SEPTEMBER EVENT: SKULLY'S ANGELS

[sailmods]

[around 10:30PM, after Friday has returned from bringing all the other guests back to the ship, she parks the tender just off the shore, idling. she sticks her head out of the door.]

Good luck! Just come get me if you need anything! [beat] But, only if it’s something I can do without stepping outside! [beat] Have fun!

[she then pops back inside. they’re on their own, for now.

the salamander villagers have returned to their homes for the night, it seems… all but one, a smaller one, bedecked in leather armor and carrying a spear. they watch the group as they leave the beach, eyes fixed… and then, slowly but distinctly, they toss their head in the direction of inland, and turn away from them to begin a sort of watch.

perhaps that was salamander for good luck. you’ll need it.]

Comments

3/3

[sictransitgloriamundi]

[he considers something for a moment... nods firmly. turns to look at Skulduggery, meeting his gaze.]

Kill me.

[light_mischief]

[Skulduggery doesn't move, still staring. his voice is carefully neutral.]

Tell me why I should do that.

tw: suicidal ideation just. around.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

Because there is nothing else that can be done. Because everything I have been trying to do has been a complete waste of time for reasons entirely out of my control. Because control was never meant to be mine.

[he stares, unblinking, voice flat but with a slight manic speed to the cadence.]

There is only one option. Please.

[light_mischief]

[it would be so easy to become interrogative. to push and pry for the sort of straight answers the Captain never gives. it's what he does. it's the simplest way to get what he wants.]

...There's always another option. I can help you figure it out, if you'd just... talk to me.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

... I have... memory of a memory. What I was told about where I came from. I would have been far too young to remember. Far too young... They claimed I was even too young to be named, some of them.

There was a village of us. I couldn't tell you where. But, all of us lived there, all types... In the reality I come from, humans don't have internal magic, but they can use beings of magic as... conduits, I suppose. So, they take them. Attack using the human weapons that are so strong against us... They kill all the Marids. They're too willful to keep captive. The ifrit are worth more as parts for spells and potions. Livestock. The ones they really want... Jann. Ghuls, if they can find them; they don't live in settlements, usually... [pause] Sa’alin. Especially. Specifically.

[another pause]

So. That is all I remember. The tale a vague succession of masters would tell me. [pause] The next one won't know. A small blessing.

[light_mischief]

[information is good. it's... supposed to be good. there's no situation that can't be better understood, no darkness that can't be illuminated.

Skulduggery listens to the Captain speak, lets the information settle in bits and pieces, little weighted stones that would sink in his gut if he had one. it is terrible to learn and he isn't even the one affected.

he's glad, he thinks, that the Captain doesn't immediately ask to die again. he'll turn him away as many times as it takes but this... does throw the request into sharper light.]

I'm sorry. [but sympathy is only going to go so far.] If that's true, then... what about the Eterna? What about all of this?

[sictransitgloriamundi]

A waste. Of time, life, effort... Tilting at windmills. Sisyphus pushing the boulder uphill. Searching for a cure to a disease I was born with. [bitterly] I can't even know for certain that what I feel for you is mine, or just the will of Stede Bonnet.

[he leans his head back on the wall, closing his eyes.]

You can end it here. You can give them all what they think they want. The only freedom I'll ever be able to grant to anyone. The only one available to me.

[light_mischief]

[so. that's how it's going to be.

an enormous amount of information like this needs to be processed, broken down, weighed against each other to determine what's workable and what's superfluous. it would be too much to ask for that time directly; the despair that's settling in is fit enough to suffocate either of them, should they have to breathe.

he bows his skull under that pressure, unmoving for a long moment. he knows that they wouldn't even realize what had happened. it would just... be over. immediate oblivion. finally getting to rest. most of them already would prefer that over being trapped here.

he lifts a grimy, gloved hand up, pinching one leather finger in his teeth and pulling his hand free. there's still blood and dirt and who knows what else on them, and a little of that sticks to his teeth, but it hardly matters.

he holds his bare hand out between them, palm up, and nudges the Captain's foot with his own to draw his attention.]

