrashing from a dragon’s tail or two, and not to mention the smushy blocks of doom and thrusty spikes of woe and shooty arrows of death in the temple. Brr, they were well out of it, and no mistake.

“What can I do for you, my lovely? You are a sight for sore eyes, I must say.”

“What’s this about brushing water someplace?” she demanded.

“Well, considering that I lost the majority of my crew in the crash on this forsaken place, I’m somewhat short of hands on this deck, love. All must pull together in times of strife, eh?” He clapped her on the back jovially, and then winced at the strain this put on his muscles. “Although I think perhaps we are all in need of a good rest first, yes?”

Selene’s face lost some of its anger at this, and Sirius beamed. “Almost a smile! Well done, dear heart! We’ll have you laughing and jesting yet. But for now, perhaps, we should find you and the rest of our weary band a place to rest?” He steered her gently towards the cabins that weren’t in too much of a bad state. Or at least, the ones without the holes in the sides. His poor Wolfstar!

“Adair my man, make an announcement that we’re all having a rest, would you? You can leave her on auto, I’ll take over while you sleep, how’s that?” He looked back at Selene. “And you my lady, can sleep in my room!”

-

983 words.

[classy_cat18]

Nii – Al Bhed Gunner

The instant Shay slipped on the gloves that I gave her, Adair suddenly decided that he wasn’t qualified to help with repairs on his own ship. “Finally! Saved from this mad woman and her dastardly ways!” he exclaimed happily.

I was too shocked to be angry at first, just listening as the pilot lamely explained that his skills lay elsewhere. He was back to his slightly drunken self, something that annoyed me. Shay didn’t object but I went after him when he started to leave. “Nii needs your help!” I practically pleaded. A pilot was still better than a ninja that probably had no knowledge of the workings of the ship.

“Fair lady I seriously implore you to understand that the only help I'd be is by providing last minute entertainment as I kill myself in a spectacular fashion. Involving something that would probably result in pyreflies of the psychedelic colouration and my voice tuned to a perfect C.” I wasn’t comforted despite the fact that he was pointing out my superior expertise. “So Shay being a master thief will have infinitely more nimble fingers then I who swings an overachieving pointy club.”

I forced myself to stop glaring at him like my eyes could burn a whole through his skull. Nii cannot kill him, I told myself. We need him to get us to safety.

It worked until he had to stop and say one more thing to me. “Oh... You stop referring to yourself in the third person. It makes you sound pretentious, and the only one allowed delusions of grandeur is myself.”

Since his back was to me, he didn’t see me reaching for his neck, preparing to choke the life out of him. But he unknowingly escaped my wrath, asking no one in particular about his rum. Nii will kill you, I told him silently. As soon as this journey is over, Nii will kill you in the most horrendous way possible.

“That incompetent, pompous idiot. Nii is going to shove her rifle far up his ass and freeze his insides,” I growled at the empty hallway. Footsteps were heard coming back but it was just Kumas coming in.

Shay poked my shoulder. “How am I supposed to help you?” she asked me. She looked as reluctant as Adair was, but she wasn’t escaping me.

I sighed and raised my lantern as I took a better look at the main engine. It was ruined; there was no way we could use this. Shay and I would’ve been electrocuted. “This will be a problem. All this ice has made it unusable.” I turned to a set of doors labeled “Auxiliary Engine”. “Maybe that one will work.”

I went into the even darker room and shined the lantern around. More frayed wires but it could be used if they held up long enough.

Adair’s voice rang from the com. “Ready?” he asked me.

“NO!” I yelled quickly. We were in big trouble if we tried to use the main engine. “Nii can't route the mana to engine, broken by ice. Cannot start!”

“No hissy's luv I can do that for you right quick. Is the auxiliary engine pipes okay?”

Shay and I took a quick moment to examine the pipes. “They look alright,” Shay told me.

“They’ll work but the power input and output won’t be as great!” I told Adair. “The pipes are smaller here!” I flipped a few switches next to the engine anyway. There was a low hum as the engine switched on, sounding strained.

He said it was okay and told me and Shay to strap ourselves by the doors to the extra engine. We both looked nervous while we followed his orders. There was a firing of weapons and then the ship finally lurched upwards and forward. I gripped my lap anxiously as ice fell on the ship, making thudding sounds. “Please let us make it out of here alive,” Shay said quietly.

“Nii is sure we’ll be—“ I started.

“I lied! I need a sparrow! DO SOMETHING!”

I gaped and screamed in anger. “Tysh oui (Damn you), Adair!” I roared in Al Bhed. “Nii femm tacdnuo ouin nis (Nii will destroy your rum)!”

“I guess I should be thankful I can’t understand Al Bhed,” Shay said as we both rushed back into the backup engine room, trying to keep ourselves steady. The readings indicated that the mana yield was too low but it was working with what we were giving it.

Adair must’ve switched the com on for all rooms because Temzi was the next one I heard, and he was in the sick bay with Selene. “My fair, slightly dazed lady here says that by transferring power to the engines you could increase the yield of mana.”

I groaned again. Figures that the one more qualified to help me isn’t in a condition to. “Where is Nii going to get that power?” I asked myself.

“Nii asks from where!” Shay asked out loud.

Sirius and Adair answered that by switching off the life support for all areas except for those that everyone had retreated to. The power readings rose and the airship lurched again, having been given a boost. I grabbed onto the nearest pole to keep from sliding around with the sudden movements. “Enough?” Adair asked us.

A disturbing sound had me releasing the pole and backing up. The engine’s wires were sparking crazily. “YES!” Shay and I cried out together.

We could stand too close or we would be writhing on the floor. “ADAIR! The wiring can't take too much more! It’s sparking like crazy!” Shay shouted. There wasn’t anything we could do right now.

The engine powered down a little, meaning that less power was being transferred to it. “Really that doesn't seem smart...” came Sirius’ voice.

“What is that idiot doing now?” I whimpered, close to banging my head on the wall. I missed what Temzi had said.

Shay didn’t. “Nii asks the same,” she added.

The airship’s movements got too much for us to keep standing so we strapped ourselves back in. Finally the ride was smooth, albeit cold. “N-n-need heat,” I said through chattering heat.

1,035 words.

Sori – Time Mage Moogle

Okay, I will admit that most of the time, during the flying and shooting and dodging and screaming, I had my eyes closed. I was praying that Famfrit would deliver me from this hell. “Is it over? Can I breathe now?” I asked softly, peering through my small fingers.

Adair huffed indignantly. “I’m somewhat insulted by your fear. I was in almost complete control of this situation.”

My right eye and ears twitched in annoyance. “Like you were when you crashed this ship?”

“We shall refrain from speaking about that slight accident.”

“Slight? SLIGHT? Batilis…” I paused from feeling a small pang of pain from saying the name of my fallen comrade. But I quickly recovered. “Batilis and I were in the cargo hold of this ship when it got in that so-called slight accident! That wasn’t slight! It was a catastrophe!”

Adair just shrugged it off and went back to making sure we didn’t crash (probably needing a second person for that…besides Sirius). I was distracted from him while watching Sirius cuddling his ship. Cuddling and…and cooing. Oh man, this is more disturbing than the attention Nii gives that machina of hers.

I unbuckled myself and hopped down from my seat. “Captain, are you talking to the ship? You do realize that it can’t hear you, right?” I asked him, slightly questioning his sanity for the hundredth time.

Sirius looked at me like I was insulting his wife (if he had one). “It? It!? She has feelings, you churl. Don’t talk about my ship as if she was some inanimate hunk of wood! She has a soul I’ll have you know.”

I rolled my eyes and wondered why Nii didn’t get along with this nut.

“Don’t worry love,” he whispered dramatically to the Wolfstar. “You’ve got more of a soul than that sodding Moogle anyway.”

I tightened my hold on my rod and let out a little growl, sounding like someone’s lap dog. Don’t push me, pal. I left him and went back to my seat, where Batilis’ mask was lying. It just felt too strange. The Garif was never comfortable with anyone touching it, like myself and my pompom. But just seconds ago I was clinging to that thing like it was a life preserver. I picked it up and put my rod in its place. “Don’t worry, partner. I’ll take good care of it,” I said quietly.

Selene was soon on the bridge and talking to Sirius about something. The captain looked very happy to see her, even if pain was probably in his future should he do something to upset her. I watched the two talk, wincing at the idea of chores. I put the mask back on the seat and followed them to the cabins, looking forward to a long nap with comfortable warmth.

“And you my lady, can sleep in my room!” Sirius said excitedly to Selene.

Selene was probably too tired to give him a suitable reaction so she just glared at him. “Can I kill this guy?” I asked her eagerly. “Please say I can kill him now. I can even make it so that there’s no trace of him left.”

“And with my expiration, who will be left to command this glorious vessel?”

“I’d have to agree with him,” Selene said regrettably.

“What kind of imbecile would let him have his own airship?” I asked her angrily. The adrenaline was temporarily energizing me. “It’s insane! I say we mutiny!” I was just joking but saying the “m” word might have been going a little too far. But I left before he could do anything to me.

Adair was stumbling down the hall, a bottle of fine rum in his hand. I felt sorry for anyone that was working for this guy, especially whoever was responsible for fixing it. “Drinking and flying? I’m sure that’s not a bright idea,” I commented loud enough for him to hear.

He only turned around slightly, not even looking at me as he answered. “I’ll have you know that I am not flying right now. The ship is in autopilot. So why don’t you do what Moogles do best? Act cute and say ‘kupo’?”

“Not my style, kupo.” I blushed under my fur as I said the word on impulse.

Adair chuckled and lifted his bottle to take a swig, only to have it snatched from him by an angry Al Bhed as she stormed past. “My…my rum!” Adair whimpered.

Nii smirked and chugged the whole thing in front of him like it was just water. “Nii…Nii needs it more than you,” she panted as she staggered a bit. “You…are an incompetent pilot and Nii is shocked that you have made it this far. Nii…Nii is glad she did not work for you.”

Adair stared helplessly at the bottle as Nii casually swung it around. “Why is the rum always gone?” he asked in a far-off voice.

“Nii…Nii should tell Brother about you. Ariosa would be angered about a person such as you being allowed to…to fly.” She giggled and leaned against the wall. “Ariosa’s first mate is a Ronso, you know. He would be more than happy to…to tear your head off.”

I tried not to laugh at the thought of it. “Nii, maybe you should lie down. That stuff hit you pretty hard,” I said to her.

She laughed harder and stumbled towards Adair. “Bnaddo pirate,” she slurred in her native tongue. “Jano bnaddo pirate.”

“What is she saying?” I asked Adair. He shrugged in response. “Great, we don’t even know if she’s complimenting us or cursing us. She may be even trying to sic that machina of hers on us.”

She snickered and flicked Adair’s nose before retreating to her own cabin. There was an awkward silence between us. “That was too weird. Hide your rum from that one from now on.”

Shay was next to walk through, followed by Kumas. “Did Nii come through here? She left right after we stabilized and even left her machina behind.” Adair and I nodded. “Just wanted to know. Stay here,” she said to Kumas then left. I wondered if she noticed that she was actually talking to it like it was intelligent.

What was weirder was that Kumas actually obeyed.

1,049 words.

[Crystal Tears]

Selene

“What a foul little thing he is,” Sirius growled in the direction of Sori. Selene didn’t think the Moogle was that bad, a little temper never hurt anyone. At least she would have someone to plot Sirius’s demise with. “Now, to my room!”

“No.”

“Oh come now, don’t be like that, my room is more than adequate! What is the problem?”

“It’s your room.”

Sirius didn’t miss a beat it seemed, he smiled, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and turning her so that they faced the door leading to his room. With one fluid movement he opened the door to reveal a highly intact, and rather clean room. It was a beautiful combination of soft creams and red wood, with a bed fit for royalty and other such things that didn’t have a mark on them. Selene stepped inside, not agreeing to his persistent offer, just out of pure shock. Exactly how many people had he stolen from to acquire such things to make him look like royalty?

And she should know, of all people on this ship.

“Well?” He questioned, positioning himself in the doorway, so she could not escape.

Selene was quiet, the temporary shock seemed to flutter away and realization kicked in. She had of preferred it stayed away, so she wouldn’t remember that Seta was gone. The woman stood perfectly still, not daring to look back as tears began to run down her cheeks. Maybe if she said it was fine, or cursed him so much that she shattered the windows, he would leave. Her heart was pounding from panic, Selene was far from weak, and so showing that she indeed felt anything, was wrong. Protect what you don’t want broken, her mother used to say.

What do you do when it is broken, when something goes missing and you can’t have it back? She frowned, so concentrated on her thought that she had forgotten Sirius was still standing there. Selene was brought out of her miserable daze when arms were gently wrapped around her. Her body stiffened, probably noticeably, as Sirius began to whisper in her ear.

“My mother always told me that the dead can hear our tears, and they lament for causing us so much pain. She always said it was better to remember them as they lived, rather than focusing on their death.”

Selene instinctively reached up to wipe away hear tear, refusing to really let Sirius of all people see them. Though she had appreciated the effort by him to lighten her load, she forced the sadness away, they were safe, right now was a time to relax and sleep. If anything now was the time for a shower, in which the woman’s eyes slowly drifted to the bathroom.

“Ah yes,” Sirius’s tone seemed to change from gentle, comforting and kind to… Well more Captain-y, then Selene wanted. “You have spotted the master bath, lovely isn’t?”

“It is.” She replied, pulling away from him and walking over to it. It was quite a surprise to see such nice things on a ship… Well, of this caliber. The woman absent-mindedly played with her hair as she gazed in at the bath and was tempted by the idea of hot water and steam.

“Have I won you over Selene?”

Selene raised an eyebrow and turn to look at him. “You haven’t won anything, your bath has.”

He smiled and his eyes shined with deviousness.

“If you even-“

“Not to worry my love!” He smiled and approached a little. “I assure you no thoughts of that kind ever cross my mind.”

“Why do I doubt that?” She replied a sarcastic tone, and took a step back. “…Don’t you dare.”

“Dare my dear? What do you think I have planned?”

“I know that look.” Selene growled, finding herself up against a wall as the Captain continued to approach. “It’s the same look you had in the temple hallway.”

“But you enjoyed that, didn’t you?”

He was much too close for her comfort, so she would have to resort to drastic measures, as he continued to close the gap between them he felt something jab into his stomach. Sirius looked down and frowned a little, pressing into his clothes was the barrel of a gun. Selene felt some comfort in the idea that the Calypso kept space in-between them. Even if it was only a little it was still wonderful to know that he could no longer get any closer, not without her weapon causing him serious pain.

“Don’t.”

“I suppose the threat would be you’ll shoot me if I do?”

The gunner nodded. “You’re catching on.”

“I am no coward though,” Sirius spoke slyly, gently putting his hand on his cheek. “I live life on the edge darling…”

She cocked the gun. “It would a shame to see you fall then, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes it would be a horrid catastrophe, and you would be most devastated.”

“Actually I’m pretty sure I’d be rejoicing with Sori.”

He frowned. “That moogle has nothing to do with this conversation!”

“Really?” She slid sideways and headed for the door. “Let’s go ask him, shall we?”

Sirius bolted, so he was standing in the doorway, blocking her path. “No no! That is completely unnecessary! We all know what the mage would do. Would the beauty really want to see the handsome prince fall?”

“Beauty?”

The captain pounced on the topic, as to get away from the one focusing around him dying in some horrible fashion. “Yes! Of course! You rival Shiva; the aeon herself would look upon you with envy.” He spoke with a charming tone and a smile. Selene looked a little sheepish after that, as if not knowing what to say. “I mean every word…”

“Well, Sori and I are on good terms…” She neared him, and trailed a finger down the exposed skin of his chest, where his shirt wasn’t buttoned. “I’m sure I could ask him to set up a romantic fire, with ice shimmering all around-“ With both her hands on his chest, abruptly she pushed, knocking him clean out of the room and onto the floor.

As he gracefully got back onto his feet, Selene shut the door and locked it.

“Selene!” He called, and knocked on the door. She looked back at entrance with a smirk on her face. She could just hear Adair and the Captain speaking.

“What happened?”

Sirius sounded particularly unhappy. “I was played.”

* * *

Selene felt as if she were little again and had stolen a shirt from her father. With her own clothes drying in the washroom still (they had needed a good wash), she had luckily picked the shirt drawer of many drawers in Sirius’s room. She had stolen a white one, and upon putting it on she found that it was entirely too large for her, but was comfy. The arms were much too baggy and seeing as Sirius had nearly a foot on her, the shirt came down to mid-thigh. Covering all that was need, but she didn’t dare lift up her arms. That would expose more skin than she wanted too, so instead she sat on the bed, blanket covering her knees as she fiddled with the Calypso.

It had occurred to her that this ship probably had a washing machine of sorts, but she had wanted to wash her clothes herself. It had given her time to think, and despite being exhausted she had enjoyed the time to herself. So now she had decided to enjoy the quiet more, by tinkering with her weapon and polishing it as well. Then her mind wandered to her satchel, and specifically the things Seta had given to her before he passed away.

With little more thought than that she reached over it and dragged it onto the bed. Carefully she opened the bag as if it was containing dynamite or something unstable. Selene reached into it and carefully pulled out the small piece of paper and then the pouch. The woman frowned, staring at the paper, brain questioning if she should read its contents or not. What if it was something she wasn’t supposed to know? Why would Seta give it to her then? The Viera knew that giving it to her father would cross her mind, and it had. But what if it was meant only for Selene? Or perhaps the group? Oh please Seta let it not be for the entire group, I don’t think I could live with them that long…

There was a knock on the door, which made the girl jump. When she had slipped into this shirt she had unlocked the door. Knowing most would presume that she had left it locked. Selene placed the folded piece of paper in her lap buried her lingering sadness and sighed.

“It’s open.”

Sirius slid in, and stopped. A smile forming on his face as he was careful not to directly stare at the undone top button, which exposed tempting skin.

“Hello Selene, how was your shower?”

“I’d rather not talk about it, seeing as it’d only help your crude imagination.”

“My imagination is quite lively, I assure you.”

Selene rolled her eyes. “Joy o’ Bliss.”

For a moment the charmer disappeared and he sat down on the end of the bed, turning so he was facing her. “Are you feeling any better?”

“A little.”

“You give a man no leeway.”

“Not to a man who is given an airship and wants the whole sky.”

He chuckled a little, perhaps that metaphor applied to him more than what she meant, either way he continued with his charming tactic. “But the sky is so beautiful, appearing in so many ways but still remains just as tempting. Is it wrong for I to want all of her?” Selene narrowed her eyes and brushed some of her wet hair from her face.

“She’ll never be yours.”

“Oh.” He grinned, and his eyes sparkled again. Sirius seemed rather confident. “I doubt that.”

“Do you?”

“Very much so.”

Selene went to reply, but in her haste she knocked the satchel and out toppled the small red pouch. Both of them stared at before Sirius leaned a little and plucked it off the bed. Carefully he removed a small piece of a dark grey-blue substance and held it in the bedroom lighting.

“What is this?” He questioned, handing it back to the gunner who gazed at with fascination before she picked up the piece of paper gently.

“I… Don’t know.. Seta gave me it when he…” She flipped it open and blinked.

Sirius noted her confused. “Well?”

Selene held up the note.

It’s Here

CHAPTER ONE END

1700 something words...

That’s right people, it’s OVER. Well Chapter One anyways, now for the next order of business! Soon enough I’ll have the spells and abilities listed for you to pick in the Lounge topic. But there is a few things that I must state the next set of posts, kicking off Chapter Two. :3

Soon after this discussion between Selene and Sirius, the Wolftstar docked with a much larger merchant airship called “The Phantasy” for repairs. Before that however, the paling in the temple exploded, the explosion obliterated Izlek temple, the rift, and etc. If you need an example watch the new Star Trek movie near the end where something inevitably must explode to stop something or another… Lol, that’s me avoiding certain spoilers. Either way the explosion was big, blue and damaged the Wolfstar a little more.

Chapter Two kicks off 3 days *after*, if your character’s appearance had changed somewhat, please say so. There is also the potential of new crew members joining up. I’ll leave it up to them to introduce themselves or not (you know who you are), if they don’t, oh well, we’ll continue.

The Phantasy is quite large, and has numerous little shops and such for supplies, and interesting people. It’s quite open for what can happen, so have fun on this airship.

For the sake of my sanity, I'm going to draw Selene's new outfit (revamped again), and post it up with my next post. Until then feel free to have her in her old outfit if she's in your posts.

[ChobiChibi]

Shayna~

The last few days upon the Wolfstar had been rather interesting, to say the least. Firstly, Shayna now knew how to rewire a ship’s engines, something she had no interest in what so ever. It had annoyed her that Adair had left her alone with the Al Bhed girl, since she too had wanted to escape from the engine room, but she supposed it was necessary, as he was the only one with the skill to pilot the huge piece of almost-scrap metal.

Of course, she couldn’t complain about that. Since the temple had exploded not long after they’d escaped the canyon, causing a little more damage to Sirius’s beloved ship, she was grateful that she hadn’t remained there and became several million pieces herself.

The Machina also bothered her. With Nii’s absence due to drunken and only slightly disorderly behaviour, the machine decided it would be appropriate to follow the Ninja around instead, much to her discomfort. She had told it to stay, and when it obeyed her, she gained mixed feelings of curiosity and anger. Why her?! Why not anyone else aboard the ship? That evening, she struggled to sleep due to the adrenaline still pumping around her body, so had decided to take a walk around the deck. A faint smile adorned her lips as she saw it still stood there, waiting for its master, or perhaps more instructions from someone else.

“Don’t you dare follow me!” Shayna whispered harshly as she walked by, aware that others close by were probably trying to sleep. Once she was a good distance away from it, she glanced back at it to see its lights gently fade, like it was watching her go, almost like it could be disappointed, or perhaps lonely...

It’s not intelligent... She thought as she continued on her stroll. It’s just programmed to recognise voice commands...

The next couple of days hadn’t really been very eventful. In all honesty, she’d probably spent most of the time sleeping, eating or trying to wash the blood out of her clothes, whether it was her own, the dragon’s or possibly even the chocobo’s. In the mean time, due to the fact that all of the clothes in the living quarters were much too big for her, she had dug out her Do Bok, the uniform she used for her martial arts, weapons training and other Ninja-like activities. Both the jacket and pants are black, as is the belt around her waist, which surprised quite a few of her companions.

“But you’re a young lady!” Adair had protested.

“I’m also a Ninja, remember?” Shayna reminded him. “Big, pointy throwing stars gives that away just a little bit...”

“But young ladies don’t become black belts! They give up and bare children for their black belt husbands!” He argued.

The girl paused for a moment to stare blankly at him and blink. “Adair, I’m only eighteen...”

“Exactly! At this stage in your life you should be a slightly above-average standard and about to give up their training to breed more ninja children!”

“Is that so?” She frowned, clenching her fists. “I’d be happy to prove you wrong.”

