come_sailaway | [OPEN] We are the light that travels into space

Entry tags:

[OPEN] We are the light that travels into space

Who: Bash St. Expedit and You
When: Pre-Event September
Where:
Summary: Arrival and settling in
Warnings: Discussion of death is common with this character

1. Can't remember when, but it's happened before [Promenade]
While Bash has come to understand a little about the nature of this place and how he got here, he can't help but wonder if he's the only one who was taken at the time he was. Seeing this place has no network (a curse, but also a boon--he knows his nudes won't be leaked to the whole ship at once), he decides to park himself someplace public and people-watch in the hope of seeing someone familiar.

Spot Bash outside Sand Dollars with a fucking huge cup of coffee and a thoughtful look on his face, watching people passing on the Promenade and lifting that cup in salute if they make eye contact.

2. Saw it all played out through a crack in the door [Location Varies]
Bash has already noticed his deathly powers have returned, so he wants to double-check that his other ones are working as intended. So, it's possible to run into him doing one of several tests:

a.) Shadow-Step: Either early in the morning or late in the afternoon when shadows are long, Bash can be found around the deck, pool deck or sports deck, moving around the ship not by walking, but by slinking from shadow to shadow, briefly visible between steps before melting into darkness and coalescing again.

b.) Unbarred Entry: Only done in public spaces (and not inappropriate ones), Bash is making sure he can still step through walls. Perhaps you're in the library or one of the lounges or Playback, when he just. Walks into the room through a wall, casually as you please.

3. Send me something good for the way that I feel [Tauva]
Regular smokers will note a new presence in the cigar lounge, rifling through the humidor. He's sniffing each cigar, examining the material of the wrapper and size thoughtfully. Hearing footsteps behind himself, though, he turns with a sheepish smile.

"Do you need to get in here? I can grab you something, if you like."

4. And I'll show you all the things that I've seen [Wildcard]

darkersolstice or darkersolstice#9463 to plot

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What a coincidence- from the other side of the sports deck, someone else disappears into the shadows and reappears atop the bridge, in the long shadow the radio tower casts. Whoever it is then proceeds to flop out like a starfish, seeming to be staring up at the sky.

Well. If something cool is up there...

The shadow lengthens and splits out another person a moment later, who remains standing for the moment, watching her.

"Stole my trick, now no one's going to be impressed when I do it, huh?"

He's about a decade older than her, slouching slightly where he stands, and he's got Big Vibes to someone like her, probably.

Darcy visibly startles- he doesn't have the same overwhelming vibes as Death did when she met Him sat by the pool, but there's a split second where she thinks she's about to get torn into by one of the Kerberoi. Very brief, anyway, and she remarks "Okay I've got to stop doing that to people," as she regains her composure.

"If it makes you feel any better, most of them still jump at it. You... new?"

"Freshly arrived, yeah. Uh, mind I sit down?" He looks sheepishly around the space she's occupying, then back down at her. "Or were you looking to do the cool Batman brooding thing alone?"

"I'm not Batman brooding," snaps the goth sitting on the highest rooftop she can find. Being in the presence of someone so Deathly again is kind of setting her on edge, and Darcy forces herself to take a breath.

"Sure, sit if you want. 'M Darcy, welcome aboard for whatever that means."

"You're absolutely Batman brooding, just look at you." He laughs warmly as he settles down beside her. "I mean, I can't judge, given, so you do you. I'm Bash."

There's a pause, and he tilts his head like a confused cat while his gaze lingers on her. Ooh, she's done did some dying, huh? There doesn't seem to be a graceful way to ask about that, though. Not yet.

" 'm absolutely not."

Huffy instead of snappy this time. Someone ought to give this kid a cape. There's no polite way to ask how someone died but there's also no way for a deathly being to stare at her without her guessing at what he's pondering.

"Drowning, fell from a height, shot, hacked to death, fell from a height again. You died too, or just deathly?"

"Son of Baron Samedi. Kinda. It's complicated. So 'deathly', of those two choices. Which was the worst?"

Yes, that's absolutely a nosy question. Kinda completely awful. It's also the best way he can express that he's not entirely put off by her everything.

Blinks.

"Like... the Lwa? Lord of the Crossroads Baron Samedi?"

Not her area of expertise, but there was a Houngan in one of the two Paris Krewes, and she'd learned a little via osmosis through Terre Mére.

"How does that work?" A brief pause, then- "if you start explaining the birds and the bees I'm shoving you off this roof."

Darcy waves her hand vaguely.

"Drowning, I guess. They're all quick ways to go, but drowning feels like an hour in a minute. I got lucky with my falls and died on impact both times, otherwise they would've probably been worse."

"Wrong part of the pantheon. Baron Samedi's the leader of the Ghede, the lwa who do dead shit. Though if we're getting technical, my father's St. Expedite or Expeditus, who's syncretized with the Baron and since more people know about him..."

A hand gesture that says something similar to 'you get the picture' here.

"My ma's human, though."

"...patron saint of revolutionaries, things happening quickly, and procrastinators. Huh."

Can saints have children?? Is that a thing that can happen??? Don't mind her, Darcy's just going to blue screen for a moment.

"Weird."

"Oh, you're well-informed, aren't you?"

Bash nods, genuinely surprised to hear someone knows who St. Expedite is.