[sictransitgloriamundi]

[he opens his eyes slightly, looking at the hand with an eyebrow raised. if his eyes are shining a bit more than they usually are, fuck you, no they aren't.]

[light_mischief]

[the fingers flex briefly.]

Give me your hand. [it's said gently, but it feels too close to an order. so he tacks on a softer, less certain,] Please?

[sictransitgloriamundi]

[a pause.

he looks away, but... he holds his hand out to him, fingers just barely, hesitantly, touching his own.]

[light_mischief]

[it's enough proximity for him to slide their fingers together; it's a loose hold, easy to pull away from. unlike at the overlook, Skulduggery keeps his gaze on their interlocked hands.]

Stede Bonnet might have overwhelming willpower, but it wasn't until that first crew meeting that he got it into his head that something was going on between us. Before then? The pool? Karaoke?

[his fingers press against the ones between them.]

I don't know if you should give him so much credit.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

... Hm. You really do have a talent for making it sound as if I have a say in the matter.

[... he squeezes back, tightly.]

Perhaps that's what I like...

[light_mischief]

It can't possibly be my charming personality and winning smile.

[just an ever so gentle tease.]

...Are... hm. [so many questions that need answers. he isn't even sure where to start. probably somewhere small.] ...How long can people live here safely? Not just the passengers, but you and Jenny. And Friday, for that matter.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

I've never really thought about it. [frowns, shrugs] Until my death, I suppose. That's the only thing the homeostasis of this reality depends on. So, anywhere from right now to the end of forever.

[light_mischief]

Hmm. [that's a lot of time to work with, assuming the oblivion-minded among the passengers don't take matters into their own hands.] Gives me room to spread out the interrogation, at least. [wryly, as his conversation with Rin has left him feeling a certain sorta way about his ability to communicate]

So we stay here, on an unchanging ship for eternity. ...What if people wanted to go live with the salamanders instead? Could they do that? Leave this reality and insert themselves somewhere else?

[sictransitgloriamundi]

In theory, they could go wherever they like. [beat] Except, of course, the exact moment they're taken from. That would obliterate them.

[...] Yes. Just in theory.

[light_mischief]

But in reality, I take it you've never bothered to test it, since the point was to keep us here. [he moves his thumb slowly across the back of the Captain's hand as he talks, as if holding a worry stone.]

Is there a possibility of them ever going home? Maybe not to the exact moment they left, but... a week later, maybe. A year?

[sictransitgloriamundi]

There is the slight possibility that meeting themselves from a different point in the timeline will implode, at minimum, one reality, but, really, that's just a chance you take with most actions in life.

[he thinks, maybe, that will be enough to distract him from the fact that "the point" is not to be spoken of in the past tense.]

[light_mischief]

That... sounds about right. [oh well. a problem for some, but not for him.] Too bad.

[anyway]

So they could theoretically leave, if you let them. [he doesn't imagine that's actually on the table. for all of his talk of tilting at windmills, Skulduggery doubts the Captain will be so willing to let a group of captives go.]

...You wouldn't, though, would you? Just let everyone leave, if they wanted to.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

[silence.

then, rather firmly:] No.

[light_mischief]

[his thumb stills.]

Then what? You said so yourself. This whole thing has been a Sisyphean nightmare, not just for the passengers but for you, specifically.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

... Well. You know. I do have to keep the lights on, still.

[pause]

And I can't risk word getting out. One lone lunatic raving about a haunted cruise ship isn't going to attract much attention. "Here's where to find a masterless jinn," however... That will bring the wolves.

[light_mischief]

[the moment he tells the others what the Captain is, they're going to look into trying to control him. and that would be -- unconscionable.

his grip tightens faintly.]

I'm technically the only passenger who knows that part.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

[a long pause.

and then... a snort. and he's looking over at him with a half-grin.]

Come, now. You mean to tell me you won't tell a single soul that you solved the great mystery? You know that if you tell Ava, you're telling the entire ship.