She bowed to her opponent before assuming a defensive stance, her feet the perfect distance apart for optimum balance and her arms raised ready to both block and attack. The pilot looked confused for a moment as she waited for him.

“I’ll allow you to make the first move.” She smirked. “And don’t go easy on me just because I’m a young lady.”

Adair attacked with surprising speed, considering he was most likely tipsy, if not drunk. Shay kept up with her defensive stance, blocking the majority of his attacks before spotting an opening, kicking the back of his knees. As he fell to his knees, she moved backwards before starting to round house kick his head, but stopping mere millimetres from contacting, his hair tickling her bare toes.

“... Cheat.” He mumbled, folding his arms.

“You’re much easier to attack at this height.” She commented, grinning and maintaining her stance.

A smirk flashed across the Pirate’s face before he poked the sole of her foot, the smallest disruption causing her to loose her balance completely and fall. “Cheeeeaaaat!” She shrieked just before she met the deck.

This memory, although painful, made her chuckle.

Now she was aboard the other airship, named The Phantasy. She didn’t understand the naming of ships and such, but to her, it didn’t seem like the most appropriate name. Regardless, this ship was a lot bigger and they were docked to it for repairs and supplies. The amount of food they had left was dwindling, but this wasn’t what worried her the most.

Today she had tied her hair back into a neat pony tail and added sandals to her attire. She was still wearing her Do Bok, since she’d only just managed to get the blood out of her normal clothes and they were drying in her room. Her hair seemed to be a brighter red than before, since it was considerably cleaner.

Her appearance was considerably important today since she intended to trade with the merchants aboard this ship. She had got up early to make sure she was presentable, and also to beat the others onto the ship. For the thief, it was extremely important that none of her companions saw what she was trading.

She wasn’t so worried about the Spirans, perhaps they would understand what she had to do. However, if Selene, Sori or Temzi saw...

She swallowed hard. She really did not want to see the barrel of Selene’s gun any time soon.

“Alrigh, my luv?” The old, bearded merchant greeted her as she approached him, her bag seeming a lot heavier, despite the fact she’d been carrying exactly the same things around with her in the temple. “Wha can I getcha today?”

“I’m not really looking for anything in particular.” She replied, her eyes wandering around, glancing at his merchandise. “I was wondering if you may have any interest in what I have to offer.”

“Oh?” He looked curious. “It ain’t often tha a young girl wants to trade, especially one of yer... Background.” He glanced at her uniform, seeming slightly uneasy.

“I assure you, this would not be the first time.” She smiled softly.

“Alrigh then, darlin’! Wha d’ya ‘ave to offer?”

The old man’s eyes lit up as she showed him the contents of her bag, the precious Ilvican treasures glistening. “Where’d ya get tha?”

The thief smirked. “That would be telling.”

“I dunno, lass...” He frowned, studying an item. “If this ‘ere ship were to be searched... You ‘an I both knows I’ll be in alotta trouble.”

Looking disappointed, she closed her bag. “Well, I guess I’ll be taking these somewhere else... Maybe the guy next door will want it...”

“No! No my darlin’!” The merchant gently took hold of her arm, guiding her back to where she was. “It’s not to say I ain’t interested... I was wonderin’ what kinda price ya wanted em fer?”

“The whole lot?”

“The whole lot.”

“Five thousand gil.”

“Wha?! Yer kiddin’ me! Darlin’, I knows it’s valuable, but ya can’t expect me to buy at tha price!” He pushed it towards her. “It be dangerous to ‘ave it. I dun wanna be hung!”

“Then sell it on! I have no idea when I’ll next be on land!” She argued, getting a little worried. She needed to shift it, and fast. “You can sell it on for a profit.”

He paused for thought. “Five hundred gil.”

“You’re kidding me... It’s worth much more than that and you know it!”

“One thousan’ gil.”

“Four thousand!”

“Two thousan’.”

“Three!”

“Two an’ a ‘alf.”

“Deal.”

Quickly, she emptied her spoils onto the table, snatching a necklace back up and stuffing it in her bag. “You’re not having that for that price. The rest you can have.”

Surprisingly the man agreed and counted out her money into a pouch. She left swiftly, thanking him and heading away from the shop as quickly as she could, rounding the corner only to bump into Selene.

“Good morning!” Shay said cheerfully.

That was too close for comfort... She thought, making sure to keep smiling and suppress the sigh of relief she so desperately needed.

1,384 wordsies

[classy_cat18]

Niosa Tiera – Al Bhed Gunner

Light. Painful, tortuous light.

My head! I hissed in pain and clutched my head. Of course I would get my first hangover after my first drink of alcohol! How did Adair drink that crap?

Wait. The light was on in my room. It wasn’t on when I fell asleep. And I wasn’t in a well-lit part of the airship. So who…?

“Wakey wakey! It’s time for my favorite mechanic to make her rounds!” a male voice rang.

I growled and covered my head with my pillow. Right now I couldn’t tell if it was Adair or Sirius that woke me. Either way, the idiot was dying today. “Give Nii ten minutes,” I groaned.

“Now, now! What did I tell you about you and the third person?”

So it’s Adair. I sat up and pushed him out of the room, then slammed the door in his face. After listening to his protests for about ten minutes while I changed into my change of clothes, I left the room. “Nii’s head is killing her. If you wake Nii up like that one more time, Nii is sticking Vena down your throat and burning your insides.”

“Who’s Vena?” he asked me. I smirked and raised my rifle to his face. “Ah. Your gun.”

I lowered my weapon and started my search for Kumas, who was strangely just standing in the hallway like he was waiting for someone. “Why are you in the hallway?” I asked him. He turned his head to me and lit up brighter than before. “Were you waiting for Nii?”

Sori walked by and explained. “Shay told him to stay there, so he did. I thought he only took orders from you.”

I sighed and patted the machina’s back. “You don’t have to follow Shay’s orders. After all, she doesn’t think you’re intelligent.” This made the Moogle groan and walk away.

I went down to the engine room and made sure the auxiliary engine was still doing its job, then walked around the ship to see what other damage had been done. Kumas followed me around as usual. “This will be very hard to repair, if that’s even possible.”

But boredom quickly sank in, and I found myself with nothing to do. The day went by slowly, with me roaming the ship, eating, and nursing my hangover. I didn’t really interact with anyone, which was probably a relief to Adair.

It reminded me of something a Hume said to me years back. “There are only two things that would ever get along with Al Bhed: machina and other Al Bhed.” Despite the progress we made ever since Yevon stopped being a big deal, there was still a lot of crap to work with. I had grown to believe that quote.

The second day was more interesting. While rummaging for food in the pantry, I came across another bottle of Adair’s rum. I seriously considered pouring the whole thing down the drink and laughing at him while he watched in horror. After all, it looked like top-shelf rum.

Unfortunately, Temzi caught me red-handed. We just stared at each other, me unable to see the Dragoon’s expression. I took the moment to study him. “You’re as tall as Nii’s brother,” I blurted out.

Temzi surprisingly took a step back as if he was preparing to bolt. I was quick enough to catch the action. “Kumas, block his exit,” I commanded. The machina moved the door out, cutting off Temzi. I was sure that Temzi could’ve just knocked him over but he didn’t even try.

I took a step forward. “You’re a Guado, right? Nii has never seen one in Dragoon armor. Does that mean you’ve been in Ivalice?” I tried to look through the opening in his helm but he turned his head away from me. His behavior was getting strange. “Nii isn’t going to attack. Nii is just curious. There’s no one to really talk to, since Nii’s behavior is really…bizarre.”

He still didn’t say a word, even as I circled him. My eyes stayed on his helm. “Take it off,” I told him.

He finally spoke. “Pardon?”

“Take off your helm. I want to see your face again.” My hands reached out for it. That was all he could take, and he turned to run for the door, even if that meant running over Kumas.

He ran the wrong way. Smack dab into the cabinets.

CRONK!

He fell on his back. I took the opportunity to yank off his helm before he could get up. Men’s appearances don’t affect me like they do other girls (which was why Adair and Sirius seriously annoyed me). Temzi was still interesting to look at. “You don’t really look like a Guado.”

He stayed frozen on the ground with a frightened expression until I slipped his helm back on with a sigh and moved away from him. “Out of the way, Kumas,” I said. Then he took off like a Moogle out of hell, almost running over Kumas.

I sighed heavily and glanced at my reflection in a hanging skillet. Maybe I should start letting my hair grow out. Oh boy, then I would start looking like Ariosa. But first, a little drink. Adair and Sirius really got more tolerable when I was slightly tipsy.

886 words.

[Pichu Luver]

Adair Stroud

Adair stared...

and stared some more.

Contemplated his existence for the mere moment of a nanosecond. Considered the possibilities of enlightenment. And women. Surely there were women after struggling up that confounded cave towards the light. The sun was great an' all but a man needed more then shadow puppets. Or something; Platios never really made much sense to him. Made him wonder why his mother put him in private school....

'Wait, no! Focus! Remember the importance of life in relation to coin!'

“Mog.” Adair paused, licking his lips like he did after savouring a particularly expensive rum. “Are—Are you quite sure?”

“Yes kupo” Mog held up an extremely long list—more scroll really—that was likely twice the length of the Wolfstar. It curled around below Mog as he hovered at eye level with Adair. It was his transaction record since Mog was ... well Adair liked to say recruited but Mog would say 'volunteered ta save your ass from your 'ead and de entertainment value when I fail.”

Of course the list of his exploits in the areas of questionable legality was a fair bit longer. Mog assured him it was a half foot in diameter.

“So let me get this absolutely clear then.” Adair held up one finger and paused. For dramatic effect of course. “I'M BLOODY WELL RICH AND YOU FAILED TO INFORM ME OF THIS FACT!?!”

Mog blinked. Wiped a droplet of spit from his cheek. Funny how being dragged through cave (and in the process saved from death) produced epic fits of near violence but being spat upon did not raise his ire. “Because you would 'ave wasted it on frivolities. Da Wolfstar is your life, whether you realize it or not. So you were rich. To fix 'er you are not any longer. So it makes no differance.”

Adair hissed through his teeth and made motions with his fingers of the possible strangulation variety. “I—I may have to kill you.”

“Dat would be unwise as I 'ave your account information. Not to mention impossible.” Mog dropped the scroll to cross his arms while he raised an eyebrow.

Adair didn't contradict him. On either account. He merely went to a wall of his room and hit it. Making a decent dent all things considered. Like the pain in his hand.

Curses flowed and Adair pushed away the thought he had once again affirmed his idiocy.

“But!” Adair forgot the throbbing in his hand and pointed a finger upwards in revelation.”I don't have to fix the Wolfstar. It's not my ship and it is my money. I can waltz on out of here a free man with a whole life to enjoy.” Adair was lost to his dreams of abundance.

“Seein' 'ow you crashed da ship, fixin it IS your problem.”

Something clicked in Adair's brain. A few days off had seriously improved his mood since the day they had left that horrid cave. And his bruises as well, due to a combination of rum, potions and massages. Still to have been told no less then three times while surviving their unplanned landing, and many times in the last few days (sly asides and some not so much), that he has crashed Adair was in a word, infuriated. A muscle twitched in his face and he froze for a few seconds before turning to Mog and unleashing his formidable ire.

“WILL PEOPLE STOP SAYIN I CRASHED THE BLOODY SHIP!!!”

He made a small almost pleading noise in the back of his throat. Mog actually looked surprised. Adair waved his hands and stomped away to the dented wall and (gently, he'd learned his lesson for the next five minutes) repeatedly hit his head against it.

Mog sighed. “Fine landed 'er widout grace and... aplomb. Now.” Mog flew over and glared at him. “FIX da SHIP.”

~ ~ ~

“Nii wishes you to stop!”

Adair rolled his eyes. “Then luv stop getting inebriated on my rum. It is obviously to much for you.”

Adair currently was taking Nii to the cockpit against her will. He had a considerable hold on her arm above her wrist and she was stumbling in his wake. She was fumbling for something (likely her gun) but he pulled her off balance as they rounded a corner.

“Ah! Selene!”

Selene looked up from her conversation with Shay and narrowed her eyes.

“Wha—?”

Adaie grabbed her arm with his other hand and dragged her beside Nii. “I need your esteemed opinion. And since you both find my eloquent company and conversation disagreeable, and thus would spend ten minutes discussing the merits of following me, I will take you.”

Selene and Nii shared a look and in possibly a momentary alliance they both pulled their guns and touched them to Adair's head.

He sighed, “Not THAT opinion. I find my own satisfactory. It's the ship.”

He had not paused in his trudge and Selene and Nii frowned; twins for a few seconds more, “The ship?”

“Aye.”

The had reached the bridge and the doors (possibly the only pair still functioning in this way) opened at their presence. Sirius was looking forlornly over his not so proud deck. Adair pulled both his captives forward and let go.

“Adair?” asked Sirius as he looked between the two women.

Adair, for once finding himself uncomfortable, shifted his weight from foot to foot and asked, “What do we need to fix the ship?”

“Money?” said Nii in a 'you're an idiot voice'.

Adair waved a hand, “Yes, yes I meant in supplies. Money” he said ruefully and with some inner irritation they couldn't guess at, “I have recently found is not a problem for me.”

They had a moment of identical blink-ages.

“Pardon?” asked Selene looking at him in disbelief.

Adair looked everywhere but the three of them. “It doesn't matter! Just make a list of what we need to fix the ship” He glanced at Sirius, “NOT what you'd like to fix on the ship. NEED not want Sirius.”

“Blast.” was all he said; under his breath.

Adair pulled a list out of his back pocket. He had spent some of his riches on getting new clothes. Mog hadn't objected to that (for obvious reasons). They were not of the fine weave Sirius boasted but homey stuff that could take a few hits. Currently he was wearing some loose blue jeans, a white undershirt, and mid-brown button up linen shirt. The shirt had white x's on the sleeves and collar. His hair was still pulled back into a tail but he had left a bit of stubble to grow as a mustache and goatee.

“I need this to fly the bird but I don't know what's wrong in the back. Which is why I've asked you lovely individuals to figure it out. So.” He handed the list to Selene who looked at him in something akin to shock. “I'm going to buy some rum...” Adair started to back away, “before a money is too low... Sure you can figure it out by yourselves... Intelligent bunch you are! Good day!”

With that he sidestepped out the door and disappeared.

He wasn't running. Really.

Selene was the first to speak. “Did he just offer to do something... for someone else... for money?”

“Yes I believe he did my love.” Sirius also looked a bit shocked but not to the degree the others were. “A rare occurrence but it does happen. Rather jumpy when he does something nice I find. Couldn't imagine why.”

The was another moment of silence.

“Nii can't believe what she just heard either.”

1264

[classy_cat18]

Sori – Time Mage Moogle

“You want me to what now?” I asked Nii slowly, raising a brow.

“Nii needs you to get materia for her ammo. Nii ran low while in the caves.” She giggled nervously. She sounded kind of silly, which led to the next question.

“Are you drunk again?”

She stumbled lightly and leaned against the wall. “You have no idea how badly Nii has needed it. Adair has been driving her crazy about the condition of this airship.” She gave me a short list as well as a pouch of money, and then turned to her machina. “Kumas will help you get everything. Kumas, until further notice, follow the Moogle’s orders.”

He (at least I guess it was a he) gave a slight nod and went to me. I hopped on his shoulder. “Why can’t you get this stuff?”

“Adair and Sirius wants Nii and Selene—“ She pointed to the slightly reluctant woman. “to make a list of what we need to fix the Wolfstar.”

“Uh…and how are we going to pay for that? Because I’m not pirate material.”

“Believe it or not, they’re going to pay for all of it.”

My eyes grew bigger than I thought they could. “…”

“Yeah, we said the same thing,” Selene joked. I shrugged and flew off, Kumas obediently following.

I thought about the possibility of pirates actually able to afford such costly repairs as I strolled through the shops with Kumas. People didn’t seem surprised at the sight, probably because many Ivalician Moogles were technology buffs and I left my magic rod on the airship. Unfortunately, Nii’s machina got a lot of greedy looks. No one said anything until I was getting elemental materia for Nii’s gun. “I have more powerful materia if you’re looking for sssssomething with more…oomph,” the Bangaa shopkeeper said with a wide grin. “It doessssn’t come cheap. But for the right offer…”

I sighed. “You’re asking the wrong person. This thing belongs to an Al Bhed with a deadly weapon and a short temper.”

The shopkeeper growled loudly and rolled his eyes. “Yesss, yesss, with flowing white hair and feminine looksss. Ssspare me the detailsss.”

My ears twitched in curiosity. Flowing white hair? “Wait, we’re not thinking about the same Al Bhed. My Al Bhed has tattoos and is a girl.”

“Sssso doesss mine, but he’sss male.” We stared at each other and laughed. “I’m sssure it’sss jussst a coincidence.”

“Yeah. Don’t scare me than that. Kumas, get the stuff. I need food.” The machina nodded and picked up the bag. I hopped off his shoulder and turned…

…only to stop at the point of a rapier.

“Isss thisss your Al Bhed?” the shopkeeper asked me nervously.

I shook my head while still looking at the stranger. He was the same height as Temzi, which would make him intimidating to a lot of people. His white hair went down his back, flowing just like the shopkeeper described. He was clean-shaven, even slightly feminine, but the build of his arms suggested that he could knock someone out barehanded. His green eyes highlighted the spiral pupils unique to his race.

The sword was still at my neck but he was more interested in Kumas. “What are you doing with that machina?” he calmly asked me in an icy tone.

My ears flattened against my head. A fight in a peaceful place like this was out of the question, but I couldn’t just let him behead me either. “Kumas—“ I started to say.

His eyes flashed when he heard the machina’s name. “Vemdro dreav!” the man exclaimed angrily in Al Bhed. “You steal that which belongs to a Tiera?”

“Tiera?” I took the risk of looking at his bare right arm, taking extra caution not to cut myself. Bright blue, double-helix tattoos, ending in spirals on his hand. Backing up, I chose the words that would most likely save me. “Nii is safe. She’s with us!”

“Niosa?” He lowered his sword in shock. “You found Nii?”

I nodded. “Short Al Bhed girl, same tattoos as yours, has this guy following her around.” I pointed to Kumas. “She’s on the Wolfstar right now. I’m guessing you’re her brother.”

He sheathed his sword and sighed in relief. “Ariosa Tiera, captain of the Swift Arrow, the finest merchant ship of New Home.”

This one isn’t short on pride. At least he’s less flashy in the clothes department. Pretty simple, in fact. Just a white, buttoned-up vest and black slacks. “Still reminds me of those pirates,” I grumbled out loud.

His eye twitched slightly. “Pirates?”

My mind screamed for me to change the subject. “Hey, this is perfect! You’re a merchant ship, and we need supplies to fix our airship!”

“The Wolfstar?” His gaze got deadly. That’s when it hit me.

Wolfstar was a pirate ship.

Swift Arrow was a merchant ship.

I just called the Wolfstar our airship.

As in partly mine.

I was, by association, a pirate.

“We’ll pay!” I quickly added as he reached for his rapier again. “Just don’t kill us!”

He lifted his chin to look down on me. The look in his eyes reminded me of Nii. “I would like to speak to my sister before I even consider any deals.”

877 words.

Ariosa's going to be an NPC for the time being. His hairstyle is just like that of this guy except it's white and it goes down his back in the back. Personality wise, he's like Nii but more serious and doesn't refer to himself in the third person and doesn't like Nii doing that either. Nii gets a little annoyed by his coldness.

[Crystal Tears]

Selene

“And the right pump?”

“In pieces…”

Selene frowned; it was fair to say that they were in quite the predicament. The Wolfstar, during Adair’s flawed yet brilliantly played escape-plan, had sustained more damage than imagined. Both women stood in the engine room, eyeing the smoking, sparking, and leaking contraption that was supposed to convert mana into energy to run most of the ship. Or at least that’s what Selene thought it did; she had never really seen an airship engine before, not one this small. The parts looked different and there was a severe lack of maintained care. While the rest of the ship in comparison didn’t have a spot of rust or wear on it (excluding one very large hole), the engine had been neglected.

“It’s like staring at a rabid chocobo…” Nii thought out loud, nearing the more lively part of the engine.

“You want to help it, but you can’t figure out how…”

“Nii thinks we should just tear it out and get a new one.”

Selene frowned. “Rip the entire engine out? Piping and all?”

“Down to the very last bolt.”

“Nii, that seems a little-“ She watched the Al Bhed wobble. “Drastic…”

“But it’s rusted! The engine is more likely to join the Farplane than make us fly!”

Selene didn’t know exactly what a Farplane was; she didn’t get into contorted Spiran beliefs. She raised a hand to her mouth as the other held the pad and paper. “As true as that probably is,” the woman sighed. “I don’t think they could afford an entire new engine.”

“What about-“

“I’ll rephrase that.” Selene interrupted. “I don’t think they could afford an engine that will work.”

“Ooh.”

“Yeah.”

“Nii sees the problem.”

The gunner stretched. “It’s quite a large one.”

There was a silence between them as Selene scribbled (though her scribbling was neater than most normal cursive) down ‘Engine’ on the pad before rethinking her statement and putting ‘entire Engine System’ instead. “We should move on to the auxiliary one.”

As they moved on, Nii spoke up.

“Ryja oui paah uh syho yencrebc?”

Selene looked up at Nii for a moment before smiling a little. “Fro?”

That caused the Al Bhed to stop and turn, maybe her continent it was rare for Humes to learn the Al Bhed language, probably hearing it from a Spiran would make her stop and smile. But an Ivalician had replied, one that probably gave off the feel that she didn’t exactly welcome new things and people.

“You..”

“Cbayg Al Bhed.” Selene replied with a smirk. “Lyh'd nayt ed aqlabdeuhymmo famm oad...”

“Pity.” She smiled heartily, seemingly excited by the fact. “Nii cdemm famlusac dra lryhka uv duhkia druikr.”

* * *

Entire Engine System (We Suggest: Magi 3000 Mana/Fuel Cylinder Engine System, depending on Adair’s…riches)
Aft Harmonic Coil
Energy Converter Pump
Main Fuel Line
Anti-Rust Plating
Mana Stream Filter
Crystal Converter Matrix
Di-Crystal Matrix (We couldn’t even *find* anything that looked like it..)
Harmonic Interface
Port Stabilizer
Auxiliary Thrusters
Additional Starboard /Port turrets (Nii’s suggestion)
…
Everything.

Adair paled. “… Everything?”

Nii nodded at the pilot as Selene looked around the cockpit. She note how certain things were missing, with a frown she moved past Nii and looked at the control board, Adair at taken a keen interest at what she was looking at and scanned the board as well, before blinking.

“Something missing?”

Selene took the list and scribbled on another word, but before showing the dear pilot. She gestured to a broken lever.

“What is this?”

“That!.. Is…” He stared at it for a moment. “Oh I concede defeat darling, what is that fine contraption are you pointing at?”

She paled a little; as Shayna entered as did Sirius.

“That would be the broken parking break.”

