#but it manifests in the willow thing bc this is where i see it the most in this fandom

[theajaheira]

part of why the "is Willow bi or gay" frustrates me is because there's so many avenues to explore the biphobia in BTVS? like the moment Buffy starts having fun with Faith the narrative punishes her, or vampires get to be bi because "sexy evil". you don't have to pick the one lesbian for this debate I guess?

i do understand where you're coming from! i just don't think there's an answer that's gonna satisfy every person here. if it's been 20 years and there are still people who find meaning and beauty in willow being bisexual, then that says there is a compelling story that can and should coexist with the people who find meaning and beauty in willow being a lesbian.

i don't want to carve anything into the rocks and say This Is Irrefutable And Can Never Change -- not about any part of this story, or any story! to me fandom is all about transformative works. it's gotta be in flux. debate implies that it's one side vs. the other. i think all sides should exist at the same time.

[archersgoon]

what i have been thinking about recently is my own personal headcanons regarding carles and tilda. bc i don't think it's a stretch to argue that the image we get in-canon is an idealised view of them greatly impacted by their violent deaths (like this is just text. thank you abian). as some of you may be aware i am not especially fond of carles, so this will not be especially charitable to him

i should clarify my personal mont timeline here (assume carles is roughly of an age with tilda his family is 100% less interesting [&less relevant] to me). first we're putting yata's birth at roughly 13 years earlier than it is in canon (so she's ~78 in fotr). we're also making saro a decade older, and moving tilda from fifth to second in birth order. i think i'm putting her and saro as very close in age also. like <18 months. so she was roughly 50 when she died, making her 41 & 43 at the births of balthazar and isaboe, respectively, and (assuming a 15-16 yr age gap between evestalina & isaboe) making her (and carles) roughly 27 when they had their first kid.

ok now that's out of the way. their first meeting. i think this actually went as established in canon they were incredible impulsive lol. good for them. altho i will say that i go for ~25 as the age here, which i think is a bit older than implied. anyway it sort of reads like he's already king by this point and lumatere government + court is incredibly small, so they come back to the palace like 'we're getting married!! 😁😁" and topher's predecessor is sat there head in hands while topher goes out to hunt down some willow bark.

so young adult tilda's spent her whole life in a local position of relative power, since her father's hbic of the monts & saro's his successor (and saro at least is real enough to involve her) + presumably she was involved in whatever yata's job description is. so she rocks up to the palace with smaller-scale experience that can in theory be applied here, and she's used to being listened to. she figures she can clean up shop a bit if necessary.

here's where it starts to get nasty (sorry). i... don't really think she was doing all that well in the palace. like i think carles was a loving & doting husband or whatever the fuck, but i don't think he really listened to her in matters of state. like we know she grit we know she had determination but none of that ever really shines through in terms of policy & stuff. dragon ships foreign policy etc. do not seem to be things she had any influence in & tbh i think the only real in-canon manifestation we can attribute specifically to her is that doggedness you see in isaboe regarding survival of the royal house

i think this is mostly due to carles. if we assume that finnikin's stance on women (while relatively extreme) is derived from more common views in lumatere then it isn't a stretch to assume that carles, while undeniably in love with his wife, maybe didn't respect her as a person quite as much as he thought he did. like he had that same problem wherein he treats valid concerns as just women's business even at the expense of his personal & political clout (you can also argue that this dynamic being modeled for isaboe as the ideal relationship explains why she puts up with finnikin's bullshit as much as she does, even if she does exercise concrete power). so even though this weakens his position & makes him an ineffectual king that's how things proceed.

as a result we have tilda, who loves her husband but is frustrated by his ineffectiveness, exercising authority in the one area left to her: producing an heir. if we assume the same semi-salic succession laws as in belegonia & charyn apply here, then without a son from her the lumateran heir is the future imposter king (i assume this position was why he was captain of the guard despite his conflicting loyalties), who she sees being weak, ineffectual, and frankly dangerous every damn day. but she keeps having daughters. and canonically this weighs on her a lot mentally and physically. even if we don't use my preferred timeline, it certainly reads like there's at least a decade b/w evestalina and balthazar. from her pov she has one job & she can't seem to do it. we don't know when yata started doing the one week on, one week off routine, but i think it's probably because even with all the paid assistance she gets as the queen, even before she had five kids total, tilda was not doing well emotionally. like if i am being honest i think she felt trapped in that palace.