"Anyway, it's Baron Samedi's powers I inherited, mostly. That's where the deathliness comes from, because he claimed me and gave me the Visitation. We were living in New Orleans; if Ma'd stayed on La Réunion, it'd probably have been St. Expedite, because he's more commonly worshipped there. Not the point."

He rakes a hand back through his hair. "I mean, not that any of that's the point here, I'm not gonna be ferrying souls to the underworld here, either, yeah?"

"Only about saints, really. I hunted ghosts back home, and... It's kind of dumb not to read up on something I was using in my hunts."

A pause.

"I mean- don't get me wrong, I wasn't like one of those assholes with the ouija boards or anything. It was hunting to help them move on, or stop them hurting people. You probably don't have sin-eaters in your world, but it's kind of our duty to care for the dead."

Speaking of, she huffs again.

"Yep. The ones here are... God, I don't know if anyone else even gets how fucked up what's been done to them is."

"I do get it. Shades, almost, more than ghosts. They're...mh. It's bad shit, and I don't know where even to begin with helping them. We can't even help ourselves here, under the circumstances."

He shakes his head. "I dealt with ghosts back home, too. Mostly those who haunted roads. Phantom hitchhikers, the girl in the bloody prom dress, folks like that. You know how there's stretches of road where cabs don't stop at night because ghosts don't tend to pay their fares? That's where I worked, mostly. At least in New Orleans. After my father sent me to Boston, the work changed. Uuuh, but a lot of that's problems specific to my world and timeline, so it's nothing you gotta worry over, arright?"

"Same way we help ourselves I guess. Working out how this place works, and how to... do you know much about the Captain, yet?"

She offers him the nod of one professional to another, affirming- "that's important work. Not anything I was involved in back home, not usually, but important. I... I mean, there was four of us for a city and I had my own shit to do, but my job mostly was finding the silent deaths. The ones who went missing with nobody to look for them."

Like herself. Like attracts like.

"I... won't worry about it, then?"

“I...don’t really know much about the captain. But this isn’t my first world-napping, so you can stick to the specifics of this ‘verse instead of the basics of ‘how to survive’, I think.”

Which is still weird to admit. Part of him wonders if someone from this ship got sent to Duplicity as a trade.

"I was already going to. Okay- imagine the oldest ghost you can think of. Can't remember their name, what they are, who they are, what they want, anything. Not a thing. That's the Captain in a nutshell. And we're here as fodder for him to work out who and what he is, and then eventually become a god. So. I don't know what your last time was like, but it's complicated here."

A broad shrug.

"What was your last time like?"

Bash takes a deep breath, and visibly seems to be picking out the parts he can talk about.

"It was a city, not a ship. A closed off city with guards and laws and a jail to throw you in, if you misbehaved. But their other means of behavior control was drugged foods and drinks. To make us behave in the way they wanted. There were...very strictly defined roles in society. Have and have-nots, if you catch my drift. Everyone who arrived there was assigned one or the other, and had to behave in line with their role. Or else."

Yes, he's leaving a lot out. But clearly even explaining that much is...a lot, for him.

"...I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I prefer the ship."

A small, forced laugh.

"At least the bastard doesn't do... that. I'll take zombies over that. I don't know what I'd do in that situation."

"You endure. You try to make connections and keep one another sane. Build a life in the city. Keep your head down and follow the rules, balancing orders with the lives of those around you."

His voice is low, and he draws his knees up to his chest.

"And I'm guessing that if burning it all down was an option, people would've done that by now."

Same with stabbing the Captain.

"My condolences. I... hopefully here we'll be able to actually change shit for the better, ehn?"

"You think there's an actual chance of that, here?" He tilts his head to one side thoughtfully. "I mean, if so, that's a great thing. But that was definitely not in the realm of possible where I was before. There were folks who'd been around three, four years with the situation only getting worse over time. More restrictive. More punishments and threats."

"I do, actually."

Darcy has no clue when exactly she became an optimist, but... honestly compared to where he came from, the situation feels significantly less futile.

"It's like... he's been here for hundreds of years, right? Chewed through countless people, and we spent the first couple of months trying to work out how to hurt him, how to kill him. But... everyone else has already tried that. Actual goddesses, apparently," said a little derisively, "and none of them succeeded. Ever. The Captain's never made any progress on working out what he is ever, he's not gotten any closer to being a God."

Her tone turns... not smug, but proud. Of their efforts, of recognizing an angle that nobody else ever had.

"Nobody had even thought to try the other angle. Helping him. We worked out why he's never made any progress, and why he's so obsessed with becoming a god in the first place. I... really think we're going to be the ones who break this cycle."

"Actual goddesses, huh? Anyone I know?" That's half-joking, but the rest of what she says catches him. He purses his lips.

"Helping people break a cycle is hard, but...you know, if there's anything I can do to help. Uh. I'm not all that smart, so I might not be able to figure shit out. But I know how to be kind, even to dickweeds."

"Guabancex? Goes by Pirate Jenny, I think."

She huffs a small laugh, "you and me both. With the not smart thing. I've mostly been taking notes and helping the smarter people work shit out by 'mhm'-ing a lot. But someone who's kind will be useful. I've... I have a habit of getting baited by him. He's really good at annoying people."

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