“PARDON?” Sirius gawked, and pushed forward and looked at the snapped handle before glaring death at Adair. “You broke the very thing holding us in place?”

“Surely Captain you’ve noticed we’re stationary.”

“I assumed that was because we were parked!”

“We are!” The pilot grinned. “We are in fact, quite unmoving in our stead, we are parked!”

Selene rolled her eyes. “Eteud.”

Nii snickered and Adair looked over suspiciously. “What was that?”

The gunner stood up straight, accepting the challenge happily. “I called you an idiot.”

“How exactly am I an idiot deary?” He paused. “Besides the obvious notions of which you were no doubt going to mention.”

“Tell me oh wise pilot…” Selene smirked. “The ship is stationary at the moment because we are level, or near enough, correct?”

“Yes!” He beamed.

“So what would happen to the lovely Wolfstar, if say…” She shrugged. “The Phantasy barrel was hit by a machine missile?”

He didn’t answer right away, and looked a little put off. “Well that’s highly unlikely-“

“What would happen?”

“The Wolfstar would slide… And probably crash into a wall.”

“Or, Gods forbid, the docking bay mana-field.” Selene paused. “What have you used for parking?”

“The reverse.”

Nii’s eyes widened. “Reverse!?”

“Admittedly, it takes quite the pilot to do that…” Selene noted, trying to figure out how exactly reverse was in anyway akin to a parking break.

“Thank you dearie.”

She handed the list back to Adair and he frowned a little.

Parking Break

It was then everyone turned at a hard cough, standing in the doorway was Kumas, with a notable annoyed Moogle sitting on his shoulder.

“We got a visitor.”

907 words... Maybe a little less. Oh guys, please post your post count as well, to help my poor brain XD

[classy_cat18]

Niosa Tiera – Al Bhed Gunner

“Ariosa…brother…” I said breathlessly.

The tall Al Bhed slowly stepped in, thankfully not noticing Sirius and Adair at first as they stood right by the doorway and out of his line of sight. “Niosa.”

There was no emotion in either his face or voice, but I knew that he only hid his emotions when he was pissed beyond belief. I stood tall and put on a similar expression. “Nii wasn’t—“ I started.

“What did I say about that?” he interrupted harshly.

I narrowed my eyes in frustration. “I wasn’t aware that you were here.”

“The same could be said about you.”

The others looked from one of us to the other, probably confused by the similarities and differences in our appearances. Ariosa didn’t follow the style of most Al Bhed, who cut their hair short to avoid embarrassing incidences at work. I always did think that he was too…flamboyant. But we both had the white hair, the green eyes with spiral pupils, and the family tattoos.

And we were both not-so happy at the moment.

Ariosa finally showed some emotion, even though it was just a raised eyebrow. “I have yet to understand why you left the group in the middle of the night, without notifying anyone,” he told me sternly, his eyes looking like they were burning a hole through my head. “If it wasn’t for the sphere that you carried with you, and apparently lost, I wouldn’t have thought to come to the Soca Rift to look for you.”

My head hung in shame, knowing that I had caused my brother and his crew to worry. “I apologize,” I said softly.

The tension would’ve ended there if it wasn’t for Adair’s big mouth. “As you can see, we have rescued and tended to your dear, magnificent sister!” he said heartily. He sauntered over to the merchant and patted his shoulder despite Sirius’ silent protests. “She’s obviously a precious, priceless asset to your life! So valuable that a reward should be in order!”

All of us stiffened. Selene groaned. Sirius sighed. Sori and I gulped. “Adair, maybe we should avoid discussion of rewards since we obviously saved dear Niosa out of the goodness of our hearts,” Sirius warned.

Ariosa calmly removed Adair’s hand from his person and gave him a slight grin. My blood almost froze. “You want a reward?” Ariosa inquired in a friendly voice. Adair caught the malice behind that kindness and took a step backward. “For your reward, I’ll only take one of your heads!”

My body took over my mind as he unsheathed his rapier and took an attack stance. Before I knew it, I had Vena pointed at his head. “Please stop!” I cried out.

His eyes, wide and burning with anger, turned on me. “You dare pull a gun on me? Are you siding with these pirates?” He raised the rapier.

I shook in fear and dropped my gun, then placed my hand on the arm holding his sword. The others were ready to attack him should he take further action. “Drec ec hud dra bmyla vun jeumahla, Ariosa,” I pleaded.

“Drao yddylgat so creb yht cduma vnus sa!” He tightened his hold on the sword.

“Drao nacliat sa! Drao luimt'ja mavd sa eh dra niehc du tea!"

“Vun bancuhym kyeh!”

Selene jumped into the Al Bhed conversation to Ariosa’s surprise. “Hud ymm uv ic yna pirates.”

There was silence afterwards, during which my brother slowly calmed down. “You may not be a pirate, but you are still Ivalician.” He pointed to her cape.

“I fail to see the significance in this.”

“Your beloved country is the reason that our New Home City lies in ruins.”

“WHAT?” Selene and I said together.

“I arrived too late to help during the attack. I could only assess the damage.” Despite this, he sheathed his sword and sighed. “But with your ship in such a condition, attacking you won’t be so satisfying so I’ll back off for now.” Sirius glared at him for the remark but said nothing.

My face lit up with an idea. “Perhaps you, a great merchant, can aid us in our need,” I suggested with a smirk. “It would be suitable retribution for past sins.”

The Al Bhed eyes rolled up in thought but didn’t seem angry at the thought of helping pirates. “I assume that by saying ‘us’ you’ll be accompanying them further?” I nodded. “What do you need?”

Adair gave him the list. His eyes instantly widened at the first item. “You need an entire engine system?” Ariosa asked in amazement.

“It sustained a lot of damage during the accident,” Sirius explained.

“What kind of accident were you in for you to need the whole system replaced?”

“We’ll spare you the details.”

“Actually, the system wasn’t properly maintained,” Selene clarified. “Nii thought that it would be safer to just rip the whole thing out and replace it.”

Ariosa sighed heavily and sat in the captain’s chair, knowing that it pissed off Sirius. “We don’t have a whole engine system on our ship, but we could get it for you. I am, however, curious as to how you’re going to get all this.”

Adair looked away and refused to answer. “We can afford it,” Sori answered for him.

My brother kept reading. “You didn’t have a Di-Crystal Matrix?”

The two pirates looked at each other. “We were told that such a thing wasn’t necessary,” Sirius replied calmly. Obviously a lie.

Ariosa looked at them with wide eyes. “…How were you two even entrusted with your own airship?”

“Told you,” Sori said smugly.

“Nii suggests extra turrets. And…” He blinked and read the last thing on the list, then rubbed his eyes. “The parking brake?”

Selene showed him the broken lever. “Adair somehow broke it.”

He stood up and stared at it. “How is this ship stationary?”

“Reverse,” Selene, Adair, and I replied together. Adair sounding pleased with himself.

“Okay, that’s quite a feat. So you basically need everything.” He smirked and tucked the list in his pocket. “Perfect.”

“It is?” Adair asked.

Ariosa chuckled darkly and patted his shoulder. “I’m going to enjoy bleeding you dry.”

1,031 words. 13 Nii posts. 13 Sori posts.

[Pichu Luver]

Adair Stroud

“Sir? Is this the Wolfstar?”

Adair turned from admiring the newly retrofitted ship (he had nearly passed out from lack of coin but Mog was a crafty fellow and thus saved him from unwonted fits of girlish swooning) and looked over a man with dark skin and smartly dressed suit. He didn't look like a law official but that didn't mean he wasn't. However the fairly large box behind him suggest he was just a delivery boy.

He peered over his sunglasses at him.“'Fraid we ain't acquiescen' for what isn't already seen to be paid for chap. Prior to this engagement betwixt us was spent Behemoth level gil, and we're not particularly lookin for another tax refund to the government likes. Yeah hear?”

The man blinked and took a moment to decipher his speech pattern. “Uh, this” He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder to the box. “is a delivery to the Wolfstar. To one Selene Havodin?”

Instantly Adair's lost most of his suspicion. Could be a device to kill them all in their sleep but Selene could do that by herself with those little toys of hers. Thus it was unlikely.

“Right! Expectin' that we were! Truly sorry, lots of questionable louts around you know.”

“Indeed. Any ID sir?”

“Certainly! There you are.”

Adair handed over his of course fake but very well crafted ID card. Named him as the Pilot of the Wolfstar but every other detail was a stretch of the truth. Outright lies got you caught of course. Thus his name was Mathias Kilkenny.

The ID checker thing beeped happily and Adair's smiled widened. “So where so I sign for this lovely package?”

“Here.” Adair signed in the chicken scratch the man was obviously expecting (though his own handwriting was quite nice, a girlish fact he kept to himself) and waved to the men holding the handle of the sizable low cart it was on. Unfortunately the signing tech had not revealed what the item was.

“Follow me if you will, I'll get the loadin' bay open for ya!”

Adair strode up to the glistening Wolfstar, the plates were the newest kind, anti rust and they were made of some kind of property that could deflect some fire should the shield fail. Less likely to fall off too, some how or another spread an impact over themselves. Still, they hadn't gotten rid of one detail Adair enjoyed.

He pounded the hull on the front of the ship twice and the loading hatch released, lowering the ramp.

'Ah, missed that feature. Kicking it takes so much more effort.' Only worked when the Wolfstar was parked and all shields down so.... loading objects of size had been interesting these last few months.

The men marched up the ramp with the mysterious box. It was quite long and but since it wasn't making ticking, hissing, growling, barking, yelling, groaning, or creaking sounds, Adair was satisfied. He watched as they quickly and expertly latched it down. Never trusted manual men, like to steal items of note they were (he'd been one, so he knew). After snitching back a bottle of scotch one tried to make off with he waved them on their way.

“Many thanks!” Striding out of the bay he gently shoved upwards on the ramp and the loading bay closed on it's own. Just as it clicked shut and Adair opened the bottle for a swing, Selene marched around the ship, looking rather irate he thought.

“Adair! Where is it?”

“What my dear?”

She made swipe for his scotch but Adair just stretched it up out of her reach. “Luv taken my drink from my hands is not going to happen. Your whatchamacallit box it safe in there.”

Adair saw her plan as she formulated it and stopped her hand from punching his stomach as he backed away. “Now, now such energy would be better used trippin' over to the bay. No worries though. It's safe luv, never say no to free stuff I might be able to pawn off later. Only if you die of course.”

For lack of a better method she kicked him in the shin. Adair yelped and hopped. A self satisfied smirk appeared on Selene's face before she sauntered off.

“Women. It's probably shoes for miss high and uppity anyway.” he grumbled.

He took another swing and waited until the throbbing had eased in his abused shin before making his own way on board. Stowing the alcohol safely of course. He had admired the outside of the newly shiny-fied bird, time to oversee the rest.

Unfortunately today was not his day.

A few steps on board he turned to go the the engine when he tripped.

“YAAAaaaaap humph!”

He looked in the general direction of his now four feet and saw something blue. With a decisive shake of his head the image stabilized into a Hypello. With a strangely purple face. He freed his feet and had stood up before the fish-man had formulated a reply.

“Yoush aresh an ishiot!”

Adair wondered at the creature's mental ability. “Well, when it comes to anything other then piloting, I won't argue with you.”

It was then Adair heard tittering. He looked up and saw Selene, a hand over her mouth and looking very amused.

“What? A man can insult himself and not mean it.”

All she did was raise her eyebrows. It was then Shay came around the corner.

“Adair! Nii got into—whoa!”

Shay then managed to trip over the Hypello and take Adair out with her efforts. Adair's fell backwards and his head slammed into the deck. With a resounding gong sound too. He groaned, stars filling his vision and Shay scrambled to try and get up. Elbowing the air out of him while she was at it. Selene coughed a few times smirking hugely as she strutted forwards, all Ivalincian pride and decadence.

Adair wasn't going to let THAT go.

He stuck out his arm and she promptly tripped over it. He shouted 'Ha HA!' in his head but it got even better as Sirius was just then coming on board. She smacked into him and he yelled in surprise (and some delight). They crashed to the floor together and there were a few seconds of deathly silence before Selene burst out laughing. Sirius and Adair chuckled and Shay looked delightedly triumphant as she finally manged to get upright.

But the Wolfstar is not a large airship.

And there was a slightly inebriated Al Bhed wandering around.

Nii—coming out of the engine room—did not see Sirius and Selene at her feet and spectacularly tripped over them. She felled Shay in the process, and both then landed on Adair's diaphragm. He hissed as the air was expelled from his lungs and weakly waved his arms around in oxygen lacking irritation. Sirius and Selene laughed at Adair's misfortune and Shay and Nii giggled.

“Gesh OFF!”

Alas, it took the first offended Hypello to get his intentions across when he could not. All of them finally manged to get to their feet. Then Temzi came on board at the same time Sori rounded the corner. Temzi, looking at the group assembled there in varying stages of amusement did not see him, as his helmet was on. He stepped directly in the way of Sori's flight and Sori smacked into him. Temzi, not expecting it, reacted as a trained fighter would and leaped to the defencive.

He would have landed smoothly but for a small, blue, fish man who he stumbled over. Temzi did not make any sound, only looked astoundingly surprised as he toppled over.

Onto the Hypello.

In full armour.

Selene peered at the poor abused Hypello, only his limp limbs visible.“I think you killed him.”

“Damn.” Everyone looked at Adair. “Forgot to say timber.”


1305

I may make note from CT that the Hypello is there as part of an interior repair scheme that Adair could not afford. Someone else has paid for it.

[Crystal Tears]

Selene

The antics had ended as some of the others struggled to help the confused Guado off the Hypello who was probably dead underneath. Selene found herself in the cockpit, staring at the control board in mid thought. In her pocket she fiddled with the small piece of metal her and Sirius had discovered and briefly chatted about. The woman found herself frowning, she didn’t know its purpose and she hadn’t the time to ask Seta, as he had passed. What confused her was that her dear friend hadn’t been completely truthful; the damn Viera had been on another mission…

That was the most irritating part of the mystery, Seta wasn’t one to keep secrets from her, and so the order had to of come from her father. Which was equally as frustrating… That meant her father hadn’t been truthful either, for the love of the Gods was it that hard to inform her of some obviously important details? Selene gritted her teeth together and let out a harsh hiss of air.

“Time to leave!” Adair chimed as he entered and quickly sat down in the controller’s chair. “Don’t like sitting in one place to long, not good for my like.”

“Pirates.” Selene noted, but kept staring out the window.

“Precisely.” The pilot grinned, and flicked some switches. The engines began to hum again, and sounded particularly better than before. “Oh that’s a lovely sound indeed.”

“We need to head to Ivalice.”

“Pardon?” Adair looked at her, confused. “Do you realize what ship you’re on?”

“Archades specifically.” Selene noted how some of the colour drained from Adair’s face. “What?”

“My dear, you are not the Captain and nor would that be a guarantee for me to listening even if you were, Archades is swarming with law-figures. It would be unwise for pirates too-“

“To Archades my good man!” Sirius smiled, patting Adair on the shoulder.

“Captain, you’re doing some gymnast-like contortions around her little pinky…” He looked at Sirius like he was mad. “Archades-“

“Selene has assured us that we will not be arrested, questioned, shot-at, or targeted for annihilation.” The captain seemed particularly proud of that last point. “There might even be an award for rescuing her.”

“And you trust her?” Adair looked at Selene with suspicious eyes. “Just who the bloody hell are YOU?”

She looked at Adair with a smirk.

Adair narrowed his eyes at her. “The Expanse is a war zone! You… You… Somethin Somethin!”

Selene laughed. “Keep shields up and weapons powered down and no Ivalice ship will pay you mind.” The woman noted, turning as Shay entered, nearly tripping in the doorway.

“The Hypello is alive.” She grinned. “Kind of out of it though, and his troop left without him, poor thing. Can we keep him?”

“Exactly how many hitchhikers do you expect me to carry along?” Sirius frowned; he turned his attention back to Adair. “Now, see to it we make it to Ivalice intact my good man.”

“Of course Captain.” Adair grumbled. “But if we get blown out of the sky, I am not responsible.”

* * *

CHAPTER TW0

‘The Expanse’ as it was so affectionately (and originally) called, was pure ocean. Not a speck of land was in sight, and wouldn’t be for several hours. The sea below was calm and glistened in the bright gleam of the sun, and occasionally a whale or some other odd creature would surface for air. As of right now, things were peaceful, but they were in no-man’s land, a stretch of area that was the constant battle ground for Spiran and Ivalician troops.

So far, they had avoided any violent incursions. In fact it seemed that no one was out here.

All ships had a ‘deck’ of sorts, and the Wolfstar’s was small, but it was there. Selene stood outside, holding onto the railing as the airship zoomed forward.

She didn’t even hear the door to the deck open, and jumped in surprise as Sori fluttered over, and grabbed a hold of the railing,

“Whats with being alone?” Sori questioned, shuffling a bit as he looked at her. “Not going soft on us are you?”

“I wouldn’t dare.” She smirked in return. “I was just thinking.”

“Well its good someone on this boat does, I don’t think most of the ‘crew’ has an ounce of brains.”

“You’re so kind.”

Sori smiled gleefully and looked out at the view. “Jeez, there’s nothing out here, is there?”

“Called ‘The Expanse’ for a reason…”

The moogle shrugged a little.”I thought this was supposed to be a warzone. Where are all the ships?”

Selene stretched. “We should consider ourselves lucky…” She noted, remembering brief flashes of the Silver Zephyr crashing. “I don’t think being caught in the middle would be pleasant.”

He shuffled a bit more and laughed. “I guess I’m so used to running for my life around you guys, peace seems a little weird.”

“I kind of like the feeling of not running for my life…” The woman smiled. “You know? Relaxed, at-ease, only worrying about Adair crashing us…”

“According to him he never crashes.”

“Why don’t I believe that?” She chuckled, but frowned a little as she spotted a dark form on the horizon. “What’s that?”

Mog looked over just in time to see a flash of white, black and red skim over the ship and disappear out of their view. Either of them looked at each other and frowned, Selene headed to the door, pressing the com button to the cockpit.

“Adair..”

“Yes luv?”

“Did you see what shot over us?”

“just a little fighter midear, I assume it’s from an Ivalician ship.”

Selene thought about the colour scheme. “But it-“

“Uh… Selene!”

She stopped communication with Adair for a moment and walked towards Sori. He pointed into the distance, off to the starboard side of the Wolfstar, was a looming ship. Its colours bright red and black painted in a menacing manner. Selene gulped, noting how it was not Ivalician, and if she recalled the Spiran airship designs, it wasn’t a Spiran ship either.

“Who the hell are they?”

“They…” The gunner bit her lip and went to the com. “Adair do you have a bigger ship on your radar?”

“Yes I do dearie, isn’t it kinda small to be an Ivalician craft?”

“It’s not.” She grimaced. “It’s not Spiran either.”

“Then whos…?”

“Selene my beauty, this is Sirius.” She rolled her eyes and Sori pretended to gag. “What colour is that vessel decorated with?”

“Red and black.”

There was an abrupt silence over the com and Selene frowned, and nearly jumped as the two in the cockpit yelped. “PIRATES!”

On the cue the larger ship turned and began to move quickly towards them. Selene gulped, it was small compared to an Ivalician Ship, yes, but it was still considerably larger and probably more powerful than the Wolfstar. She could feel the wind pick up as the freighter’s speed increased, its movements becoming slightly more erratic as the enemy ship gained on them.

“Oh lord…” Selene gulped, watching as the large ship’s bay opened up, and three oddly coloured Valefor fighters dropped out, and unfolded. She paled, watching them easily close the gap between the two ships. She pressed the com button. “Adair you pride yourself on being the best pilot correct?”

“Chiefest of my pride points, dearie.”

She gulped, as she shut off the com and entered the ship, followed by the moogle who leapt onto her shoulder. In about five minutes, they were going to be in for the ride of their lives.

* * *

MISSION TIME

.: THE HUNTER :.

Belonging to a nefarious pirate Syndicate, The Hunter is a specially modified ship designed for one purpose.

Destroy The Wolfstar.

Though no one, not even most pirates, know the name of the Syndicate leader, it is a well known fact that if you cross the syndicate you end up dead. The only two currently alive after stealing a large number of valuable objects from the organization is Captain Sirius and renowned pilot Adair. The Wolfstar has outran every other Syndicate ship so far, but it seems this time around they have a new trick.

Somehow, they have obtained versatile and speedy Valefor Fighters from the Ivalician Empire. Who knows what other tricks the enemy has; right now, the crew of the Wolfstar just has to focus on staying alive.

OBJECTIVES

* Stay alive until further notice

* Valefor Fighters are hard to destroy, they won’t be an easy kill.

1424 words

[classy_cat18]

Niosa Tiera – Al Bhed Gunner

“Don’t forget where you stand.”

I sighed in remembrance of Ariosa’s words. There was no need to question my loyalty. It wasn’t like I was a traitor for staying with Selene and the others. They needed someone that knew the workings of an airship, and the Hypello wouldn’t be able to do it himself. Herself. Itself. Whatever.

Kumas sat in my room with me, staring at me and awaiting orders. “It’s a relief Nii doesn’t have to worry much about the Wolfstar anymore. Nii is never drinking alcohol again.” I rubbed my forehead to calm the dulling headache.

Now I knew why Ariosa kicked the habit.

My machina’s head lifted to the ceiling like it heard a sound. The room was still silent to me though. Without an order from me, he left the room and down the hall. “What’s going on with him?” I asked myself.

It was then that the intercom buzzed to life. “Assorted members of the beautiful Wolfstar,” Sirius said with pride and what was probably fear. “We have stumbled onto a little…problem.”

“And how little is this problem?” I muttered to no one.

“Give me that!” Sori yelled angrily. “We’re being attacked by *buzz* PIRATES!” Static interfered with a word.

“PIRATES?” I stood quickly and wobbled from the sudden dizziness.

“Little Mog, your language is more abrasive than usual,” Sirius said sternly.

“Now Nii knows what was being buzzed out.”

“Of course it’s more *buzz* abrasive, you *buzz* drunk! We’re about to be blown to the *buzz* afterlife by *buzz* pirates that are after your *buzz* hides!” Selene could be heard laughing in the background, despite the trouble we were in. There were sounds of a struggle before the Moogle kept shouting. “They’ve got Valefor Fighters! They mean business!”

My eyes widened with shock. Pirates after pirates. Forget pillaging; they were just going to blow us out of the sky.

The room rocked as something slammed against it. The Valefor Fighters were starting their assault. I pressed the button of the intercom in my room. “We have ammo in the new turrets, right?” I asked.

“We should,” Sirius answered. “They work manually, though. I’m sure a exceptional gunner such as yourself is up to the task.”

“Nii is on it!”

“So am I!” Selene said over the intercom.

I ran (okay, more like wobbled since the ship kept rocking) down one floor to a row of turrets along the port side. Surprisingly, Kumas was already there at one of them. “Did you sense them?” I asked him. He, of course, said nothing.