anyway. was carles in any way helpful here? i don't fucking know. he was clearly engaged with his children in the few snippets we get of him, so he would've hopefully been a help on that front, but i don't know how useful he was on a deeper level. like were he and tilda supporting each other in their attempts for an heir, or was he being (from his perspective) helpful in a way that only compounded the pressure she felt (i.e. 'maybe next time' kind of chatter every time they had a daughter/any presumed miscarriages [they defo happened]). & then after she finally manages balthazar she immediately follows it up with a high-risk accidental pregnancy. howd she feel about that (i know yata & seranonna were shitting bricks). like all that effort and now you might die. but then she survived and finally got a kid that looked like her so maybe it was fine idk

i think maybe things did improve after that given 1. the removal of the imposter king both as heir & captain (and his removal to charyn) & 2. the assurance provided by balthazar. though carles was still shit-useless as king so that was presumably a major stressor

tldr tilda was unprepared for both the increased pressure that came with being queen & her husband's failure to take her seriously when she tried to advise him politically, resulting in her focusing all her effort on that front into producing an heir, in a way that was incredibly unhealthy for her on many levels

[welcometogrouchland]

See, it's less about whether or not Willow is the braincell, and more about the fact that Willow likes taking care of her friends and looking out for them. It's both a source of self esteem and worth for her (she feels useful and competent if she's helping others) AND it's her main way of expressing her gratitude and affection for her friends presence in her life. They make her happy so she's gonna keep them safe and out of harms way. Plus most of her friends (sans hunter) have a history of looking out for her that, as much as she appreciates, she'd rather not return to. She likes her independence and she likes her new role in the friend group, she doesn't want to take steps back.

Sometimes this Need To Help manifests as magical outbursts that may not be great strategic moves (when she thinks Hunters been kidnapped in coth). Sometimes it manifests as scolding and steering in the right direction (her with Gus in something ventured) but ultimately letting them make their own choices. Ultimately Willows the sort of person to do whatever she thinks is right in the given situation for the people around her. When she can summon it, she has a lot of wisdom for her age (seen in the scene w/ her getting everyone to share food on the airship in king's tide). And if she can't summon it, she'll still try and do whatever seems right in the moment (gives hunter the pic of flapjack) and just problem solve as the day goes on until someone feels better, goddamit! <- this is the kinda moment that leads to rash decisions, bottling her feelings and burning out bc she really doesn't wanna fail due to her history and self esteem issues. It's why Hunter comforting her works so well in ftf and completely shifts their dynamic. She finally has confirmation that someone who loves her won't love her any less when she fucks up, but I digress.

Willows always looking out for others, and sometimes she's dumb about it, sometimes she's smart about it! It depends on who she's helping, why they need help and what kind of day she's had/where she is. Thanks to Them showed Willow in a pretty stable situation, hence there's extra room for silliness. For the future was following extremely distressing events and put even more stresses on Willow herself. Hence she bottles things up and struggles to make the good decisions she was once able to. It's not like she became a worse leader or friend since asias or king's tide (episodes that take time to include small moments of her playing to people's strengths, doing good strategy, making sure no one's left behind, etc). She's just having a really garbage fucking day.

She's probably only gonna get 1 Moment™ or so in the finale bc she had her day in ftf and I'm content with that, but I was rewatching asias where she DOES take on a responsible leadership role (while still maintaining her whole "blossoming wallflower/crouching underdog hidden badass" thing) and it reminded me of the small contained debate that happened around thanks to thems airing. Because yes, Willow and Gus were Goofy™ that ep, but a) they were literally comic relief in season 1 + 2A, it kinda has precedent and b) Willow is only as sensible as the situation calls for her and as her environment allows. She's nuanced like that!

[wr3nns]

THANKS TO THEM SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT SERIOUSLY I'M GOING TO TALK ABOUT THINGS

I can't believe the possession and Flapjack death predictions were actually correct.