Selene came down with Shayna and Temzi. Shayna and Temzi got two of the starboard turrets while Selene grabbed one by me. Kumas took the one on the other side of mine. “Can Kumas use that?” Selene asked me.

I shrugged. “Nii has never needed him to. Where’s Sori?”

“In the cockpit with Adair and Sirius. Not like that fluffball is able to operate one of these anyway.”

We activated the turrets, making a circular panel in the wall slide up and reveal a bit of the scenery outside. I avoided staring at the beautiful ocean and kept an eye out for the attackers. Not even a minute passed before I saw a blur. “Found one!”


548 words. Short post. 14 Nii posts.

[Weasel Overlord]

'pologies for what is, essentially, a really weirdly-written post. Oh, and that horrific lateness. Gnerk? Next up = Temzi!

Sirius fir Sterrl de Famfræn
[Captain and General Ruler of the Wolfstar]
do do doo do do doo

It had taken surprisingly little time, really, considering how many parts the Wolfstar needed, and how little her makeshift crew knew about acquiring said parts. Putting the parts in their respective places had taken somewhat more time, but still not really the expected amount, and Sirius thought, overall, that his new crew couldn't really be better – no matter how much they may bitch and complain and argue among themselves.

Their collective dislike of his authority was a help, too. As a captain, he had to boss people around on a regular (and rather enjoyable) basis, so of course, it helped if they were slightly afraid of him.

[The fact that Sirius' only experience pirating before he bought the Wolfstar was from reading about swashbuckling pirates in books had not entered his mind. In his own personal world inside his head, all captains commanded terror and absolute loyalty from their crew with the absolute minimum of effort – it happened naturally, you could say. This could be an explanation for his blithe acceptance of people's dislike, if a source of rather large amounts of confusion and sorrow when he's too far in his cups.]

Falling over an unexpected Hypello was all in a matter of course for Sirius – all in a day's work – gain bargainous parts for airship, check; install said parts, despite not having qualified engineers, check; some sort of clownish feat of stupidity, check; gain new crewmember unexpectedly from nowhere, check; get accosted by other sky pirates within an hour of leaving the city, check.

All in a day's work.

What wasn't all in a day's work, however, was the fact that these specific pirates were members of the rather infamous Syndicate, a mafia-esque organisation that Sirius and Adair had had, well, let's just say they relieved the Syndicate of some of their more troublesome items – mostly of the jewels and valuables variety – and certainly not of the personal possessions of the Syndicate boss variety, oho no.

However, the stocking-up they had previously undertaken in the city had provided the Wolfstar with plentiful ammo, a fact that Sirius was extremely gleeful about.

The cockpit was, for all intents and purposes, the hub of activity. Sirius and Adair were, variously, panicking and swaggering and not-panicking and giving out orders and flailing around and peering out of the window and performing dashing, swashbuckling aerial manoeuvres like there was no tomorrow – which there was likely to not be, if they got on the wrong side of those Valefor Fighters, nasty little buggers that they were.

Sirius clapped Adair heartily on the back. “Lucky for us, they've never seen the like of your flying, eh Adair my man?”

“Don't mean to burst your extremely shiny bubble there, Sirius, but they have. Remember the Syndicate affair three years ago?”

“Oh yes, there is that...”

“And the time before that when you mortally wounded the brother of the Boss.”

“Ahah...”

“And then the time before that when you insulted the Boss' mother, and then shagged his sister and made off with his gold before they could do any-”

“Okay okay Adair, I think we get the picture. All haste to the legging it then, do you think? Chop chop on the escaping front?”

“Not sure they'll let us escape, you know.” Adair yanked the controls fairly to the right, ducking them out of range of the latest volley from the Valefor Fighters.

“Well, chin up and all that!” Sirius grabbed the intercom and leaned nonchalantly against a nearby wall. “Just a warning, fair crew of the Wolfstar. There may be, frankly, death on our horizons. It seems that your good captain and his pilot-” Adair yelped a swift “oi!” at this “-and his pilot,” Sirius said meaningfully, glaring at Adair, “are rather on the wrong side of the bosses of those Valefor Fighters. As it is, they, ahem, may not be averse to, uh, slaughtering us in the most imaginative way possible. Never fear though! As they say - what do you mean, we have no impulse thruster power? We just got those fixed! Well, send someone to sort it out! Oh fine, I'll go. Oh bugg-” Sirius turned off the intercom swiftly, a guilty expression stamped across his usually-unflappable face.

“Oh well! Solidarity in the face of danger, eh Adair?” He clapped Adair on the back once more, then dashed in the direction of the engine room.

–

~774 words

[Pichu Luver]

Adair Stroud

His Captain had abandoned him.

Cap-i-tano numero uno of instruction in ways not to get them the wrong side of dead (...really he was generally good at that sort of thing) had left the bridge. Adair wasn't sure if he was miffed, elated, shocked or not at all surprised. Miffed because Sirius 'my man' had took off to supposedly fix something meanwhile they were getting shot at; and if the pirates had any amount of brain power they would shoot first for the cockpit to take out the pilot. Elated because by way of implication Adair was now in command since he was the ranking 'officer' on the bridge (if the rest of the crew knew this they would be fearing for their lives, which just got Adair miffed again). Shocked because the fact that Sirius knew anything about ship mechanics was new to him, and he was overly fond of standing around saying captain-y things. Finally he was not at all surprised because well... this was Sirius and he must feel dashing off to be hero was within the realm of 'captain-y things to do.'

“INGRATE!”

By the time Adair had this all thought out in his head Sirius had been gone for about 30 seconds; so Sori understandable looked at him askance as he yelled it to an otherwise empty bridge.

“They're pirates! Of course they're ingrates you numskull!” Adair felt it mandatory to ignore him. Obviously the Moogle was incapable of keeping up with his superior intellect. “Not that it says much in favour of you...”

“I believe he was talking about me my dear Moogle. That falls under insubordination Adair.”

Adair hit the com, Sirius must have heard the echo of his shout. “Wasn't in my contract.”

Sori snorted. “Is ANYTHING in your contract?”

“Women to him first, 40% of the take.”

Adair could feel Sori blink. “That's it?”

Adair took his mind and eyes off flying for the split second to grin at Sori. “Indeed.”

“AND YOU TRUST THIS MAN!?!”

“Trust is not part of our relationship, continual flow of coin ensures his loyalty.” Adair heard clanging and hoped whatever Sirius was doing it was of the 'productive whacking' sort. Banging with no good result was highly unsatisfying. He also snuck a glance at Sori and watched as he looked to be on the verge of having a fit. Adair smirked. Egging this Moogle on was so much fun!

A blast rocked the ship and Adair remembered he should be terrified, not amused.

“Could you try flying the ship Adair instead of gossiping!”

Adair frowned at his new intercom. Once again he appeared to have hit the speak all instead of just the engine room. Instead of responding he did something complicated that resulted in the ship turning around, dropping to sea level and taking off 60 degrees off from their original direction.

“Happy princess?”

Adair smiled crookedly as her slightly shaky voice responded, “Maybe for the next 60 seconds.”

“Nii's stomach is not.” another voice said, with a tinge of a groan.

“Well without impulse engines luv, speed is not my forte.”

“And dastardly flying is?” Came Sirius, his voice sounding suspiciously like a groan of pain, “I was under the impression I had hired a pilot Adair. Not a mutineer.”

“Hurt yourself Cap'n?”

“I'm sure Selene could fix the result of your deplorable lack of warning.”

Adair chuckled, Shay laughed, Sori and (Adair assumed) Nii snorted, Selene responded “I am NOT kissing it better.”

“I fail to see the healing properties conveyed by Selene kissing your injuries.” Came Temzi's voice, as ever, confused.

630/18

[Crystal Tears]

Selene Raminas

Selene rolled her eyes at the cluelessness of Temzi and smirked, watching as the turret she was controlling popped up a holographic image of a fighter, and then two more, easily catching up to the sluggish Wolfstar. Her seat hung over a half-sphere glass dome; she could see the water below her, spraying upwards due to the craft being so close.

“Ladies, I request that you commence firing once again, that nasty ship back there just released two more fighter-things.”

She smirked, took aim, and fired. Shayna followed suit closely afterwards, a barrage of bright yellow blasts from the turrets flew towards the Valefors who began to weave and duck.

There was a sharp clang over the com and the gunner felt the need to question it.

“Sirius?”

“No need to worry love! I just… Toppled over due to Adair’s piloting skills.”

“Don’t you go insulting my highly-tuned abilities sir, they’re keeping you alive!”

“… That I have begun to question.”

Selene frowned. “I’m not worried about you; I’m worried about the ship.”

“Ha ha, she thinks the damn ship is worth more than you!” Sori chimed.

“I’ll have you know that in Dalmasca I’m worth-“

Warning signals went off like crazy and the poor ship was forced to go sharply upwards, Selene was pressed back into her chair as the gravity control struggled to keep up with Adair’s sharp twists and bobs. The blast that had come from The Hunter slammed into the water and the result wave sloshed up against the wavering Wolfstar.

“For the love of the Gods Adair! If you’re driving results in my nose being broken I’ll-“

“I’ll fix it sir, don’t worry. I’m trained in these sorts of things.” Temzi spoke up, but as Adair did another dodge all everyone heard was a sharp clang and a Guado curse.

“I’m sure he’ll be able to make you feel better Sirius…” Selene snickered. “At least if he falls on you, you’ll be in a comatose state.”

“Then you won’t know that you’re blackened and bruised from the anchor- I mean good knight from falling on you!”

“Shay it worries me as to why you sound so bloody happy when you say that…” There was a brief pause in their bickering until Sirius spoke up again. “Should you all be focusing on something instead of my injuries? The only one I want to be focused on me is my dear Selene.”

She frowned. “Adair you were thinking of mutiny?”

The woman heard the others, including Adair snicker and could picture the dissatisfied expression on Sirius’s face. That alone was enough to make her happy, but the good feeling was short lived when the entire ship rocked from a direct hit. Then of course there was another sudden bang and Selene was flung forward so hard that her head cracked against the windshield.

The world around her darkened, and Selene grimaced.

‘I’m gonna have a headache when I wake up…’

* * *

“Is everyone alive?” The voice filtered into her ears and Selene attempted to roll over. The last thing she wanted to hear in the morning was Adair’s voice, she wanted to sleep in, there was nothing important happening today, so why…

“Adair did you miss the part in piloting school where you’re supposed to dodge the cannon fire?”

“Sori get off the all-com, I need to assess the damage…”

“I thought you couldn’t read Ivalician?”

“Not well, but I assume if something is blinking red that means danger…”

Then she remembered. Slowly she sat up, her head pounding. The truth was she was not at home, she was in a ship, and this was not a bed, it was a very uncomfortable seat with straps holding her in place. Somehow they had failed her recently, as she slowly reached up and touched her forehead, to find semi-dried blood on her hand.

“Bastard…”

“Good to know you’ll alive Selene, you weren’t damaged were you?”

“Sirius, I am not some container in your cargo bay, I’m not damaged.”

“Oh well-“

“I’m damn well bleeding.”

“Are you darling? I could come and-“

Selene flicked off the com receiving from that particular room and blinked, she gazed out the glass dome to see a fish swim by her.

“Shay…” She called to the other turret.

“Yeah?”

Selene pointed to the fish, wide-eyed. “Fish!”

“I know, what does your look like?”

Selene blinked. “It’s… ugly…” Then she frowned and flicked the com to Adair. “Adair….”

“Everything’s peachy Selene! No need to fret!”

“But we’re-“

“Avoiding the attacks, with great success and- OH MY GOD ITS HUGE!”

Selene, Shay and Nii snickered, snorted and temporarily forgot they were in danger of drowning.

“Just realize you are a man Adair?” Selene smirked. “Well… Of the male gender anyways…”

“Not sure about the man thing…” Nii remarked, Shay giggled.

“Perhaps we should stay focused at the- TEETH OH MY YEVON THE TEETH!”

There was a brief silence.

“Adair you’re doing a mighty keen job at avoiding the blasts…”

“All in a day’s work captain! Perhaps a raise is in order...?” She could hear a distinct click of switching off a certain com channel. “Or… Um… Life insurance… Against giant… Aquatic… neighbours…”

Selene still had Sirius switched off the com, and she was glad. Passing by her window was something else; it was large, very large... With an eye the size of the window….

“Oh my God…” She muttered.

“Selene! No need to panic!”

“Adair…”

“Seriously no need to panic…” He sounded as if he was trying to convince himself. “Please don’t panic…”

For whatever reason, Shay had decided to join Selene in her little turret room.

“WOW! What big eyes you have!”

“Pardon?” Came Sirius’s voice, and both of the women looked down to see the ninja had switched on Sirius’s channel, a sharp glare from Selene made Shay fall quiet.

“She was admiring my eyes Captain…” The gunner lied. “I’m a bit concussed.” With that she flicked off the channel. ‘I have to be, to not be panicking…’

“Again?” Came Sori.

“Shut up Furball.”

“Hey!”

“How can you get angry when she’s speaking the truth? Your covered in fur… and… Ball shaped… AHHHHHHHH! MY ASS IS ON FIRE! MY ASS IS ON FIRE!”

“I don’t mean to interrupt the good pilot…” Temzi began. “But there appears to be a leak in the cargo bay..”

There was a long pause; it was almost eerie in its nature, until the faithful Captain came on.

“… What LEAK…?”

“Captain! I had a large… um… bladder movement… um… yes…

... Quite obscene really…

Grotesque….

Fuck...”

* * 1109 / 22 * *

[Weasel Overlord]

UNEXPECTED POSTS FTMFW! *does a dance*

Sirius fir Sterrl de Famfræn
[Captain and General Ruler of the Wolfstar]
come let me make up for the things you lack

The rather confused happenings coming from his Bridge were not filling Sirius with happiness and rainbows. In fact, they were doing pretty much the opposite - Sirius was, to put it bluntly, shitting bricks. And the worst thing was, he told Temzi at the top of his voice, that he could see the bloody thing! Whatever it was terrorising his precious ship was completely invisible to him, not being able to see through wooden walls and all, and Sirius wasn’t best pleased. To say the least. He lobbed the com at Temzi, who fumbled it like he’d never had to catch something in his life. The on-switch switched on, and the entire crew became subject to a level of profanity not previously heard. Ears blistered and walls buckled, wood splintered and feet pounded, and Sirius burst through the poor doors to the bridge like they’d never been burst through before.

His eye met the eye of one great big hulking mofo of a beast, some beast that looked like a mixture between a Behemoth King and some sort of dread whale - hornéd and scaled and everything-else-éd like in the stories Sirius used to read so often as a child. It was floating at the side of the ship as if it was swimming through the air itself, almost placidly blinking back at Sirius except for the fact that it was a giant freaking whale beastie and it had some sort of crazy tentacle snaking round the ship and how the hell does a whale even have a tentacle to snake anyway even if it does look like that bloody Behemoth King and that was no fun I’ll say.

“Sirius.”

“What Adair? Can’t you see I’m busy panicking here?”

“Yes Captain, but you’re panicking out loud. Not so good for the morale, you know.”

“Why is no-one firing on this thing?!” Sirius screamed, tugging at a clump of his hair. “Do I employ a turret-man or not?!”

“Actually, no, you don’t,” came the dulcet, calming tones of Selene. “And you’ve left the com on again.”

Sirius looked at the treacherous com in his hands like he’d been scalded. And then the memory slapped him in the face that Temzi had indeed fumbled the com, but then he’d tossed it right back and Sirius had caught it without even realizing. Oops.

“Sorry about that crew! I’m just spreading mass panic again, eh?”

Sirius could almost hear the disapproving faces that were obviously being made over on the other end of the com. And then he could definitely hear the sound of those good old turrety turrets being manned like, well okay, not like men, cos there was only his fine self and Adair on board who could really be classed as men, but they were being manned, anyway, and that was what counted at the end of the bloody day. As long as that great blasted whale was getting some ammo up the wazoo, that’s all that counte-HEY, DON’T YOU WASTE MY AMMO. WHAT ARE YOU, BLIND?! IT’S THE SIZE OF A MANSION, DO I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING MYSELF AROUND HERE?”

Sirius flung his arms up dramatically, accidentally letting go of the com as he did, which flew up and hit the rafters before joyfully plummeting from the sky to land him a resounding clout on the head. His ears rang with the sound of Adair’s raucous laughter.

“The entire place’s gone mad,” he moaned, clutching the spanking new bump on his head ruefully. “Mad as an entire bleeding party of hatters.” He wove his way unsteadily to the turret room and flung open the door in an even more dramatic way. He liked to make entrances, Sirius did, and it was a habit that was proving hard to kick.

The problem with grand, dramatic entrances was that everyone turned around just in time to see the esteemed Captain de Famfræn crumple to the ground as the door sprang back from the beleaguered wall and hit him soundly on the nose.

---

~671

[Pichu Luver]

Adair Stroud

The Wolfstar screamed at him with sirens and warnings and all manner of flashing lights. Clearly she did not like taking a direct hit and was making her displeasure known to the good pilot.

“Adair! Are you a pilot or piglett?”

Adair frowned most grievously. “The only squealing coming from my quarters was by a well paid -wo-”

Sirius cut him of. Probably felt it was the Captain-y thing to do, “DO SOMETHING! I pay you to be a pilot so be one!”

Offended at his Captain's lack of faith and thanks for keeping them alive thus far Adair scowled at the com. The window was placed only slightly ahead of the com buttons and thus naturally Adair also looked at the sea as he contemplated possible evil befalling the man offending his chiefest pride point.

The water exploded as a shot from one of the mosquitoes (the fighters, take one down two more appear) missed.

Adair smiled.

Airship.

“Of course Captain.”

Adair did a wing over, bashing one of the fighters as he did so. The crunch satisfied him and he took the Wolfstar into a steep dive. Sori looked at him.

“Adair?” some concern in his voice.

Adair felt it prudent to turn off the com to Sirius. No need for him to know. He would be avoiding the ship and fighters quite marvelously this way. He gave Sori a grim smile.

“Were going in.”

“In where?” asked Shay.

“Surely not?” said Temzi.

Nii pronounced some gibberish most vigorously.

Seconds from impact Adair turned the guns he had control of and fired into the water. The Wolfstar crashed into the up swell of water and dove into the ocean. The ship groaned and creaked as the pressure of the water made itself known, and Adair reduced his speed to add more power to the shields. He dove deeper until he found a nice place between two swells of the ocean bottom and sat the ship down. The ship wasn't so deep that those who looked up could not see the fighters buzzing around on the surface, but their guns could not reach.

Adair smiled and felt satisfied with his genius.

He of course ignored the curses and claims of insanity the rest of the crew were sending his way. Selene was conspicuously silent.

Sarcastically he asked, “Is everyone alive?”

Adair continued to feel optimistically happy (no matter what the comments and spells sent his way) until well... the three headed thingy from the deep became curious of the Wolfstar. Only then did he start to doubt himself.

Oh and Temzi was an irritating idiot.

The ensuing freak out provided by the err...well... Adair supposed he should call him grand Captain but he just couldn't bring himself to do it, did not help any. No matter really, he quickly stomped out again, to shown how a real man got things done. Adair hoped he had fixed the speed problem in the engine.

A squeal of pain and a thud let it be known to all that Sirius' plan of manliness had failed.

“Is he unconscious?”

“Yes.”

“Right then,” Adair looked up and saw a massive black shape. The mother ship was hovering above their position. It probably could see the monster. “Shall we g-”

A huge explosion rocked the ship and the creature roared in pain and anger. Adair, not pausing an instant to exclaim the idiocy of the other pirates (the crew was preforming this duty marvelously), rocked upwards and over the beast. One of the heads snapped at him as he went by but thankfully only got paint.

Adair burst up out of the water, quickly followed by three heads and more tentacles then he could rightly count. Panic and dasterly feats of piloting prevented his mind from thinking clearly. So when he got a certain professional call he reacted with . . . urgency.

“Shipping vessel Wolfstar, state your reason for entering restricted airspace.”

“SAVE US! THE BASTERDS AND MONSTER ARE TRYING TO KILL US!”

Silence was his answer, and the Wolfstar informing him that weapons were locked on.

Perhaps... undo urgency.


700/19

[Crystal Tears]

Selene

The ship rocketed forward, the seatbelts holding the woman in place thankfully worked this time. Her head did not smash off the glass and she was allowed to see the stream of bubbles they were leaving. She cringed however, as one of those giant heads easily gained on the ship. Selene leaned back in a sort of attempt to get away from the teeth that were ever getting closer and she didn’t know where Shay went, all she heard was the pitter patter of feet moving away.

It missed as the airship suddenly dived, swerving over another head before finally returning the shields to normal and blasting out of the ocean like a bat out of hell. Immediately the Wolfstar was under the gun from the other, much more maneuverable ships. To which Selene found herself once again returning fire, the turret blaringly loud compared to when it was muffled under water.

Then of course, the monstrous heads returned with a vengeance, one nearly getting them while another snapped up one of the fighters. The next obstacles were tentacles, many of them, flinging around trying to swat the poor airship right out of the sky.

Selene gritted her teeth as one of the sharp turns sent the gravity matrix spinning, trying to right everyone before Adair decided to dive downwards, and skimming the water’s surface.

“SAVE US! THE BASTERDS AND MONSTER ARE TRYING TO KILL US!”

Selene blinked, that particularly exclamation couldn’t have been to the crew.

She flicked the com before continuing to fire on… Whatever happened to be trying to kill them at the time. “Pardon?”

“Oh Selene! Wonderful lady of many esteemed qualities!” He sounded distinctly like he was trying to suck up in a life-threatening situation. “Could you please come up here and talk to your trigger-happy friends? Or this flight is going to be short.”

She got out, and was flung down the hallway by a dramatic turn that made her slam into the corner of the corridor. Selene bit back a curse and moved, stumbling through the reeling gravity and Adair’s piloting.

She was just entering the cockpit when she tripped and fell. Instead of the hard ground greeting her however, it was the Captain. He was unconscious, with a small trickle of blood leaking from his nose. Selene blinked, happy that he was out cold, she had landed in a rather comprising position over him. Sori however, seemed amused despite the situation.

She glared. “Shut up fuzzface.. How did-“

“He knocked himself out.” Sori said in a sort of happy tune.

“Come come Selene, we need you to save our hides!” Adair called.

She raised an eyebrow and moved forward, nearly tripping over the Captain again as they dived. She frowned, looking at the controls and looked at the read flashing board. Clicking a button a small representation of the ship appeared.

“The Shiva?” She murmured, surprised. She snatched the com. “Shiva this is Judge Luna, you will cease your lock-on the Wolfstar and fire on the targets behind us.” Selene sounded calm and collected, as if being shot at by another airship was normal.

“Judge Luna is dead.” The voice made her frown. “She died at Nalbina Fortress.”

Selene switched of the com for a moment as she typed on the rather confusing holo-keyboard with an overwhelming number of symbols.