The way he calls him "Flap" I'm. I'm going to perish.

He liked himself he was happy he was content he had a positive self-image and then they just had to go and. They just went and. They just.

I just kept thinking about how much of a hell all those little details must have been to animate and they did so so so WELL I'm so impressed and happy with the results it's so pretty and full of life and character. The little rainbow heart pin on Camila's jacket, the costuming details, the stitching, the little character motions, the expressions, the shapeshifting, the magic, the.

THEY BROUGHT OUT THE FRAMES. the frames the frames the frames the frames the fra

their moodbuilding and tension and the atmosphere and

that fight scene was so so so so so so cool and epic and magnificent and the slow build of dread and unease and how it manifests and hits that peak and then it's just outright FEAR and

Amity was gonna surprise her with the rebus and the clue and the puzzle and she was gonna give her girlfriend something with hope and she was gonna give her a nice surprise and she was gonna do a nice sweet thing and

and Luz accidentally outing Hunter bc she's just so freaked out and scared and not in the right headspace and they're having a MEDICAL PROBLEM and she doesn't know what to do and

and BOTH of them getting outed and the others not blaming them or getting upset over it because

and GUS HAS KNOWN THE WHOLE TIME YOU CAN SEE IT YOU CAN TELL LOOK AT HIM

THE GIRAFFE

Willow taking up photography and Hunter getting really into sewing and Vee becoming more her own person with her own shape and image and self-expression and

The haircut, the book, how he nudges the book away a little bit

Amity not knowing how the library boxes work and getting freaked out by their mechanics and aefkjakjlef she's so silly I love her

the fashion the outfits the montage the physical representations of the passage of time my HEART

Gus with the little magic amplifier pendant earring and

"Hey Belos, Remember me?" AND CLEARLY HE DOES BECAUSE HE GOT MORE AGITATED

HUNTER FINALLY GETTING TO TELL OFF BELOS

THE FRAMERATE THE FRAMERATE THE FRAMERATE

NEVER GOING TO BE NORMAL ABOUT ANYTHING EVER AGAIN HOW COULD THEY HOW COULD THEY

nonbinary masha yes yesss i remember seeing the nails and just doing so much hand flapping because YESSSSS

sgregafrgsergserg jacob. everyone is so fed up with him it's always so funny asdkjfnjkleawh

THE VOICE OF THE LEGION THE REVERB THE

H

i'm good i'm cool i'm awesome i'm great everything is fine and dandy and nice and

i mean Hunter is made in part of palistrom wood and

WHERE DOES THE PORTAL OPEN UP WHERE DOES IT LEAD IN THE DEMON REALM WHERE WILL THEY SHOW UP WH

luz's human mom can finally meet her owl mom,,, and her demon brother,,, and

Hunter. finally finally finally being able to cry openly and being able to cry when he was always holding back the tears before you could SEE IT but now he's part of the family... and he gets to be emotional,,, and Luz gives him a little hug

and he can't hold back the tears for Flapjack. that was his emotional support palisman. actually. like really actually you can see it. that was his emotional support palisman. seriously. like actually his emotional support animal. his best friend.

but he'll be okay because he has family and a support system and there's gotta be a possession recovery thing in the demon realm, i mean it just. i mean. man's gonna find some books i just know it. that's what he does. he reads.

he hasn't seen his face yet he doesn't know. he doesn't know

gus and willow i love you i love you you're best friends you match each other's energy you're so silly you're so powerful you're so supportive you're so wonderful

he wants to play flyer derby with his friends. he has friends. he wants to play flyer derby with his friends. he

give the palisman a kiss too,,,, camila is such a good mom, Luz is such a good kid, i love them they're so good so good so wonderful

i want to draw

the sheer amount of little background details is stunning. i'm in awe. the little character traits too.

hunter with a mullet but at what cost. is he gonna get another haircut

is belos just hanging out on the other side of the portal? Why did he even want to go back there??? i thought he wanted to be in the human realm. maybe he needs more palismen. what would he go back.... hmmmmm.....

the huntlow moments are so sweet and wonderful and i love them they're so good i love them

the lumity moments the little light spell amity made the fact that glyphs work in the presence of titan's blood. would glyphs be more powerful around king. he could use glyphs, since they're just symbols and stuff, and he can draw, we know that,

willow willow willow willow

VEE!! she's just got the one face, just the one. just one. her little transformation sequence was so cute,,, kinda like a coming out, like this is how i wanna be now, introducing myself.

SPEAKING OF WHICH the lumity studios presents.... yes yes yes yes yes yes yes YES!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!

playing in the rain,,, in the mud,,, sillies. lovelies. little children. i love them oh my gosh they're so wonderful

I love this show

[huntertherapyeras]

Gymnastics AU ? 👀 what’s the backstory/setup? What’s your favorite thing about it?

omg so its still in the baby stages because i just remembered id been planning on doing smth with it tonight but BASICALLY !!!

(.... strap in cay i was a gymnastics coach for 9 years so theres gonna be some jargon uwu)

it starts with luz (maybe somewhat younger than in canon, like 12 since most 14 yo junior olympic program gymnasts are in the higher levels by then for elitism reasons) starting at a new gym! she's a late starting gymnast and only did classes taught by eda at the local rec center in her town! eda saw a lot of potential in her and encouraged her mom to get her into real classes and at a full-fledged gym and she quickly gets invited onto the team because the coaches see she has potential too! its a little discouraging for her, though, because all of the other kids on her competitive level are much younger than she is since she started later! after a season, she decides to transfer into the xcel program (probably xcel silver training gold, which is like jo level 3 training 4) from level 2 training 3 because xcel gymnasts are usually a bit older and she realizes she doesnt really want to go elite later

amity is at the same gym, but she's at a much higher competitive level already (still deciding where, but probably like... level 8 training 9 out of the 10 JO levels and also training HOPES which is elite for younger gymnasts). she is losing her love for gymnastics because of the pressure her parents put on her and is struggling a bit with perfectionism affecting her eating habits during the story! she also struggles with chronic pain because she is naturally hypermobile and that manifests as pain early on esp for kids in high impact sports

amity and luz meet at open gym and at first amity is kinda Snooty bc her parents wouldnt approve of her interacting with someone already so old in "baby gymnastics" and also because luz seems to have so much fun doing stuff still that it makes amity a bit jealous... luz eventually wins her over sheerly by how nice she is ofc and they end up having baby crushes and dating later on

gus is a younger kid on the boys jo team (10 at the beginning of the story and training boys level 6!!!) and he is something of a prodigy, though he has a rivalry with mattholomule at one point they eventually become friends

willow is a jo level 4 gymnast struggling with mental blocks at the beginning of the story and eventually transfers over to xcel with luz!

eda is a former gymnast who had to quit due to an injury caused by her undiagnosed chronic illness (eds/pots) and she also deals with complex regional pain syndrome (a nerve disorder) from the injury, so she isnt able to coach more than the two hours a week she does at the community center. she also has an adopted son (king) and her beloved cane is named owlbert 💜 later on in the story luz starts to do assistant coaching with eda so she can open up some preschool classes at the center on weekends :3

but lillith never got injured and ended up later becoming a gymnastics judge. shes not a huge character in this but she does cause problems with everyone by being a picky judge 🙄

oh and ed and em are both 14 at the beginning of the story! em is an elite gymnast but later switches to rhythmic and ed is an elite boys gymnast!

favorite thing is definitely reimagining the world from a gymnastics lens omg

theres a lot more i gotta iron out but thats the gist of things!!!!! very excited to work on this uwu thank you for asking!!!!

[morwensteelsheen]

WIP wednesday thoughts:

willow cabin is utterly fucked because i changed my intended ~moral~ halfway through and now im stuck trying to integrate this shitty political intrigue plot into what should’ve been a more interesting story about éowyn adapting to life in gondor. hugely fucking annoyed by it and just totally unsure how to proceed. i could significantly increase the chapter count, but im worried that because the initial framing device was this bandits shit that closing out that plot and then still going for ages afterwards would be really shitty? i honestly don’t know, it’s so difficult. really i just need someone to read my outline and tell me if im being a dumb twat about it lol

meanwhile I know exactly where I want to go with AFTA but for some unaccountable reason im stressed that my ass is gonna get roasted for the direction i want to take it in. it’s all based in both tolkien’s personal politics and (some) historical precedent, but im worried people are gonna see it as a marysue-ification? but also im hoping to do sthg of a sequel to afta to practice the political intrigue writing so i don’t make the same mistakes i did in wc, and to do that it would require this specific set up in AFTA. im gonna put my AFTA thing under the cut so don’t click read more unless you’re gucci with potential AFTA spoilers!!