“Selene…” Sori sounded nervous. “They’re charging weapons.”

She pressed the final button.

“… By the will of Venat…”

“Shiva you will fire on the targets behind us.” The gunner gritted her teeth. “Now.”

In a very squeaky voice Adair muttered, “Killed by the ice bitch….”

Adair nearly closed his eyes as the Shiva fired, the blast zooming by the Wolfstar and exploding on contact with one of the tentacles, blowing it clean off. More large cannon fire battered everything behind them, and Adair watched the diagram of The Hunter fall to pieces as one of the Shiva’s flare blew through it and its shields like nothing.

As Sirius just began to recover, Adair looked over at the maiden, pointing accusingly, “I knew you were high-faultin’!”

“Wolfstar we will escort you to Archadia Port, continue on your current trajectory.. Judge Luna, welcome home.”

“Urgh…” The Captain groaned, slowly sitting up.

“Well good morning sunshine.” Sori smirked, crossing his little arms. “Have a nice nap?”

“W-What happened?” He blinked, looking at the people in front of him. “What Judge?”

Adair looked at Selene still pointing. “She’s a Judge Sirius, an important one with lots of spiffy significant symbols.”

“What makes you think that?”

The pilot paled a little at the thought. “I saw you type them! And then, and then we weren’t corpse-a-fied! And now a Ivalician Warship is escorting us to Archadia’s Port! Don’t get THAT kind of escort everyday… well… um… of the friendly kind anyway….”

“Oh well…” Sirius blinked. “PARDON?”

Selene moved past both of them, and into the hallway, nearly bumping into Temzi. She stopped and looked at him with a kind smile.

“Could you do me a favour Temzi?”

“Of course madam.” He seemed happy she was speaking to him with a nice tone. “What is it?”

“Could you guard my bedroom door for me?” She looked back at the cockpit and put on her best ‘helpless damsel’ expression (which never failed, not that she could remember), complete with watery eyes. “Sirius might try to get in; he’s not the most trustworthy of men…”

He nodded, straightening up and seeming proud. “I understand miss, he won’t get by me. Not without your order.”

Selene patted Temzi on the chest and motioned for him to follow. As she slipped back into ‘her’ (actually Sirius’s) room, she heard the good Dragoon move in front of the door, weapon in hand. She smirked, flopping down on the bed as her smirk changed into a small, happy smile.

“Finally home…”

* * 924 / 26 * *

[classy_cat18]

Niosa Tiera – Al Bhed Gunner

“The shooting stopped?” I walked away from my turret and found Kumas already heading for the stairs. “We’re already out of trouble?”

“What happened?” Shay asked me as she walked out as well. “The monster seems to be dead, and there’s no sign of the ship that was attacking us.”

“Nii isn’t sure. Those idiot pilots must’ve done something right.”

“No, it had to have been that other airship. But we’re still not fried.”

I shrugged and peered into the turret that Selene was manning a few minutes ago. “Where’s our female leader?”

“She must’ve left the second the fighting stopped.”

Kumas stopped and turned to me. “The targets have been destroyed,” he informed us. “Wolfstar is currently en route to Archadia Port.”

“How does that thing know that?” Shayna asked in disbelief. “Is it me or is that machina getting smarter the longer he hangs around us?”

I scratched my head. “It is true that he’s been able to follow more complex orders but…all this knowledge? Kumas!” The machina’s head snapped to me. “Identify Shayna.”

Without hesitation, the golem pointed to the ninja. I smirked. “He’s learning,” I said. “And without any extra programming.”

Shay balked at him and walked away from us. Before I could say a word, Kumas started to follow her. “Don’t follow me!” she shouted back at him.

Kumas’ markings glowed brighter at Shay’s outburst, almost like he was angry. He walked past us and into my quarters. “Now you’ve made him upset,” I commented. Shay yelled out and went into another room.

I sighed and looked around my room until I found what I was looking for in my pack. Before pulling it, I crossed the room to check on Kumas. “Are you okay?” I asked him, not expecting a response.

“All systems are functioning at 100%,” he replied.

I groaned. “Not exactly what Nii was asking but okay.” I grabbed the certain thing out of my pack and ran to the cockpit.

Sirius and Adair were certainly still wound up from the attack. Sirius was again cooing and cuddling the floor, almost weeping about the “pain his darling was put through”. I watched him for a couple of awkward minutes before clearing my throat. “Well, it’s not as bad as its last accident!” I said brightly.

Sirius laughed heartily and sprang from the floor. “Of course! Now you feel foolish for questioning your beloved captain and pilot!”

“You’re right. Nii was foolish.”

The two of them gawked in disbelief. “My dear, did you suffer some sort of trauma?” Adair asked me shakily.

“No, Nii is sure that you’re crazy maneuvers helped us in a way. But what got that other ship off of us? It wasn’t any of us.”

“That would be our Lady Selene,” Sirius replied. “Also known as Judge Luna.”

“WHAT? Judge as in… judge?” They both nodded. “Just when Nii thought she was high enough.”

“And we are her lowly peons.”

I giggled and handed them what I got from my room: a new bottle of rum. “To celebrate our… not dying!”

Sirius opened the bottle and sniffed it suspiciously. “Now, it won’t do to have us poisoned, darling.”

“What are you talking about? It’s top shelf!”

“Which makes me more suspicious that there’s something extra in it.”

“Nii’s brother gave it to her.”

“Not helping.” He held the bottle to me. “You try it.”

“But Nii is trying to stay off the stuff.” I shrugged and took a fast swig anyway. “You guys have trust issues.”

“Of course not. We’re pirates, and you’ve threatened us with a gun on more than one occasion.”

“Not both of you. Just Adair.”

615 words. 15 Nii posts.

Sori – Moogle Time Mage

While everyone else was on the upper decks, I decided to do Nii a favor and checked the condition of the engine room. I wasn’t a mechanic or anything, but I knew a lack of sparking was a good thing. Everything looks okay here. At least we won’t crash on our way to Archadia.

Selene wasn’t anywhere to be seen, but I did see Temzi standing in front of a door on my way to the cockpit. He tightened his hold on his spear when I flew up to inspect the door. “What’s with the guard?” I inquired.

“Lady Selene asked me to keep guard while she rested,” he replied stiffly.

I noticed that the door was a little more attractive than the ones that led to the other quarters. Isn’t this the captain’s quarters? Did Selene kick Sirius out of his own room?

“That’s hilarious!” I laughed out loud. “That woman is awesome!” I rolled around in midair, laughing so hard that I was almost unable to breathe.

“Hm? What do you find so amusing, little one?” the Dragoon asked as I struggled to breathe once the laughing died down.

“Oh… nothing. Just laughing out of the relief of our survival.” I flew to his shoulder and sat on it. “How about I help you with the guard?”

“Further help is not needed, but I thank you for the offer.”

“Oh no, I insist! I have a certain touch that’ll be more effective than your spear. Nothing says ‘go away’ than a Fire spell to the backside!” I snickered at the thought of Adair’s last burning.

“That seems a little rash.”

“I can control my powers quite well, thank you.”

We sat in silence, surprisingly not having to worry with neither the captain nor the pilot. Finally, I spoke up again. “So, we’re going to Archades. Selene lives there, right?”

Temzi nodded. “I suppose so.”

“Heh. I have family there too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I have a sister that moved there a couple of years ago. Her name’s Kiri. She wanted to be a Tinker and work on Ivalician machina. I guess she liked having stuff blow up in her face.” I scratched the back of one of my ears. “She was having so much trouble at one time that she sent me a letter saying to help her find a good White Mage to assist her.”

“Did she find one?”

“I don’t know. I got the letter right before I left for the unnamed continent. Oh man, that means I’ll have to explain what happened to Batilis. She always asked about him.”

Our conversation ended when we heard uneven steps down the hall. Sirius was returning to his room, wobbling while obviously under the influence of alcohol. “Step aside gents, I have winks to catch,” he declared boldly. Temzi stayed planted where he was. I worked hard to keep my laughter back. “Do you mind taking a gentle step to the side?”

“I have been instructed to stand guard for Lady Selene,” Temzi informed him.

He looked slightly surprised for a moment but then returned to his usual calm. “And who issued this order?”

“Lady Selene of course,” I said with a smirk. “So keep walking!”

“Guarding the young lady would be more effective if there was someone watching her from the inside,” he tried to convince us.

I glanced at Temzi. “See, this is where I come in.” I pointed a finger at Sirius and shot a small Fire spell. The captain instantly yelped and started rolling around the floor.

Temzi sighed in pity at this. “I’m sure that wasn’t necessary.”

I smirked and shrugged. “Meh, some people need a more forceful means of persuasion. Especially persistent men like him.”

626 words. 14 Sori posts

[Weasel Overlord]

Sirius fir Sterrl de Famfræn
[Captain and General Ruler of the Wolfstar]
you had such promise

Having the arse end of your fine self set on fire by puny sparks was not how Sirius intended to end the evening. He glowered up at the exasperating pair from the floor, where he managed to put out his valuable leather pants with style and panache and okay, possibly some awesomeness.

Making a staggering stance upright, Sirius glared and made vociferous eye contact with that blasted walking statue Temzi. The Moogle made as if to spark up another fire, but Sirius glared at him too, only this time the glaring also involved a sly rub of the pom-pom which may, in hindsight, have been what made Sori crank his small fire spell up to a rather large, comet-like structure which bopped Sirius on the head.

“People’re always boffing me on the head,” Sirius slurred at the two Temzis and the two Soris. “Evil MoogleGuado lemme though. W’nna go shleepies…” he trailed off, blinked twice and shook his head which, shockingly, seemed to do the trick. Or at least, it made the four annoying buggers in front of him coalesce into two annoying buggers who were still stood between him and his bed. And, apparently, the Lady-Judge Magister Selene, which made the defeat even less bearable.

“Let me through, you horrible people!” Sirius found himself near inarticulate with rage, and he stuttered and stammered for a few minutes before finally, inevitably, stooping to violence of the kicking-the-large-obstructions-in-the-shins kind. He hadn’t, however, banked on Temzi and his armour. Oh dear.

At some point during the night, he had misplaced his boots in a misguided drinking competition, filled with the heady wonder at still being alive. Bootslessness factored into the kicking-large-obstructions-in-the-shins equation, all in all, the equation equaled OUCH. A very large, very pronounced OUCH. Coupled with yet more profanities, at which Temzi closed his innocent ears and Sori just laughed uproariously.

“Stupid laughing Moogle bastard b*****ing f*****ing t***ds,” Sirius hissed between hops. “My g*@***tr***er***ing toe!” He ground his teeth, hopped up and down and held his toe as hard as he could. “My precious r***ing toe’s probably gonna fall off now, you great big f**@$$**s, I need that toe! For you know… kicking bloody horrible people like you in the face! And you know… running away and stuff…. ADAIR!!” he bellowed. “ADAIR! I NEED YOU!” He threw one last glower, with all his terrifying glowery might, at the bloody horrible pair before running back to Adair, bare feet slapping on the bare wooden decks of the Wolfstar, with an occasional hop and grimace mixed in.

His anger rang through the halls of the Wolfstar, and, luckily for any poor passers-by, Sirius couldn’t hear the laughter and the sniggers of his evil tormentors.

In the thorough absence of a sympathetic ear, Sirius decided that the only thing to sooth his wounded soul and his even more wounded toe was the rum room. Aah, blessed rum room. How Sirius was glad that no-one knew of his super special, extremely secret room of wonders and rum.

He slumped down, back against one of the huge oak barrels and pulled a pear-shaped bottle of the good stuff towards him.

---

540~ words. ish.

[ChobiChibi]

Shayna

Finally, after however many days of travelling they had done, the girl came to a conclusion. A conclusion that shouldn’t have taken her long to reach at all, but she had been distracted by battleships, sea monsters and a rather needy Hypello, who was still feeling sore from when the entire crew had fallen on top of him a few days before.

I hate Airships... She mused. Too many clouds, too little space, not enough land or sea...

Shayna stood on the very front of the deck, watching them grow ever closer to Ivalice, a sight that made her stomach churn. She thought it wouldn’t be so bad, going back, but out of the corners of her eyes, the battleships lurked. She shuddered; escaping from their guards was hard enough the first time, it wasn’t an experience she wished to have again.

Leaning against the railings, the wind blew through her hair and occasionally caught a little of the sea’s spray. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the necklace she had refused to sell earlier, wrapping the chain between her fingers and letting the locket on the end dangle in front of her eyes. “The longer I keep you, the harder it is going to be to give you back.” She told it, squinting each time it caught the sun.

“Givesh me backsh?” The Hypello asked, making her jump. She had forgotten for a brief moment that she had taken it out for some fresh air. “I’m notsh yoursh!”

She rolled her eyes as she turned to look at her blue friend. “I nursed you back to health, Fredric, you owe me one.”

“My namsh not Fredricsh!” The Hypello’s voice squeaked a little as it grew frustrated.

“It will be until you tell me otherwise.” She replied, smiling sweetly.

“I willsh not trust a thiesh withs my namsh!”

“In case I steal it from you?” She chuckled. “Like I could get away with impersonating a Hypello...”

“Yoush woulsh try!” He protested, jabbing her in the side with his long, thin, blue finger.

As she squirmed, her hand opened a little, loosing grip on the chain of the locket. With lightning quick reflexes, she grabbed it with her other hand. She glared at Fredric. “If that had fallen in the sea, I would have made you go get it.”

She unravelled the chain, undoing the clasp and put it around her neck. Doing it up, she let go, the locket hanging beneath her top as the chain was so long. To keep it safe... She convinced herself.

“Butsh, I can’t swimsh...”

“Then you’d have to learn, pretty damn quick...”

“HEY, GINGER GIRL!”

Shayna blinked, glancing around. It was not a voice she recognised and there was no one else outside as far as she was aware. It was a male voice; Adair was too busy piloting (she hoped, at least), Temzi was being a big bad bodyguard, Sirius was drowning his sorrows after being rejected yet again, Sori was trying to play big bad bodyguard but failing miserably since he was a midget and Fredric couldn’t complete a sentence without making some kind of unnecessary hissing noise. Now, unless Adair’s Moogle friend had come out to play or one of the other girls’ voices suddenly got a lot deeper, there was nobody aboard that could have said it...

“UP HERE, MORON!”

Shay gazed up to the ship flying alongside them and a guard stared back. “What?!” She called back, wondering if the man could hear her over the engines of both ships.

“IS THAT BLUE THING YOUR BOYFRIEND?” He jeered. She heard more laughter. There were more of them up there?! Didn’t they have anything better to do than make fun of...

... A Spiran...

She huffed, grabbing hold of Fredric’s hand and pulling him along. “Come on, we’re going home...”

“Homesh?” He asked as they went inside. He cringed as she slammed the door behind her. “Hows dosh one supposh thats willsh happen?”

She did not reply, much to the frustration of the Hypello. He flailed as she dragged him up the stairs towards the cockpit, where she found Adair alone for once.

“Oh, fair lady-”

“Adair, lets go home.” She interrupted, her arms folded.

“Sweet Ninja, we can’t turn around now.” Adair began, sighing. “We are not far from Archadia and Lady Selene-”

“Lets kidnap her.” Shay shrugged, plonking down into the empty Captain’s chair. It seemed quite simple to her. “I’m sure Sirius would approve.”

“Approve or not, he would not want to see his precious ship torn to pieces.” Adair stretched as he sat up in his chair. “What is there to worry about, anyway?”

“Arrest, trial and execution spring to mind.” She smirked at him.

He gulped. “I trust Lady Selene when she says we will have her protection...”

“And when that runs out? What do we do then? Run and hope for the best?”

Adair chuckled a little, much to her annoyance. “Always seemed to work for me.”

“Well, the sooner we get out of here the better.” Shay concluded, standing up and heading towards the window. She pointed up at the other ship, where the group of guards were still standing on its deck. “Those guys are idiots. Stupid, airheaded Ivalician guard people... I should use them for target practise...”

“It might make you feel better in the short term, but will bring you closer to arrest, dear Ninja.” He reasoned, causing her to sigh and flop back down into Sirius’ chair.

“If only Kumas had laser beam eyes...”

928 Words, Post number 10 (I think >_>)

[Samchu]

Name: Lyra Xanthrope
Age: 17
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Origin: Spira
Appearance: Lyra stands at 5’8 and has an athletic build that shows off muscle whilst hiding how much strength they actually possess. She has auburn hair that reaches a few inches past her shoulders and which she keeps tied in a braid at all times. Her eyes are a striking imperial blue. She wears the armour of an Ivalician soldier but were she to take it off she would be in a sleeveless tan shirt (baggy) and a loose, paled pants (for comfort and to keep her cool in that uncomfortable uniform.
Personality: Lyra has a reputation of being an ‘ice maiden’; she is cold, composed and direct with her speeches. She speaks as she wishes to those of an acceptable rank (regardless of the outcome) and respects the authority of her superiors. She is unreadable in combat and dispatches her enemies with a terrifying disregard for their existence. Her loyalty and skill makes her renowned amongst her superiors but her distance and apparent inability to form relationships makes her unpopular amongst her fellow soldiers.
Weapon Style: Ivalice (see history)
Weapon Type: 2nd generation gunblade
Weapon: At first glance Lyra’s weapon appears to be a light, one-handed blade with a thicker-than-usual blue hilt and a slight curve. But, at the touch of the button (concealed somewhere on the handle) the blade shifts into a single-barrelled semi-automatic hand gun. The gun is the same shade of silver as the sword’s blade, with blue streaks that match the colour of the blade’s hilt. Lyra is proficient at using the weapon in both forms. However, the transformation process takes 2.5 seconds, leaving Lyra essentially weapon-less for that period of time (thus she’s very careful about when she decides to use it).
History: Lyra was actually born into the Xanthrope family and is in fact the slightly younger sister of Shayna. Unlike the rest of her family, Lyra dreamed of a more law-abiding career and, when she turned 12, applied to join the Spiran military. They refused to take her seriously but Lyra wouldn’t take no for an answer. Eventually she got them to agree, if she were to apprehend a certain wanted criminal, they would allow her to join. The criminal in question was her father. Though it pained her to betray her family, she knew his punishment would not be fatal and arranged both his capture and her entry into the military. From that day on she was disowned from her family.
For two years she trained, exceeding the expectations of her age. Then, on the eve of her seventeenth birthday, everything changed. The story fed to her fellow soldiers (and the story which of course filtered into Spiran society and the ears of her family) was that she had betrayed secrets to the Ivalicians and joined them. In truth, she had been asked to spy on the Ivalician military. She was given documents that were deemed ‘unimportant enough to lose’ and faked her ‘escape’ from Spira (with tracking soldiers sent to ‘recapture her’). She begged her way to Solidor and presented him with the documents and the lie she had been trained to give; that she wished to be aligned with the more powerful Empire. She was imprisoned until confirmation of the information she brought and was allowed into the military under heavy watch. She faced many tests designed to prove her ‘loyalty’ including the slaughter of many of her own brethren. During this time she distanced herself both from her emotions and her true alliances. It was not long before she was accepted unconditionally into the Ivalician army and now holds a comfortable rank within it.
Other: *Slices other into pieces and blasts the pieces into dust, watching as they disappear on the breeze *




Lyra
~~~~
It had taken years but finally I was on the cusp of this war. I had done everything they’d asked; equipment maintenance, recruit training, cooking, cleaning, and more recently, pest control of the city streets of Archadia and now at last I had earned my reward. I would finally get a taste of real battle.

I had been stationed upon the Shiva, a magnificent battleship by rights and the type any soldier would willingly kill to work on (and I had drawn my fair share of blood). We were on orders to patrol an area of the expanse closer to Ivalice than I would have liked. We saw little action and thus are days were spent mainly on the tasks of maintaining and running the mighty vessel. It was my first experience of working on an airship and after six weeks on the open, endless sea, I had worked my way from cook to a comfortable seat in the cockpit where I could admire the beauty of the nothingness we guarded. To be more precise, it was my job to scan for…well whatever really, allies, enemies, but aside from the odd flock of birds I hadn’t spotted anything of interest.
Until, that is, the day that I first laid eyes on the Wolfstar.

When I saw it on the radar I almost couldn’t believe it but I was soon overcome by the curse of a rigorous training regime and pulled up the ship’s schematics.

Name: Wolfstar
Type: Shipping
Country of Origin: Ivalice
Registered To: N/A
NO OTHER INFORMATION AVAILABLE

I frowned at the text on the screen beside me but an incomplete aircraft file was the least of my worries at that point – though if there were any problems from this airship it could very well be the first. My fingers shot across the keypad in front of me and a green circle surrounded a miniature rotating model of the Wolfstar, indicating that we had established communication.

“Shipping vessel Wolfstar, state your reason for entering restricted airspace.” I pressed a symbol on the keyboard, informing those who needed to know of the potential hostile. I could hear them preparing to lock on to the target.

“SAVE US! THE BASTERDS AND MONSTER ARE TRYING TO KILL US!”

I paused communications to boost the radar. It showed small fighter vessels converging on the larger shipping vessel. Just who in the Gods’ names is attacking them? I glared at the radar but there was nothing. Whatever was attacking them was just out of our range.

“Captain Xanthrope, do we attack?”

“Hold fire.” Just a few more moments…I want to see…

“Shiva this is Judge Luna, you will cease your lock-on the Wolfstar and fire on the targets behind us.” It was a different voice from before.

I felt a surge of anger within me. I had known Selene, and despite my true allegiance and my reasons for being in Ivalice, we had been friends. The news of her death had been a saddening blow to me and had brought with it the terrifying realisation that somehow, somewhere, my capacity for emotion still existed.

“I don’t know what’s chasing them but if they don’t turn around in the next sixty seconds I order you to fire on them.”

“Yes captain.”

I turned back to the com. “Judge Luna is dead,” I said, ice in my voice. “She died at Nalbina Fortress.”

I glanced at the radar. The other ship was in view now and something else…I couldn’t determine its shape. Scanners indicated the ship was a known pirate vessel - they would be shot down next – the unknown was an aquatic life form. Though which of the Gods dreamt up such an enormous creature was beyond me. Whatever it was, the Wolfstar had somehow gotten its full attention.

“Charging weapons. Preparations to fire complete. Commence firing in ten…”

A complex pattern of symbols flashed onto the screen beside me. I recognised them in a heartbeat. “By the will of Venat…” Selene…

“Shiva, you will fire on the targets behind us. Now!”

“Cease fire immediately! Set weapons on new targets, co-ordinates delta 17, beta 6 and alpha 0, beta 4.”

There was a moment of tense panic as one command was switched for another. The battleship rocked briefly as sections opened to let loose a flurry of destruction on the Wolfstar’s attackers. I bit the knuckle of my left thumb as I watched it unfold on my radar, praying to whichever God might hear me that I had made the call in time.

My prayers were answered. The attacks flew past the shipping vessel and destroyed both the pirate ship and the sea creature. I breathed a sigh of relief and looked back at Lieutenant Rayflen, Shiva’s chief-in-command, who had been only feet away from the conversation but had chosen to remain silent throughout. “Orders sir? We cannot leave an unauthorised vessel floating about the Expanse.”

“You are certain that is Judge Luna aboard that vessel?”

“I have seen these symbols many times sir. I can assure you that it is her and no other that sent them.”

“Then we have little choice in the matter.” I almost thought I heard a twinge of happiness in his voice. I wouldn’t have been surprised, not many soldiers cared for the lonely emptiness of the Expanse. “Re-establish communications. Tell them we will be their escort to Archadia port.”

I nodded and switched on the com. “Wolfstar we will escort you to Archadia Port, continue on your current trajectory.” I paused, wanting to add something to the message, just to show I was glad that Selene was still alive even though I didn’t want anyone else to know it. “Judge Luna, welcome home.”

With communication over and our ship back on course to Archadia, I turned once more to the Lieutenant, “Sir, I would like to make a request.”

“What is it, Captain?”

“Sir, I am concerned that the scanner cannot gather much detail on this vessel.”

“Your point?”

“Although we know that Judge Luna is aboard the vessel we have no way to determine who – or what – else might be present. What I am trying to say sir,
is that the ship may be carrying hostiles.”

“A good suggestion. Open communications with Archadia Port and inform them of our arrival. Ask them if they wouldn’t mind arranging a small greeting party for our guests.”

I did as I was ordered.

“As for Judge Luna, I would like to request temporary leave from the Shiva so that I might escort her personally.”

He eyed me with suspicion. “I had heard there was history between you.”

“Enough for me to make this request of you.” And to know that she could be with anyone on that ship. She might be a judge but she’s not invincible. If there’s trouble here, I would rather be present with my weapon in hand than waiting helpless on the sidelines.

“It couldn’t hurt. I don’t trust those lumbering excuses for port guards anyway. Take some of the men from maintenance; they’ve been itching to see some action. Maybe this will cool them off a bit.”

I bowed in my seat. “Yes sir. Thank you sir.”

The journey back to Archadia dragged by without incident. When the port came into view I begged my leave of the cockpit and gathered half a dozen men from the lower quarters. When the ship had docked we hurried over to the Wolfstar and found three guards – hardly a worthy party – stood before the closed doors of the ship. We relieved them of their duty and took our positions on the dock.

As the doors opened I steadied my breathing, recapturing every loose emotion that had escaped on the Shiva and dragging it back into the depths of my own being. I focused my mind using the techniques I had learned from both my Spiran and Ivalician teachers, and when the first passenger of the Wolfstar emerged, I was a stone-faced soldier once more.