this royal affair au is definitely gonna get published at some point but im trying to decide if i want to do ~tasteful~ smut that drives a longer narrative or if im really just gonna do a whole 3,000 word build up to some run of the mill, old fashioned PWP lmao

okay so i have spent a Lot of time thinking about what impact i think éowyn and faramir would have on each other in a pre-ring war setting, and the honest to god conclusion ive come to is that they would somewhat inadvertently egg on each other’s (wildly divergent) idealism.

faramir’s an idealist politically in ways that, as Big D rightly points out, are not super productive in a wartime scenario. but so far as im concerned, the war doesn’t feel as warlike until they have to blow the bridge at osgiliath. until that point, there’s not really anything to say that faramir’s whole throwback optimism isn’t a perfectly justifiable position to have.

but what that idealism is and how it manifests are two really important considerations. the crux of his idealistic politics is that he looks at númenor and sees something valuable in it, and looks at gondor and sees a lot that he thinks is fucked up. outside of articulating a general angst towards the glory hunting, it’s not like he’s spending time talking about his specific policy prescriptions. however, we do know a few things that can guide us to a more coherent reconstruction of his politics:

he’s pretty rigidly hierarchical (when it’s convenient for him). as seen in: him basically telling sam to fuck off and stay in his lane in WOTW, and in how and when he chooses to refer to his father as ‘father’ vs ‘my lord’ or ‘lord of the city’ in the aftermath of the osgiliath retreat and then before he gets his ass sent back there. i don’t want to go into too much detail here but if i go with this i’ll definitely justify it more thoroughly in the footnotes.

so we’ve got faramir’s emphasis on hierarchy and his occasional (when convenient) belief that the upper echelons of a hierarchy are there because they’re intellectually and/or morally better. or, maybe to remove the causation from that instance, because they are in those upper echelons, they have an obligation to be more morally/intellectually upstanding, and the people in the structure below them have an obligation to show deference. unless you’re faramir and you’re dealing with denethor in which case that all goes out the window. classic.

we know there is some sort of nascent pseudo-democratic tradition of popular sovereignty in gondor. we know this because faramir asks the masses at aragorn’s coronation if they’ll accept him as king. faramir is a lot of things, but he is certainly not a progressive political radical, and i cannot imagine any situation in which he cooked up that rigmarole himself. that then implies to me that it’s building on some sort of political/cultural expectation in gondor. so: some sort of relationship to popular legitimacy. the people of gondor are subjects, but perhaps not as totally passive and unconsidered in the power structure as we might assume given the comparability to feudal europe/asia.

given those two things, i want to use AFTA to argue:

that faramir, in looking to assign blame for the faults he sees in gondor, would not directly assign blame to the lower classes, but rather to the aristocracy, because he will have seen them as failing in their moral obligations to the people they rule over. this is not to say that he isn’t fucked off about The People™ valorising war, but i think he’d take the position that they couldn’t possibly be expected to form those values and opinions of their own volition, and the fault lies in their rules. faramir: not gramscian.

faramir lacks any power that is non-military, and even that is of questionable worth because the rangers seem to be fairly distinct to the general structure of the army, and are not exactly a huge force.

faramir lacking any political power isn’t necessarily a huge concern for him (as in, he’s not actively trying to change that), because he knows he’s not going to lead a moral revolution and isn’t interested in taking up the responsibilities having political capital would engender because he’s stuck dealing with this war, that he fucking hates btw has he mentioned that he hates it?

however, given that he is apparently eminently versed in lore and scholarship, he is probably keenly aware that there is this incipient notion of popular legitimacy somewhere in gondor’s culture. it’s not, for most of his life, knowledge that actually does anything for him, but it is there.