~~~~~~~~~
Yes I know I gave Lyra a bit of emotion in that opening post but I just wanted to show the rare importance of her relationship with Selene (and to prove that she still has emotions!). Just don’t expect any more from her for a while. ^___^

1338 / 1

[Crystal Tears]

Selene

The Wolfstar docked at Archadian Port, which was by far the most beautiful place in the world as far as Selene was concerned. It was beautifully decorated, with Ivalician banners all around. She imagined that such a display was part of the propaganda for the war, but it still had a nice effect on the golden walls and elegant designs.

Adair was the first one off, anxious he seemed to get away from the pirate ship and distance himself from the group.

Only it didn’t happen.

“You there! Freeze!”

Adair put his arms up immediately, surprise and more notably fear in his eyes as armored guards pointed spears towards him.

“No, not you civilian, move.” The lead gestured with his sword for the pilot to move out of the way.

Adair blinked and glided out of the way and put the poor Captain in view, who seemed to be the one they were after.

“Adair…” Sirius glared at him. “I’ll make note of your sound bravery to save your dear captain, oh ho, yes I will…” He sort of hiccupped, as the alcohol was still affecting him.

“Soldiers put down your weapons.” Selene pushed past the Captain, waving him off as she approached a familiar looking footman. “He’s really not worth whatever reward there is.”

“Of course milady.”

Selene was ignoring the rest of the guards, even as they kept a wary eye on the rest of the crew except the moogle, who fluttered over and landed on Selene’s shoulder, and Temzi, who stood behind her with perfect posture. Her eyes were set on a particular soldier with striking blue eyes.

“I thought I recognized that voice…” She smirked and the soldier saluted.

“Judge Luna, I am pleased to see the reports on your death were false.” Her eyes went to the others. “Are you sure we can’t arrest the lot behind you? They seem a bit-”

“Impressive,” Adair interrupted with a big grin. “Any Insults you were about to mutter are of course unnecessary as we have kept the dear missy alive!”

Selene turned and gave Adair a strange look before going back to Lyra, who was about to retaliate.

“Trust me…” The judge shook her head. “It’s really not worth your effort… Oh, this is Sori.” She gestured kindly to the furball sitting on her shoulder, who nodded. “And the dragoon behind me is Temzi.”

“Were they the only other Ivalicians on board?”

“Well…” She looked over at the wobbling Captain. “… He’s… From here.” She wouldn’t give him the dignity of being called an Ivalician. “I’m willing to bet one of the more outcast villages.”

Both watched as Sirius was forced to use Shayna as a leaning post, who in turn, used the blue-creature (Selene wasn’t quite sure what it was called) as a brace.

“Clearly.”

“Selene! Nii ec rihkno, oui cyet frah fa kud rana fa fuimt pa ypma du ayd y naym saym...”

A couple of the soldiers backed up as Kumas stomped out of the airship, becoming an imposing wall behind Niosa.

“Fa'mm ayd cuuh.” She replied and turned her attention back to Lyra. “I need to see Vayne.”

* * *

It had been two days since their arrival.

Two days to get reacquainted with the people she called family.

Two days to grieve over the death of her mother, who was killed by a Spiran assassin.

Two days to let grief turn into a boiling, yet hidden loathing for the opposing side.

Selene Solidor, Princess and heir to the Ivalician throne, had returned home only to have renewed interest in leaving once again.


“I didn’t know he was your father.”

Selene paused, she was clipping on the sheath for a sword to her belt when Lyra spoke; her tone was even, not showing a hint any emotion.

“Not many do.” Was the gunner’s reply, sliding the rapier into its scabbard. “I don’t advertise it.”

“He thought it was best if the group we’ll be travelling with knows…” There was slight apprehension in that comment.

“You don’t agree?”

“Two of them are wanted fugitives.” Now came the disgust. “That ship may be Ivalician but most of the crew sways for Spira, a moogle and a dragoon aren’t going to be enough if-”

‘More like wobbles…’ Selene thought. “Yes well…” The Judge narrowed her eyes, and thought about her mother. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“… I’m sorry for what happened to Seta.”

“Don’t be.” That was another jab of pain the woman didn’t want to think about. “He had a good death, that’s all that could be asked of him.”

The shard and the note came into mind then, and what her father said.

“Your father promised Sirius and Adair a complete pardon of all their crimes if they agreed, and a fair bit of money.”

“What about the rest?”

“Shay was tempted by riches, Nii was promised her own airship to tinker with, Sori is to be given his own rather large magickal work shop and Temzi just wanted to do his duty for Ivalice.”

“So it’s settled then?”

“Shayna didn’t seem too impressed.”

“Well if she doesn’t like it…” Selene nearly growled, turning to face her new bodyguard. “She can go home.”

“What of me?”

“You’re coming with me.” Selene smiled, and by the slightly off stature of Lyra, she could tell she was surprised. “I made a request for you to escort me, if you don’t want to, I could have you placed back on the-“

“No mam, to escort you on this mission… It would be a great honour.”

“The only trouble you’ll have I imagine, is restraining yourself from killing the crew.” She smiled. “Particularly the pilot and the Captain.”

“The Captain that I heard fancies you.”

“Oh…” Selene sighed and felt a small bit of irritation and embarrassment. “Yes well, I’ll deal with that too.”

Lyra nodded, and held the large wooden door open for Selene. “Shall we?”

* * 997 / 27 * *

Right so, for two days everyone in the group would be allow to wander around Archadian under guard. Especially those who are Spiran (and believe me, it’s fairly obviously who is from which continent). You can reflect on that, but the next part starts with the majority of the group (except for Selene and Lyra) is a large conference room under heavy guard in the Solidor Estate/Castle. You can talk about whatever, but it has been revealed to you that Selene was both a Judge (rawr) and Vayne’s daughter (*shock*).

Has fun with your adventures in Archadia~ You have until I post Selene has reached the room, then we’ll move on.

Sorry if I messed up anyones characters.

[Samchu]

Lyra
~~~

To say that I was glad of Selene's return gives more credit to certain emotions than I would like to allow. To say that her return warranted more constraint and thought than I had to ever had to exercise in my short time as a Captain to Ivalice, was one worthy of any report I could write. Escorting Selene to Vayne was a task I carried out without issue. My real troubles began the evening of the following day, when I was forced to confront one of the members of the Judge-saving crew, and my past.

News had been circulating about Selene's desire to leave Ivalice - once she had given herself a few days to recooperate from her travels. Lord Vayne called me into his office with nothing but the knowledge that what he had to discuss with me was of great importance. I tried to hide my unease. I had not been called to a private audience with the Lord since shortly after my arrival two years earlier. The thought made my body numb. What if he knows? I thought. No. If he knew I'd be dead by now. My body would be dumped in some hole or hanging on display for the world to see. No, whatever he wants me for, it's something else entirely.

"Captain Xanthrope."

I bowed. "Lord Vayne. You wished to speak with me sir?"

He tapped a pile of papers at the front of his desk. "My daughter has expressed wishes to leave Ivalice - warranting a few days to grieve for the passing of her late mother." He caught the look of surprise on my face but said nothing of it. Perhaps it was the reaction he expected of me. "She wishes for the crew of the Wolfstar to accompany her and given what she has told me..." he took a breath, "I owe these people for saving her." He grabbed the papers and held them out to me. "These are my thanks." I reached for them but he snatched them back so they were a mere inch from my grasp. "There is, however, one condition. They will receive their gifts if they agree to accompany my daughter on her next exploit."

"And if they cannot be bought?"

His face went hard. "Though they may have saved my daughter, it does not distract me from the fact that many of those aboard are wanted criminals. I cannot be seen as a man who gives favors freely." He caught my gaze and held it. "Do you understand me, Captain?"

"Yes sir."

He slid the papers into my waiting hand. "See that they get delivered tonight. If there are warrants to sign I would rather not have to wait to deal with them."

"Understood sir." I bowed and took my leave.

I walked until I found a secluded corridor and shuffled through the files in front of me until I found the one addressed to the sister I had left behind. Seeing her had been the last thing I wanted to do and I had intended to avoid her until she and I were safely on different continents. Fate, however, seemed to have a different opinion.

Each member of the Wolfstar had been granted their own accomodation for the duration of their visit, though it would be more accurate to describe them as glorified prison cells. There were no windows, no flashy decorations, just a bed, a sink, and a toilet. The only way in or out was through a single, guarded door.

I made Shayna's the first visit on my list. Better to get it over with now than to drag it out until later. A nod to the guard and I was in, door shut and bolted behind me.

She shot up the second she saw me, every ounce of hatred reflected in her face. Instincts drove her hands to the places where she had concealed her throwing stars but the soliders had taken them so she launched a pillow at me instead. I pulled my head out of the way and heard it thud helplessly against the door behind me.

"You've improved your aim." I told her cooly.

Shay was on her feet in an instant. Five steps and she was close enough to reach me. I almost didn't see the glint of metal in her hand -

"The Gods damn you for what you did to Spira - to your family," Shayna growled through gritted teeth.

I had her wrist in my hand and the blade of my sword against her neck. She was a hair's breadth from death and I could have done it. I'd slaughtered helpless Spirans to get where I was, what more was the blood of the one I'd once called sister to the pool I'd been drowning in for years?

"The Gods have damned me; more than you or anyone else can ever realise." I sheathed my blade and robbed Shayna of her's before pushing her back so that there was distance between us once more. "I am not here to provoke you. I am just the messenger." I held out the paper from Vayne and she reluctantly snatched it from my grasp. "Selene is leaving Ivalice and she wants you and the rest of the Wolfstar's crew to accompany her. The letter details the payment that you will receive once the journey is over. Or - if you prefer -it's a reward for helping her."

She took her eyes off of me long enough to read the letter. Twice. She was silent.

"I also have another message, from those friends you chose to come here with. They are waiting for you at home. I was owed a favour and had them deported back to Spira. As long as they stay out of Ivalice's borders no harm will come to them. Not by our hands anyway."

She glared. "Are you expecting some kind of thanks or something? Do you think that helping a few of my friends makes up for what you did? You're a traitor Lyra. You betrayed your family and then you betrayed your country. You're scum! You're even worse than the lowlifes you wanted so desperately to defeat."

"Your father lied to you." I turned my back to her and knocked on the door, signalling to the guard that I wanted to leave. I heard the bolt shift. "The world isn't black and white Shayna, it's not just us and them. It's grey. Every last bit of it."

~~~Insert visits with the other crew members. To be filled in by them if they so wish.~~~

Our footsteps echoed down the empty corridor as we made our way to where the crew of the Wolfstar were awaiting us. My mind turned Selene's words over and over. I was to join the Wolfstar? I was to fly with outlaws and criminals? As great of an honour as it was to accompany one of such high rank - and to be recommended for the position by said person as well - I couldn't say that I was comfortable with the idea.

"They are a most...interesting...group of people," I said.

Selene nodded. "Perhaps a little more than interesting."

"They weren't what I expected," I admitted. "Though I didn't see much of them."

"Well, you'll get to see and learn a lot more of them. Perhaps they will change your opinion of them."

"Perhaps." I doubt it. "Have you informed them that I will be accompanying you on this trip?"

"Not yet." She had that smile that made me dread the future.

"Then it is not me killing the crew that you will have to worry about." It's the other way around.

"You worry too much."

"Perhaps I do. But then is it better to worry too much or too little?"

"I prefer not to worry at all. It seems to work for these guys."

I shook my head at her response. Our destination was getting nearer and with it I felt a sense of dread growing in the pit of my stomach. It hit my feet and I stopped.

Selene came to a halt a few steps in front of me. "Is something wrong?"

"No Mam. I just..." I fumbled for an excuse. "I have a question."

"Oh?"

"Where is it, exactly, that you intend to go?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OOC: Ok, rather than kill myself by writing Lyra's visit to each individual person, I leave it up to you to include (or not) your character's interactions with her. Just though it might give you a little something to work with whilst CT keeps the next chapter in suspense.

1394 / 2

[classy_cat18]

Sori – Moogle Time Mage
Not happy about being back

“No window, no decoration, no rod, guard at the door…” I grumbled to myself as I took a look around my cell for the umpteenth time. Yeah, that was what it was, a cell. It certainly felt like one. Although I was a resident of Ivalice with a clean record, I guess it didn’t help that I came back with a few who didn’t. Not only did they confiscate my grandfather’s rod, but they also had me in magic-suppressing shackles to keep me from raising elemental hell on them. At least they let me keep Batilis’ mask with me.

I was taken out of my inner rant when someone knocked and entered my cell. It was the female soldier that greeted us at the port. There was a very tense moment between the two of us. She stood rigid, her gun by her side. My wings fluttered as I glared at her. “Ah, a visitor. Let me pour you a cup of tea,” I sneered as I pretended to look around. “Oops, no tea! I guess we’ll have to do without.”

The soldier seemed unaffected by my wit. “Your frustration about the matter is obvious,” she stated. “But I’m not here to listen to your ranting.”

“I’m sure you weren’t.”

She pulled out a piece of paper. “Lord Vayne gives you and the rest gratitude for the rescue of his daughter.”

“Lord Vayne’s daughter?” My ears slowly lowered with thought, then shot straight up. “SELENE?”

“Correct. He also wishes to reward you for your valor, on one condition.” She gave me the piece of paper in her hand and stood still while I read it.

Selene wanted us for another mission, and upon return I was to receive…

“My own magic workshop? Is she serious?” I read over it again. It even had Lord Vayne’s and her signatures, as well as their seal. It really was legitimate. “And all I have to do is to accompany her on another adventure?”

She nodded. “What is your answer?”

I groaned. “Fine, but get me out of these shackles and get that Nii girl. I have someone to visit.”

A few minutes later, I was riding on the shoulder of a disgruntled Al Bhed girl, three guards trailing the two of us. “Why three?” I asked her.

“One for you, two for Nii,” she grunted. No doubt she had suffered a little more since she was Spiran. They wouldn’t even let Kumas stay with her. The machina was not pleased. “At least Nii has somewhere to go, although she doesn’t know where we’re going.”

“To my sister’s workshop.” I pointed down a narrow side road that was lined with smaller shops. A few armored Ivalicians of different races walked along it. “It’s over here.”

We all stopped in front of the shop, named The Iron Moogle. Nii snickered at the sign. “What does your sister do?”

“She’s a Tinker, and she repairs machina. So you might want to be careful in here.”

She shrugged and opened the door. “Why would Nii have to—“

BOOM!

The explosion knocked her on her back, while I was blown back into the armored chest of one of the guards. Smoke seeped out of the front door. “Because sooner or later, something will backfire,” I coughed out.

We waited until the smoked cleared before we entered the shop. Nii immediately noticed the rows of machina, from little music boxes to weapons. “This is impressive,” she commented.

“I’m glad you think so, kupo!” a female voice rang out. A bright blue pompom peeked out from behind a chair. “I get so much these days I need extra help!”

“Kiri!” I called out.

The rest of my sister walked around the chair, her pompom the only thing not messed up. “Sori!” she said happily. “You’ve come to visit, kupo!”

I flew over to her and gave her a midair hug. “Yeah, I finally did!”

She smiled warmly and looked around me at Nii and the guards. “You brought a friend! And more customers, kupo!”

“Actually…they’re not customers.” I blushed under my fur. “They’re escorts.”

She blinked and gave me a rare dirty look. “Did you get in trouble?”

“No!” Nii and I shouted together.

She sighed and flew to Nii to get a better look. Nii slowly pulled her goggles down around her neck, showing her spiral pupils. “An Al Bhed? What have you been up to? And…where’s Batilis?”

I laughed nervously. “You might want to sit down for this.”

The long story took its toll on my sister. “Oh, I’m so sorry. That poor Garif…is that his mask on your back?”

“Yeah, I was wondering if you could give it a good home. He treated it like a work of art and I can’t just throw it away.” She nodded and took it from me. “Now I found out that the woman I had to tolerate through that labyrinth of death wants me for another mission.”

She looked at me with worry. “Are you considering, kupo?”

“Kiri, they’re giving me my own workshop. I won’t have to worry about odd jobs again. We could combine ours! Your Tinker skills and my magic? Think of the possiblities!”

Her eyes lit up. “Well…”

“Nii is impressed by your array of weapons,” Nii interjected from across the room. She tried to pick up a large hand cannon, her eyes widening when she had to hold it with two hands and keep it on her shoulder. “Ugh…”

“Be careful with that, kupo!” Kiri said shakily as she fluttered over to her. “That hand cannon belongs to a Bangaa Cannoneer and I would like for it to be in one piece when he comes to get it!”

Before I could wonder how a small Moogle could even work with that large weapon, a Bangaa wearing Dragoon armor came up and took it from Nii. The Al Bhed almost pouted at having it taken away from it. “Guys, this is Karasa. He’s one of my helpers, kupo,” Kiri explained. Karasa nodded and left after returning the hand cannon. “I also wanted to introduce you to Mura, but she doesn’t seem to be anywhere.”

A moan directed me to a corner of the room. Lying in a heap, in smoky white robes, was a Nu Mou. She coughed weakly and sat up. “I’m over here!” she shouted.

My ears drooped in pity. “Is this the White Mage you were talking about?” I asked Kiri.

Kiri gasped and hid her face. “That explosion was more intense than I thought.”

Nii tapped me on the shoulder. “The soldiers are getting restless. Nii thinks we should be getting back.”

“Oh, okay.” I regretfully looked back at Kiri, knowing that there was a possibility that I’d never see her again. “I’ll come back in one piece, Kiri. If a labyrinth of death couldn’t slow me down, I don’t think anything else could.”

She fought back tears as she gave me one more tight hug. “Please come back safe, kupo. I don’t want to hang up Grandfather’s rod next to Batilis’ mask.”

1,191 words. 15 Sori posts.

Niosa Tiera
Not a happy Spiran

“Let me get these details straight,” Sirius mumbled in his miserable sobriety. “Not only is our dear Selene a highly respected Judge, but she is the beloved daughter of the high-and-mighty Lord Vayne?”

“Yyyyyyep,” Sori said smugly, his face a little smug from the welcomed amusement. “And to think you were shamelessly flirting with her. She could’ve had you blindfolded and in front of a firing squad.”

“Or hanging from the gallows,” Adair added.

“Or bending down at the chopping block!” Shay chirped.

“Oh, spare me the bloody details,” Sirius groaned.

We were now in a large conference room, still having guards surrounding us. We had our few days of “rest” and now we were waiting for Selene to give us details of our next mission. Sirius may have been the captain, but now we were all under the Judge’s thumb. An Ivalician judge. There were a few of us, me included, that were not very happy with that arrangement. Selene was a friend of mine so that made things better. But there was that one moment I couldn’t ignore:

“Miss, you’ll have to do something about that machina,” one guard told me calmly.

I glanced back at Kumas who was standing tall behind me, looking like he was trying to stare down the guards. “Kumas isn’t hostile,” I assured him. “Nii can honestly tell you that he cannot even attack unless Nii tells him to.”

Kumas’ electronic eyes slowly traveled across the row of Ivalician soldiers and took a step forward. One of them reacted by raising his gun. “We order you to shut down that machina, Al Bhed!” he shouted in a panic.

Then the golem did something I didn’t expect. The blue lights tracing his body, as well as his eyes, turned red. Warning lights went on in my head; Kumas was going to attack. “Cdyht tufh, Kumas!” I cried out, pushing him back. But he was standing his ground and would not be moved.

Everyone was tense. “Why is he acting so weird?” Sori asked shakily.

“Nii doesn’t know. Stand down!” I gave one last shove. “Nii is safe. They won’t attack if you won’t!”

After a long minute, Kumas’ lights finally turned back to their blue color. Kumas took a step back and relaxed. “Good. Now Nii needs for you to go back in the Wolfstar and wait for her. Wait in Nii’s room and power down.” When he took a step forward, I pushed him back. “Nii femm pa veha.”

Kumas nodded and went to the Wolfstar. The soldiers finally lowered their weapons. Everyone looked relieved but I was still worried. Was Kumas actually considering disobeying my command?

“Nii!” Adair’s voice pulled me out of my reverie. “What were you thinking about that had you so dazed, hmm?”

“Nii shooting your brains out,” I retorted with a smirk. That shut him up or so I thought.

“No, I bet it was whatever Lady Selene promised to pay you should you agree to join us on this little trip.”

“For reward of the rescue of Lady Selene, and for payment upon completion of the upcoming mission, you will receive your own airship.”

I was disinterested until those last three words. “Nii’s own airship? To repair and tinker with?”

The lady soldier nodded. “Do we have an agreement?”

I was almost too quick to answer. Agreeing to work for Selene was agreeing to work for Ivalice, Spira’s enemies. If Ariosa and the crew were to find out that I took this job, they would consider me a traitor. No, I wouldn’t be a traitor because I wouldn’t be working against Spira. This was for Selene, whom I owed. “It’s a deal.”

I scratched my chin in thought. “Nii gets her own airship, and she could start her own business. Or even start my own salvaging projects. Very nice.”

My happy thoughts were interrupted when the doors opened. It was time.

660 words. 16 Nii posts.

[Crystal Tears]

.: + :. Selene Solidor .: + :.

Selene smiled at Lyra, and turned her head back towards the large wooden and iron doors that separated them from the others. The woman thought about answering her bodyguard then and there, but really the others probably had the same question and she would have to answer most of them once she entered. There was a small tinge of nervousness in her gut, though she didn’t know why.

‘Perhaps because I bought their loyalty…’ She mused, her mind drifting from answering Lyra. ‘Though I did well enough earn it in the temple, and when I saved us from annihilation at the hands of my own country…’ Selene almost frowned, either could be argued that it was self-preservation that fuelled her in the temple, and it was right. Though there had been times she had helped others for no other gain than companions. ‘I’m not like Adair, I save people because I can and want too, not because I have too or they just happen to benefit from my actions at the time.’

“Mam?”

Selene snapped out of her thoughts and shrugged. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

The doors opened and Selene stepped inside, everyone looked better then they had before. They were clean, crisp and freshly restored. It was odd what two days would do for you if you were in a city of such magnitude like Archadia. Their gaze was on her as she issued the other guards out, and before she could even address the issue, Sori had something to say on the matter.

“You’re a PRINCESS?”

“Told you!” Adair rolled his eyes, and pulled some odd blue fur from his hair. “Uppity, though not even I, with my superior analyzing skills that relate to persons, saw this coming.”

“Nor,” Sirius spoke up from his spot at the back; he was slumped down comfortably in a large chair at the back. “Did we expect to be in the presence of a Judge.”

“Oh,” Selene rolled her eyes. “As if knowing I was a Judge would affect your actions in the slightest.”

“It would!” Adair stood up, an annoyed look on his face. “We could’ve held you for RANSOM! A lot of gil your nation would pay for you back in their care, unharmed-“

“You say that as if you had the ability to harm me in the first place.”

“Ability to harm and possibility of getting extremely lucky are two very different things.”Adair seemed very sure of his possibility for success. “Observing that I am alive and have generally evaded your goons for the last two days I think the lucky coin is with me.”

Selene pulled out her gun and had it at Adair’s face before he had the chance to do more than touch his sword. Adair shrugged and smirked, sitting back down. She found it slightly odd how staring down the barrel of a gun amused him. There was a silence in the crowd now, before Shay decided to break the silence.

“So… Where are we all going?”

Lyra looked over at the judge in interest; she had posed the same question a few minutes ago to the woman and got no answer. Selene looked down at the floor before smiling, though it was small and a sort of sad one. She faced them again with a stern gaze and revealed the truth.

“We’re going back.”

“Pardon?” Nii blinked, sitting up in her chair. “Nii thinks she heard you wrong.”

“No…” She said, fiddling with something in her pocket. “You heard me correctly.”

“Fa'na tuusat…” Nii murmured, to which Selene rolled her eyes.

“You could have some faith in your friends, we did make it this far.”

“Some of us didn’t.” Sori threw in, anger in his voice. “That continent cost us three people, don’t tell us you’ve forgotten. One of them-“

Selene lost control of her temper; she slammed her fist down on the table, making the furball fall silent. “Don’t assume I’ve forgotten what happened at the temple.” She growled, her eyes burning into the wide ones of the creature. The hand of Lyra on her shoulder made Selene straighten up, and seemingly calm down. “The point is; we made it to Ivalice.”

Adair snorted, but for once wisely said nothing.

“Barely…” Shay murmured.

“The point is…” Selene started again. “That for whatever reason, you agreed to help me.”

“We did? To what?” Adair looked confused. She was beginning to wonder if it was a permanent feature on his face.

Selene took a deep breath and had to put out a hand to stop Lyra and then she continued; “Now I’m sorry we couldn’t tell you beforehand what was entitled when you decided to help, but if you kept your word, it’d be greatly appreciated.”

“And if we refuse?”

“You have a contract with the Royalty of Ivalice.” Lyra broke in, her voice rigid and cold. “You don’t have a choice.”

Selene turned and looked at her guard. “They signed something?”

“Lord Solidor considers their words binding.”

Notable irritation was showing on her face. “Of course he does… Why would they have a choice…” Her words fell to a murmur.

“Why are we going back?” The Captain questioned he stood and moved forward, more towards the Judge. “I will keep my word to the lady,” He shot a glare at Lyra. “Lord Vayne holds no leash of mine-“

“Oh no.” Sori smirked. “It’s quite clear the dear Judge holds that particular tether.”

Adair snorted, and Sirius turned his attention away from the moogle and back to Selene. To their surprise, Temzi and Shay stepped up as well; the little Spiran even had a confident smile on her face.

“We’re with ya too.” Shayna winked as the Dragoon nodded.

“Nii’s coming too!”

Sori rolled his eyes. “As long as I get to blow something up.”

All eyes were on Adair, who looked at them all keenly as he swaggered over.

“I have only one exceedingly important query before I acquiesce to embark on this death defying quest of mythic proportions…” He leaned very close to the Judge; his eyes squinted in a serious manner. Well she thought it might as well be serious, for all she knew he had vision problems. “Where’s the rum?”

Selene rolled her eyes and pushed Adair back.

“So…” Sirius crossed his arms. “What is it we’re after?”

Selene took from her pocket a small shard of a dead grey hue and tossed it onto the table. It bounced twice before falling still.

Adair looked at it in disbelief. “I’m risking my life for a piece of debris?”

“What is it?” Shay poked it questioningly.

“It’s a piece of an ancient beast.” Selene informed them. “A while ago we were informed that Spira found the first half of whatever it is, and they’re looking for the second to put the creature back together.”

“You can piece together a monster?” Sori tilted his head. “That’s some skilled mages…”

“And… We’re supposed to get the other half?”

“We’re to find the other half, and mark it for Ivalice.” The judge answered, picking the piece up and putting it back in her pocket.

“And nothing will happen to Spira?” Nii inquired.

“No.”

“How can you be sure?” Shay piped up. “if we get you this half-“

“It’s impossible.” Lyra injected. “If Spira has one half of the monster and Ivalice has the other, than neither side can use it to their advantage.”

“Making the possibility of this monster fighting for either side null.” Selene nodded in agreement with her guard. “I don’t want Ivalice to control this monster or whatever is involved…” She shrugged. “I just want to guarantee that Spira doesn’t get it either.”

“What’s so bad about this fiend then?” Sirius frowned.

“Legend says it destroyed the continent.” Selene answered. “And before anyone says that’s impossible, Spira’s past is proof that monsters can get unreasonably powerful. I don’t want to take the chance of either side having that sort of thing under their control.”

“If they could even control it.” Adair muttered.

“So it’s better if neither side gets the upper hand, at least concerning this monster.” Temzi finished, understanding completely.

“Exactly.” Selene smirked. “We know that the other half is on the mysterious continent, we just have to get it.”

“What about…” Shay shot a harsh glare at Lyra. “Killing Spirans?”

“There aren’t many Spirans on the continent…” Selene noted. “If you run into some, knock them out. But realize this…” She for a brief second, looked as if she might burn a hole through the table. “Some of us might not be so kind…”

.: + 1450 | 28 + :.

[Pichu Luver]

Adair Stroud

“Gentlemen! Alas! You have ascertained my whereabouts! Most unfortunate though it was jolly good evading you; almost made it difficult you did.”

The group of patrons around the bar and tables stared at Adair in disbelief. Now this was not exactly a unknown expression for others to bestow him. Most people couldn't believe that sheer stunning quality of him when he entered a room (or simply graced it with his presence). However today was different. As he had mentioned, the guards the Archadians had saw fit to set on his excellent behind were nearly challenging to hide from. So had to go to great lengths to avoid them after the first instance of escaping their bejeweled, yet suffocating collar.

Thus leading to the current predicament and the shocked gazes.

Generally, blue, horned, eight foot tall Ronso didn't say much and whenever they did it was never so... exuberant.

It really was an exceptional costume, correct down to the last detail. The fur and horn felt real (though of course no true Ronso would ever permit someone to touch it) and the muscles all moved appropriately. Even though Adair, no matter how manly he was, was not as broad shouldered or tall as a Ronso. The special boots he was wearing were actually comfortable, unlike most female contraptions. His hand fit into a robotic contraption that was very sensitive to his commands, and ears of course moved. He looked real, and under need he could act very convincingly.

The last two days had been very needful indeed.

The eight guards pointed their 'get the bugger moving' contraptions (also known as weapons) and Adair downed his drink and stood up from his chair.

“Toodles!” he waved to the customers and swaggered his way out of the store. This escapade would travel far and fast. Getting more outrageous with the telling and last for at least 3 months. Generally he was pleased with his work, even if he had been found. Though he doubted they'd ever realize he wasn't a true Ronso.

Once out in the street, six men surrounded him and two walked right at his side, weapons trained on him. He supposed the only reason he didn't have cuffs on him was that they weren't sure where his real wrists were.

“So! Chaps! How'd you find me? I must have passed a dozen search parties before you made me out this fine morning!”

There was no answer for a long while. It seemed they were the serious, 'never talk to exasperating escaped irritations' kind of soldier. Finally after a few fair minutes of silent trek one of the guards shrugged to himself and stated, “You're the only Ronso in town, and no Ronso was registered entering the city.”

“Truly? Well Tahin Ronso failed this time I do say. Was a good 'ol party while it lasted though, everyone seems to get out of your way when you're large, furred and clawed. Very entertaining few days. I believe I may have aggravated your superiors however.”

When the crew had arrived three days before hence they were quickly sent to separate rooms. After their identities had been confirmed or found out (Adair had laughed in his head in amusement and relief when they only came back with the crimes Adair Stroud had committed) they were given leave to explore the city. Under guard.

They were very foolish when they only had three tail his knavish self.

Still... it had taken half a day, some interesting women, a pig creature, fishing line, a mop and questionable alcohol to leave them in a closed dentists office under laughing gas. Then he had to hide in a box of silk in the linen store across the street, while Mog got his costume.

After that the city had been his to explore, exploit, and generally have an exhilarating time. He only had two days and by damn he was going to enjoy them without 'Archadia's finest' ruining a perfectly delectable unplanned vacation. When the third morning dawned he knew they'd soon have the whole bee hive out for him so he had gone to a very obvious restaurant and waited. He was slightly disappointed it had taken them three hours to find him.

He was back in his cell, pealing Tahin from his face when the woman he decided to call Khio walked in. Simply because with a woman that emotionless someone had to be pulling her strings, and the only puppet he could think of was the funny wooden one from a Spiran movie called Kinokhio.

Robo-girl was also a possibility but then Temzi and her might get on too well and that would spell doom for him. Only one person should be 'Tin-Man the Invincible Anchor' and he was non-threatening because he was so... dense. She wasn't, but she was just as robotic. Few people could walk in on him with his lower half in boxers and the upper half (bar his hands) still Ronso and only blink.

As he was divesting himself of another race when she gave her speech all Adair heard was 'money' and 'pardon' and he said yes and signed. He knew she wasn't to be tampered with (yet) but was slightly mollified when she saw a very small smirk on her face as she turned away. Adair now having his human head back (baring the horn) and trying to figure how to get his chest off when the attachments were on his back.

With yoga flexibility he managed to get them, and a quick shower, before heading off to the 'meeting'. Due to the fact he hadn't been himself the last few days he was remarkable clean when he flopped in a chair.

“And where have you been my mutineering pilot?”

Adair cracked open a eyelid to stare at his Captain. “About. Watching the guard have apocalyptic fits and enjoying Archadian company. Yourself?”

Sirius frowned ever so slightly, “I am afraid my attempts at evading my captors were not so successful. I might consider forgetting your lapse in proper crew behavior at the disembarkation if you could inform me of your technique.”

“Well it would depend if you mind heels.” At Sirius' expression Adair doubled over in laughter and the rest of the crew looked at him curiously when they walked in.

“I'm not sure if it's a good thing that Sirius looks mildly disgusted and Adair's laughing hysterically.” said Shay looking between the two.

Nii appeared unsurprised “Nii is sure she doesn't wish to know.”

“I believe I will agree the lady. I don't wish for the details.” said Sirius, still unsure of Adair's seriousness. Sori appeared irritated like he wanted to know but was certain it was better he didn't. Temzi as ever was unmoved and mildly confused.

Adair only grinned, “Oh don't worry lad, it was only one of the more...entertaining two days I've ever had. Though for the gua-”

“ADAIR!”

He smirked as all five yelled at him. It was then Sirius' beau walked in with Khio and one of the more disagreeable conversations commenced. Once he realized what he had signed Adair was mildly irritated and privately swore any Spiran killing would not be done by him. This land's people certainly had never shown him any favors.

“Well if that's all I say we go to the ship and if it's suitably repaired and restocked we can get this little hop over with. You stick you flag on half of the broken giant dinky toy, do a tribal dance confirming your claim and everyone can go home. Tally ho?”


1276/20

[Weasel Overlord]

Sirius fir Sterrl de Famfræn
[Captain and General Ruler of the Wolfstar]
I did it, all of it, for you

Being clapped in some rather irony irons brought a flood of memories both unpleasant and unenjoyable to Sirius' mind, and being flung unceremoniously into a chilly cell reminded him, once again and with crystal clarity, of the precise reason why he and Adair made it their personal adage to never ever get sodding caught.

He did a round of the cell – yup, square. Check, damp. Mould? Certainly. Stench-filled air came as part of the package, and he sat himself down on the rectangle of stone they called a “bed” with a grin.

“Just like the cells at home!” he said out loud, voice reverberating slightly. “Could use a bit of decoration in here, mind. Sounds a tad echoey, if you know what I mean. Maybe a nice wall hanging,” he gazed at the empty two corners. “A lamp or two. Ooh, perhaps a nice Seeq rug! That'd go charmingly with the distinctly Valendian Dungeon theme you've got going on here.”

He slouched back against the stone wall, hands cushioning his head; preparing to wait this – whatever exactly this was – out.

It wasn't too long before he was disturbed out of his pleasant thoughts of Selene doing downright unroyal things to him by a sharp banging and clanking coming from the right. He sat up, annoyed.

“Hoi!” he yelled, stopping just short of kicking the wall. “I was enjoying myself in peaceful solitude just then, you ruffian!”

“Captain?” came a distinctly muffled voice. “Captain de Famfraen, is that you? It's me, Temzi. I apologise for disturbing you, if I did so...” the voice trailed off, and Sirius thought he detected a hint of sheepishness lacing that oh-so-sincere voice.

“Who else would it be, lad? Of course it's me. Do you know any other hardened criminals in our crew?” Sirius lay back onto the bed, cushioning his head once more. “Although saying that, here's you, in prison just like bad old me. And no sign of Adair, how curious.”

“Adair escaped, Captain.”

“Oh, good on the man, well done Adair!” Sirius put on a jolly tone, but inwardly he was plotting just how to kick Adair in the unmentionables for buggering off at a time of need. Not like he should have been surprised, because let's face it, Adair was as untrustworthy as Sirius himself liked to think he was. “Do we know how everyone else is faring?”

“Well, shortly after your capture, sir, the rest of the crew were put into their accommodation,” something clanked at this, and Sirius pictured Temzi gesturing at the cell around him. “Perhaps you shouldn't have been so rude, sir.”

And that, right there, was reproach. Sirius would have fallen over, if he wasn't already horizontal. “Temzi my man, have you been learning bad habits from this crew of ruffians? I do believe you have, good fellow, well done, well done. We'll have you sky piratin' in no time!”

“I really think not, Captain,” the returning voice was frosty, though still slightly echoed from that great silly helm that the Dragoon had clearly not taken off.

“Don't you ever take that helmet off, Temzi-boy?”

“No sir, although there was a small,” he coughed, “rather unfortunate incident in the Temple which I would rather forget.” His voice petered off until Sirius had to strain to hear the last, “It was rather hurtful...”

“Cheer up, my man. We'll soon be out of here, cells aren't forever!”

“Well, the Ivalicians said that it was only for the night, so I should imagine that we're not in any real trouble,” Temzi said. “Plus, there is always the factor to take into our accounting that Lady Selene is a Judge, as well as the daughter of Lord Solidor. I feel certain that she would not let anything untoward happen to us, and least of all your good self.”

“You think so?”

“I am certain of it,” Temzi replied, firmly.

And his words were reinforced by the prompt arrival of the scary-looking soldier lady, who introduced herself as Captain Xanthrope. Sirius sprang to the bars of his cell, and craned so that he could see what was going on outside Temzi's.

He heard something about signing a paper, and something about “serving Ivalice” and he chuckled to himself.

“Temzi,” he called out. “Don't let them scam you! Ask the buggers for some money at least. Perhaps some parts for the Wolfstar? No?” A frosty silence greeted his words, and a mumbled apology from Temzi and then the Captain was glaring at Sirius through his bars and he was flashing her his smarmiest, top-notch smile. He ran a hand through his hair, rumpling it up in what he approximated to be a roguish example of good style and breeding.

“Sign here,” she snapped, and thrust the papers through the bars.

“In what, my blood?” Sirius took the papers and scrutinised the terms there. A hefty payoff, lovely, and oho! even better, a full pardon! He held out a haughty hand for a pen, and the Captain thrust it at him as if she wanted to stab it through his hand.

“Ooh, frisky,” Sirius said as he signed his over-the-top flourish. “I do hope you'll be accompanying us on this venture?” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, and snorted when she took the proffered papers and turned her back on him.

“To the future, fair Captain! May we meet again under more felicitous circumstances!” Sirius felt on top of the world. It wasn't every day when you were handed a full pardon. It was a clean slate, if you will. As if the Occuria themselves had rehymenated him, ready and perfect for a life of crime to take his virginity once more. He rubbed his hands together in glee and did a small caper in the limited space. “Just wait til I tell Adair!”

#12 // 1027~

[Kurosakura]

Name: Lisette Rosencrantz
Age: 22
Race: Viera
Gender: Female
Origin: Ivalice

Appearance: Just like any other Viera, Lisette has a slender frame and long legs, built for agility. Her skin is lightly tanned, showing that she is of Veena origins, and she has white hair, a blessing among Viera and takes care not to taint it with dyes. Her thigh-length, silvery hair frames her face, her fringe ending at around her eyes, and the sides falling about shoulder-length. The rest of her hair is kept tied back with lavender thread in a low ponytail, and another tendril is beaded and kept in front, ending in a silver ring. Her rabbit-like ears are white with black tips and her eyes are a pale pink. She stands at around 6'5”, if you include her rabbit ears and stilettos, and 5'7” without.
Her garments are skimpy for the most part, her strappy top is in a bit of a babydoll style, and it reveals much of her shoulders, chest, and lower back due to it being in several parts, and it ends halfway down her thighs. Her skirt is basically two short pieces of cloth tied together at either side of her waist. Her boots are a bit strange since they accommodate her long toes and feature 3-inch high heels due to the structure of Viera feet. She wears gloves of different lengths, a shorter one on her sword arm and a longer, fingerless, form-fitting one on her free hand. Her capelet has a high collar and falls to about waist-length. The color scheme of her outfit is mostly white with hints of lavender and silver.

Personality: Lisette is quiet and composed, choosing to speak in her soft, lyrical voice only when addressed or when necessary. She is fiercely loyal to House Solidor, and will do whatever she is commanded to do, even if it goes against her own morals. She refuses to lie and won't hesitate to say what's on her mind on the rare occasions that she speaks, but she has the common sense not to give away secrets or vital information. Lisette is extremely modest and will dismiss any and all compliments directed at her. Because of her upbringing, she's trained to refrain from expressing any emotion, making her seem cold-hearted. However, she's only truly open to Selene. Determined not to fall behind on her training, even when traveling, she'll wake up at the crack of dawn if need be to hone her skill with her rapier and pores over books to work on her magick.

Weapon Style: Ivalice
Weapon Type: Rapier
Weapon: Fleurette Flyssa is a silver-colored rapier with floral and butterfly patterns engraved on the guard and about midway down the blade, which are inlaid with tinted nacre (mother of pearl).

History: Lisette grew up in Archadia with no knowledge of her family or the Wood, making her feel very out of place in the world since she was taken in by House Solidor and raised as a Hume, despite her noticeably inhuman features and enhanced senses. Selene and she grew up as friends, despite the status difference and vowed to protect her at whatever cost. She looked up to Seta, who she thought was a perfect example of how a bodyguard of the Solidor family should behave and thus trained day and night to be acceptable for the role. After she found out about his death, she as deeply saddened, but the girl maintained her composure and was determined to pick up where he left off.

Other: She has a rivalry with Lyra, muhahaha.

[Crystal Tears]

^_^ Accepted. Welcome to the RPG Kurosakura :3

[ChobiChibi]

Shayna

“That little bitch, waltzing in and stealing my friends from me...”

The red-head’s facade of a cheerful and bubbly attitude was as short lived as it could possibly be in this current situation. After Lyra had made her sign the contract, she spent the time in her cell fuming. She didn’t care that she was locked up and bound to serve Ivalice, that it was cold and she was thirsty, that they’d taken her precious weapons away from her... Well, alright, maybe she was a little annoyed that she didn’t have her Shuriken... But even so, her sister could not escape her mind.

For once, she made no attempt to escape. As far as she was concerned, it wasn’t worth the hassle. She knew that if she waited it out, they would set her free soon enough. Even with that attitude, the days went by slowly and the rage she felt towards her sister grew with each passing hour.

Ignorance is bliss... She reminded herself of one of her father’s favourite sayings as she was reunited with the rest of the Wolfstar’s crew and was informed of the plan of action. Of course, she wasn’t entirely happy. For one, her sister would be attending. That just sent off alarms in her head from the very outset. Secondly, she hated the idea of killing fellow Spirans. She understood Selene’s point of view. In the reverse situation, Shayna would take pride in killing Ivalican soldiers to protect her country. It still made her uneasy. Who was to say that she wouldn’t turn around and blow her brains out?

Don’t be silly... If she intended to do that, she would have already... Shay chuckled uneasily to herself, causing Nii to frown at her.

“Nii wants to know what’s so funny?” She questioned.

“Just had an amusing thought.”

“Care to share?”

“Not particularly.” She mused, smiling at her fellow Spiran. She tilted her head to one side, noting that Kumas wasn’t shadowing the Al Bhed. “Hey, where’s Kumas? Does he count as a weapon?” She turned to Selene. “Since we’re technically free, can we have our weapons back?”

“You call this freedom?” Sori retorted, folding his little arms.

“Some of us didn’t have the privilege of leaving their cells.” Shay shot another glare at Lyra. “I wonder why that was?”

Of course, her sister ignored her comment, her facial expression just as cool and cold as it always was. “Yes...” She confirmed, a little reluctance in her tone of voice. “You may have your weapons back...”

With a spring in her step, she happily accepted back her precious over-sized throwing stars, strapping them to her back. Once everyone was reunited with their weapons, Selene announced that they would be heading towards the Wolfstar now, stopping off in a market on the way for personal supplies.

Shay couldn’t help but stare wide eyed at the huge amount of stalls crammed into such a tiny space, let alone the stunning architecture that surrounded them. Some of the creatures, or to be more politically correct, people, she could never have dreamed existed. She stuck closely to the group, knowing that to many here her presence would not be welcomed, until something shiny caught her eye.

A beautifully crafted pocket watch hung from an older man’s pocket. As the man studied other such items on the stall, she also noticed a rather full looking wallet. With the temptation far too overwhelming, she slipped away from the others, standing next to the man and waiting a few moments before purposely falling into him.

“I-I’m so sorry! Someone shoved me...” She apologised quickly, the hand that was resting on the man’s chest having already snatched the pocket watch from where it was hanging.

The man seemed to double take for a moment as she moved back a couple of steps away from him, glancing at the Shuriken on her back. “At any other angle, you could have killed me...” He laughed nervously, her diversion obviously working as she slipped the watch into her pocket.

“If only I were taller, I wouldn’t get pushed around so much...” The thief pouted, looking up at him with her big blue eyes.

The man frowned as Shayna felt a hand rest upon her shoulder. “May I help you, Captain?”

Fuck...

The ninja wriggled quickly from the soldier’s grip, kicking the man in the shins and leap frogging over him as he was at just the right height to do so. She just about managed not to crash into anyone else in the process, a small miracle for such a crowded place, only stumbling a little before attempting to sprint through the very confused people.

Of course, Lyra was hot on her heels. She was bloody fast, Shay knew this, and she had to think of a way to loose her, since she certainly wouldn’t be able to outrun her...

As the ninja nearly tripped over a small child, the idea finally came. Although she’d like to think that she slowed down, it was actually Lyra that had sped up as she dropped to the floor, leaving the guard no time to think as she tripped over the thief, falling into unsuspecting shoppers. Shayna quickly got to her feet, pulling her Shuriken off her back.

“Spira one, traitor zero.” She taunted, smirking as she stayed put.

“Shut up, Shayna!” Lyra growled. For a second, she could have sworn she saw a little bit of sadness in her eyes... She didn’t have time to dwell on it as her sister raced towards her, having pulled out her gunblade.

Shay’s efforts to ready herself were in vain as her feet left the ground, having been lifted by the back of her top. She flailed in annoyance and Lyra stopped as she caught a glimpse of who had gotten hold of her.

“TEMZI, PUT ME DOWN!”

“I don’t think it’s wise for you to be attacking an Ivalican guard, miss...” He commented as he let her dangle there. “Especially not one that we shall be travelling with...”

“I don’t care! Let me go!” She flailed again, only to have him promptly remove the Shuriken from her hands. Her pleas were falling on deaf ears, since the Dragoon seemed to be siding with what he assumed was a fellow Ivalican. “I can’t wait to get out of here...” She sighed as she noticed a few of the others approaching them.

1072/11 :3

[Weasel Overlord]

ZOMGS A TEMZI POST. *faints*

Temzi :: Dragoon of Justice
:: i never knew a heart could live inside
the rust from all your rain ::

“I say,” Temzi said, somewhat needlessly. “I say. Everyone's here, this is good fortune! Perhaps we can begin our Honourable Quest?” He looked around hopefully, and then realised that he still held Lady Shayna round her middle. He put her down with as much gentleness as he could muster and tugged at his helm apologetically. “My apologies, Lady Shayna. I did not see any sense in aggravating the Ivalician Guards more than our good Captain and his pilot already have. If the Lady Captain is to be travelling with us, we had all best treat her with Honour and Politeness,” he said, almost to himself. “Ah Kain, my life has been somewhat lacking in Honourable Quests lately. It will be good to be upon the right track once more.”

Temzi smiled at the Lady Captain, and then quailed inside at her answering glower. Women in Ivalice were much more... formidable than he had been lead to believe. In his safe, warm days in Leá Monde, he had been assured that women were mostly of the Damsels in Distress persuasion, and highly likely to faint at the sight of a smidgeon of blood, a dash of danger, or a muscular Knight coming to the rescue. But the women in their crew were far from fainting Damsels in need of rescue. In fact, Temzi was mostly of the opinion that he would be more likely to need saving from them. He signed, glumly, but then cheered up again at the thought of adventure. And then he glummed out again, as the thought that Seta would not be there to enjoy the adventure with him. He rather missed the Viera's solid, rock-like presence, no matter how little he smiled or talked or even liked Temzi.

Seta had sort of reminded Temzi of one of the boys at Valendia Academy, only without the constant mocking that came with him and the rest of the class. Temzi had always assumed that his Guado heritage was offensive to the born-and-bred Valendians, but he couldn't understand why they should let such a triviality stand in the way of Friendship and Brotherhood. Although Friendship and Brotherhood weren't exactly fond comrades of Temzi anyway. He accepted this fact with his usual stoicism and not a small dose of confused, wrinkle-nosed expressions as people cornered him mercilessly every lunchtime.

A sharp sound and a collision brought Temzi back into reality and the present to a knocking on the back of his armour.

“We're going, Temzi,” Lady Nii said, and Temzi saw that it was true – the crew were filing eagerly back to the Wolfstar, lead by a capering, dancing Captain de Famfræn who looked like he couldn't contain his jubilation at being reunited with his beloved airship.

Temzi smiled. He might not be the most effusive member of the crew, but it seemed like he'd finally found somewhere he belonged, even though he wasn't as much of a criminal as he was sure Sirius would like. He supposed that, at some point in the very-near-future, he would be receiving some lessons to that effect. And he would soak them up like a Guado sponge, as his mother had made him promise to do to any learning he may come across.

#5 :: 576~

Sirius will be edited in as soon as he's finished capering.

[Kurosakura]

~*Lisette Rosencrantz*~
Flabbergasted

Lisette's metal heels clicked along the castle's polished white marble floor as she took careful steps to the Emperor's chambers. Her gossamer caplet fluttered behind her as she maneuvered her way around the massive edifice, only the sound of her clicking heels could be heard echoing throughout the spacious halls. There was no expense spared within this structure; everything and anything seemed to glitter, and the decorations were exuberant. Large, beautiful paintings were placed strategically along its walls with an occasional tapestry here and there, embroidered with delicate silks and displaying all its glory. The Viera made her way up an enormous spiral staircase, the railings looked as if they were made out of solid gold, or gilded at least, and the girl stopped in front of a lone corridor, guarded by two intimidating soldiers in hues of gray, black, and dark silver in what looked like heavy plated armor, each holding a deadly looking spear. The crossed their spears when she approached and one spoke in a gruff, coarse tone. “Who are you and state your business.”

“My name is Lisette Rosencrantz, I am one of Princess Selene Solidor's personal guard,” she replied softly, her voice barely audible, but still commanded authority, contrasting greatly with the guard's booming one. “I am here to see Emperor Vayne, I am sure he told you that he was expecting me?” She kept her tone business-like: short and clipped, expressing little to no emotion.

“Even if he is expecting you, you still need to show identification.”

Her gloved hand rested on the hilt of a finely crafted silver rapier on her belt and pulled it out. She held it gingerly in both hands and presented it for the guards to examine. “This rapier, Fleurette Flyssa, was presented to me by Emperor Vayne himself when I became a full-fledged member of Princess Selene's guard. It was crafted specifically for myself; it is a one-of-a-kind blade. I believe this is identification in itself.”

He looked over the weapon carefully before handing it back to the Viera. “Very well, you may pass.”

It was one of the rare instances where there Emperor himself wanted to meet with her personally, and she was always amazed at the passageway to his chambers. The décor was simple, but elegant, and left a big impression on her. What Emperor Vayne Solidor called her for, she could only wonder. She had heard rumors through out the castle that Judge Magister Luna-- Princess Selene-- Her Highness-- ugh, she had no time to ponder over little things such as titles and the like, was in fact safe and well. Although one wouldn't be able to detect this at a first glance, the Viera was overjoyed and immensely relieved that her childhood friend didn't perish with so many others, some of which she was acquainted with, at Nalbina Fortress. The girl stopped in front of a pair of enormous double doors, decorated more lavishly than the rest and matched the hall perfectly. She presented her weapon to the final set of guards and passed the threshold.

Lisette strode carefully into the massive room and her eyes were nearly blinded by its radiance. Countless treasures littered the room, and the walls were adorned with portraits of the royal family, she could swear she could see what traits were passed down to who. She stopped for the final time in front of an intimidating figure, his long black hair cascading past his shoulders and his obsidian eyes flashing almost menacingly. She bent down on one knee and spoke, averting his gaze, “ Your Majesty, you wanted to see me?”

“Yes. My daughter did not lose her life at Nalbina Fortress, which is quite the miracle. However, she returned to our beloved Ivalice with... Spiran scum and thieving trash. I fear that we may also have traitors among our ranks. Lyra Xanthrope to be precise. Keep an eye on her and protect my daughter at all costs. Although she has proven her loyalty, she is still Spiran, and I don't trust her as far as I can throw her.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I'll protect her with my life.” She rose and bowed before turning on her heel to leave.

“One last thing.”

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“Make sure Selene doesn't know that I sent you to keep Lyra Xanthrope under surveillance.”

She concealed a smirk and continued on her way out. “Of course.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lisette shielded her eyes from the sun as she stepped out clad in her skimpy clothing. No matter how you looked at it, Viera weren't meant to wear heavy armor. She meandered her way through the to town square, dodging and squeezing past people with ease. The girl eyed a cluster of armed individuals and smiled serenely for a moment, walking towards them and took a moment to collect herself before letting herself come into plain view.

“Good day, Captain Xanthrope,” she saluted curtly and softened her gaze at an all-too familiar figure. “It's good to see you alive, Your Highness. It seems I'll be under your care for the time being.”

~*862 Words/Post #1*~

[Weasel Overlord]

Sirius fir Sterrl de Famfræn
[Captain and General Ruler of the Wolfstar]
far renowned in the underground

Shopping in Archadia with their new payoffs was, Sirius had to admit, exhilarating. He'd managed to haggle himself some nice new parts for Wolfstar (they were being delivered post haste to the ship for him – perks of shopping in Judge Luna's entourage), a pair of handsome new shirts, since his last few had come a cropper with some dicing instruments of death as well as a few blades here and there and not to mention the downright disgusting conditions of the cells. He also bought himself a shiny, sparkling single earring and had it pierced there and then. Of course, he had reckoned without the intense, stabbing pain of having a boiling needle thrust through one's ear, but now he was well acquainted with such pain. He and that pain were on first name terms – a friendly, providing relationship where the earring provided Sirius with blinding pain and Sirius provided the earring with the entertainment of being the source of horrific, blinding pain like nothing he'd experience before.

Ah well, at least it was a learning experience, he thought, clutching a formerly-white scrap of linen to the side of his head. He thrust his free hand into the bag of rum-steeped apricots he'd bought from another stall and crammed a handful into his mouth, feeling the sweetness and the slight numbing effect spread warmly down his throat to land safely in his belly. Of course, this only served to remind him just how hungry he was, and his stomach took pleasure in kicking him, hard, to show its displeasure at being so mistreated.

And so, Sirius headed as fast as he could to the nearest food stall, where he purchased an entire spitted boar, then proceeded to sit down on a handily-placed stump to devour his spoils. The meat was sticky and sweet, and its juices ran down his chin. Sirius didn't much care that he was eating like a pig – only that he was starving like a poor man, and he was no longer a poor man, so he could afford to indulge.

After his hearty meal, Sirius decided that it was high time that he returned to his glorious, slightly abandoned airship to give her the loving she deserved. Plus, he had an itch to polish some hull – quiet time with the lady airship, so to say – and so he hastened, tucking a now-cold pair of legs off the boar into the hand not busy clutching rags to horrible wounds of war.

He came up on the crowd of his dashing, not-so-piratey crew just loitering around, almost as if they were waiting for his fine self to grace their company with his pleasant aromas.

He took a huge bite of boar leg and gesticulated happily at the crew. “What ho, men! And fine ladies of course,” he paused to take another bite and then continued gesticulating, missing hitting Sori in the face by a whisker. “Are we all ready to embark upon a fine adventure? Danger and daring awaits us,” he flung an arm around Adair, throttling him subtly and hitting him in the ear with the boar leg. “And I'm sure Adair here is avid to be off, right Adair, my man? Quite familiar with the old legging it, aren't we?” He glowered at Adair's ear, the part of his pilot that was the closest, and then clapped him heartily on the back with the boar leg, leaving a nice smear of grease and honey-glaze in his wake.

“Forgive and forget, right my man? Yes, I thought so,” he continued, not waiting for a reply. “Ah well, to the skies, men!” He pointed towards the Wolfstar dramatically with the almost-decimated boar leg. He tore off a last strip of meat and flung the bone over his shoulder, hoping dearly that it hit the stuffy new Xanthrope in her prissy face.

He had a definite spring in his step as they boarded his precious airship. Landing in Archadia had been a pleasant enough distraction, what with the dank, dripping cell and all, but in all honesty, Sirius wasn't happy unless there was at least sixty feet and a hell of a lot of clouds between him and the ground and those blasted cells that people were so fond of throwing him into. He was getting fair sick of bouncing off a damp, mouldy wall and having to get new clothes missing bloodstains where he'd been poked and prodded and stabbed and generally manhandled and mistreated. It was almost a shame that no-one knew of his illustrious heritage. He'd read somewhere, as a youngster, that the authorities were more likely to send people with heritage to the gallows and the guillotine, and Sirius was rather fond of his head and neck thank you very much. It was a lesson he'd taken much to heart, and no matter how close he got to anyone – woman or crewmember or, dare he say it, Right Royal Judges of a certain Ivalician high-up family – he would never divulge his origins. Nay, it was better to stay a pirate of the skies, free and dashing and not tied to the ground like a Land Worm.

He leapt up onto the gangplank, vaulted the railing and promptly fell flat on his face. “Alright,” he mumbled, face down into the highly polished planks of Wolfstar. “Who polished those railings so much?”

The sniggers of his crew as they walked past him made his ears turn red. “Hey, no laughing at the captain! Temzi,” he called. “Help me up would you? There's a good man... Oof! Okay, I didn't really need that vambrace in the gut, thank you anyway.” Sirius massaged his bloated stomach where Temzi's armoured fist had connected with it. Purely accidentally, if you took the stuttered apologies and the swift escape of the Dragoon.

“Honestly,” Sirius said, flouncing across the deck. “Do you people have no sympathy!” He yelled at the blank backs of his heartless, unfeelingly hateful crew. He swaggered over to Selene, whose back was artfully turned, and grabbed her round the waist, sweeping her around to look deeply into her eyes. “I am hurt, my Lady Judge. Hurt.”

He decided to completely ignore the look of utter shock and disgust on her face. “Look, I'm even abandoning food for you!” He flung away the last leg of boar, once again desperately hoping that it would hit that blasted other Captain in the face.

“You smell like pig,” Selene pointed out, her eyes narrowed. “And your hands have enough grease on them to oil a gun. And you're not going to get off me, are you?”

“Certainly not, my darling one!” His voice dropped an octave, and he moved closer to whisper in her ear. “Not until I've had my wicked way with you, at any rate.”

He felt what seemed to be a shiver go through her, but dismissed it reluctantly. Selene wasn't one to be overtaken by positive emotions. She must be won by surprise tactics! Pincer attacks, and whatnot. Okay, whoever said that courting women was like war must be shot, Sirius decided, and he took his moment like a pro. Selene was busy removing his hands carefully from her posterior, and he went in for the proverbial kill (there's that damnable war metaphor again!) and smooched her face off. Only, you know, not really, cos he rather liked her face, and those delicious lips, and he was rather enamoured, of late, with the idea of those delicious lips being elsewhere on his body.

His lips curl into a smile at the thought, and, for a sweet second, she seems to be too shocked to pull away. Oh yes, Sirius thinks. This will be the subject matter for many a good daydream to come. He almost forgives her reflexive knee to his poor, abused crotch.

#13 // 1347~

[Crystal Tears]

Selene Solidor .: + :. … Get…. Off…

‘PIG’

She wasn’t quite sure if she was referring to the man who was forcing his lips on hers, the smell he emitted or the disgusting taste now slipping through her lips and onto her tongue. It was horrendous, her stomach knotted and her free hand, which wasn’t trying to push Sirius off of her, curled into a fist.

Selene hated many, many things. Notable on this list was pirates, but there was a distinct thing that was more hate-worthy than lawless bastards.

Selene loathed pork.

She couldn’t punch him, he was much to close. In fact there was area of his body that she hadn’t wounded yet. With her womanly instincts on high, she forcefully and quickly brought her knee forward. His lips parted from hers and suddenly his strength was gone, as he buckled from the pain she pushed him as hard as she could, sending him toppling to the ground as his hands clasped down on his wounded man-parts.

“URGH!” She snarled, and spat afterwards. Lisette stepped up next to her, almost inspecting the princess to make sure she wasn’t damaged as Lyra put herself between the woman and Sirius. “Gods damn him to hell, he tasted like pork!”

“Well he had been eating-“

Selene shot a nasty glare over at Shayna, who clamped her mouth shut.

“Shutting up…”

Selene wiped of her mouth harshly, trying desperately to get the feeling of grease, and worse, Sirius off of them. The first time they had been in a death situation; that had been somewhat more acceptable… This was definitely NOT how she planned to get started on the journey to even the odds against Spira.

“Adair…” She growled, “Start the ship…”

“I uh…Yes Captain-Lady-er…” He paused tilting his head at her. “Judge Lady I am in agreement, I’ll-“


“SPIRANS!”

Everyone from the opposing country notably froze, Adair thought to continue, but Selene didn’t give him the chance.

“Get off the ship!” She called, making everyone run back onto the cobblestone of the road. Sirius was not so fortunate as to be able to run, so the Judge was forced to grab him and haul him off. It was then, just after that, the hull and entrance of the Wolfstar was battered by bullets from a Spiran fighter.

“Saved… Me?” Sirius winced, trying desperately to overcome the pain. “You are an indecisive one… Perhaps you-“

“Sirius the only person who is allowed to end your life is me, not some Spiran dog..” She whispered harshly, so that the others didn’t hear.

“Judge Luna!” Lyra called to her, drawing her attention from her comrade. “Spiran soldiers are in the town square!”

The woman gritted her teeth and readied her gun. She looked over at Sirius. “You want to earn my affection?”

“Is it at all possible my lady?”

The princess smiled, and touched his cheek gently. “Help me take back the Square and you’ll be one step closer to my forgiveness…”

As the others began to move, the Captain, seemingly having recovered from the kick, grabbed Selene’s arm.
“For what exactly?”

“For tasting like pork.” With that she tugged her arm free and ran to check up with the others. She could hear Sirius from behind her, and he couldn’t see the devious smile on her face.

“YOU MEAN THE KISS WAS OKAY?!”

* * *

Spirans were everywhere, Selene wasn’t used to seeing so many, and certainly was not comforted by the fact they were in her home city. She gritted her teeth, watching as the group split up to take on whatever foe they wished. One of the green and pale yellow clad soldiers of the opposing side turned to her and fired their rifle. It looked somewhat similar to what Nii used, now that she recalled.

The woman didn’t really think about the life threatening situation she was poised in, instead of taking cover she charged. Avoiding the barrage of bullets, she was only a few feet away when she fired. The enemy slumped, falling to the ground only for another to take his place.

Only this one had a sword.

Selene growled, almost dancing out of the way of the swipe to fire again, another Spiran dropped to the ground.

She stopped suddenly when Lisette appeared behind her, her rapier cutting clean through a soldier’s unguarded throat. He gurgled, stammering around lost, before collapsing on the ground.

“Perhaps you should be more careful Miss…” She nodded, and readied herself. “You left yourself open.”

“I’ll make note…” Selene’s reply was a bit harsher then intended as she shot another down. “I’m sorry…” The woman looked away, moving to another point of cover as the Viera stuck by her. “I’m just…”

“Agitated, it’s understandable.”

“Oh?”

“Well… Personally Miss I wouldn’t want a pig like Sirius kissing me.”

For a moment, despite the situation Selene looked lost in thought. “No… That would be… Is horrible…”

“They have summoners!” Sori’s voice cut through the gun blasts and battle cries as strange beings moved onto the field. They had wild hair and gangly hands, dressed in robes with little armour. They were guarded by soldiers wearing a tad more armour.

“Who the hell are they?” Selene questioned, as Sirius moved up beside her.

“Guado my lady, I believe Temzi is of their kind. Known to be a sour lot, with tendencies to-“ Comet like objects flew from the ground and suddenly three large blue Flan were on the field. “Summon fiends.”

“Oh…” The gunner frowned. “Perfect.”

“No! Bad... Tap… skittle… trip. FU—“

Adair’s next words were swallowed… by Flan. Selene blinked; she hadn’t encountered many flan-like creatures. The gunner knew enough though, to realize that being trapped in one probably wasn’t the safest of ventures. The pirate had one foot sticking out the belly of the monster, as he slowly squirmed inside, looking at the others for help. The Flan didn’t look bothered really, just sat there and began to glow as it readied a spell.

The sight reminded her distantly of one of her favourite childhood deserts, jello-fruit cups.

“Right…” Selene bit her lip and looked over at Lisette. “Flan are weak against magic correct?”

She nodded, adding quietly. “They’re opposing element.”

“Hm…” She looked over at Sori, who nodded to her. “Right, we protect Sori from the guards, he kills the Flan, we save the ditzy pilot…”

“A sound plan.” Sirius agreed. “Shall we?”

The gunner nodded, and as Sori moved up behind them for cover. She, the Viera and the dear Captain charged, ready to take on the Spirans.

1089 .: + :. 29

Mission Time!

Spirans have invaded Archadia! They’re armed with guns, swords, lances, and the occasional guado & fiend back up! The town square is a key military point, as it leads directly to the Solidor Castle. Hold this ground, help each other, and otherwise end the persistent Spiran threat coming from all angles (there’s four entrances into the square, and only one of them is a safe retreat point [towards the Castle]). Look out for the occasional fire from above too, damn fighters…

INTERACTION IS KEY ♥ ♥

Btw, The Guado can summon various Spiran monsters, but don’t make them too difficult.

OH, Sori, Selene, Sirius and Lisette’s Mission is to save Adair… TAG GUYZ