éowyn, meanwhile, doesn’t really have many strong political convictions (yet). not because she’s a dumbass or whatever, but because she looks at court politics as kind of a farce, and doesn’t believe that power legitimately emanates from anywhere that isn’t a Big Fucking Army. and why, strictly speaking, would she not think that? the event that brought about the creation of her kingdom was not careful, soft spoken negotiation, it was her ancestors being in the right place at the right time with a Big Fucking Army.

and the internal politics of the Riddermark actually seem to be fairly stable, all things considered. i sincerely doubt that Théoden or Théodred are having to negotiate complex politicking in the way Denethor and Boromir are. so where, then, would éowyn see that kind of political behaviour outside gondor? with gríma.

éowyn, then, will see the immediate contrast between gríma (backroom dealer, manipulator extraordinaire) and théoden (owner of Big Fucking Army). and gríma goes and fucking wins that fight. that forces éowyn to confront the fact that, jesus christ, maybe there are different types of power.

at the same time, she’s going to be in minas tirith and needing to cover for théoden letting his shit get wrecked. not just because she’s prideful, which of course she is, but because if denethor/gondor think that théoden is too weak to hold up his end of the bargain, why would they ever go help the Mark? éowyn, seeing that théoden’s f-f-fucked, knows that there’s a very very good chance the Mark will need help.

against her feelings about courtly politics, she starts to accept that she’s going to need to do something to get power in gondor. not anything substantial, it’s not like she’s trying to overthrow anybody, but enough that when push comes to shove she can force denethor to help out the Mark (if he doesn’t do so willingly).

but, as ive sort of already shown in AFTA, she’s a bit of a dogshit diplomat. good for a little big-brawny-enforcer stuff, but not exactly brimming with cultural sensitivity. by the time she realises théoden + the Mark are fucked, she’ll have burnt quite a few bridges with the gondorrim nobles, and it’s not like she’s the sort of person to go running cap-in-hand begging for mercy.

so: she has to look elsewhere. and wow! a chance for faramir to do his favourite thing — talk about his opinions! and by god, his weird idealistic politics are… actually kind of helpful? because he’s like, look, you’re never gonna be a diplomat, but there are other ways of consolidating power. and one of those ways is by appealing to The People™. so why not work that angle?

and actually, we know that this is a viable route for éowyn because hama, in arguing for her to take up the mantle of théoden’s heir when théoden and éomer fuck off to helm’s deep, basically says that The People™ love her and would have willingly chosen her to lead them.

we also know, based on faramir’s middle men speech, that the people of gondor and the mark have grown alike in nature. not totally unreasonable to then think that the people of gondor would take to her like the people of the mark did.

éowyn, then, in various ways begins to try to win over the people of minas tirith. i need to do a little more research on this bc what ive got on the practicalities of that so far are a bit, uhhh, sketchy, but the least jargony way to describe this is to point to when natalie dormer’s character in GOT gets out of the carriage to go hug and kiss some babies. (marc bloch, eat your heart out)

this would later segue into a potential sequel where, while trying to secure the way for aragorn’s coronation, éowyn actually plays an interesting role because she’s fallen into this incidental Diana, People’s Princess™ role and so is better positioned than almost anyone to go advocate on his behalf. wow! cool! éowyn getting to be politically useful in more ways than just getting hitched!

so yeah. that’s how i am thinking it might play out. this would obviously have a rolling impact on the remainder of AFTA and how certain (🔥) events pan out later, but i think that building up part has to begin pretty much now, narratively. also this lets me get in a reference to “and then her heart changed, or else at last she understood it” and have it not be almost entirely about wanting to shag faramir, but actually about her gradual evolution from valorising war above all else to being like, hmm, maybe there are other ways of being powerful. which i think still largely captures the “no longer I will vie with the great riders” stuff, but more subtly and without feeling quite so… deferential, I guess? Like it’s not that she’s swapping one form of power (violence) for nothing (gardening?? healing?? tolkien accidental articulation of necropolitics??) but swapping violence for a different type of more sustainable power.

yeah. that’s the take, basically. who fucking knows.

[magnaflourious-nerdity]

But Through Darkened Glasses

(You Need Chaos in Your Soul)

" And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."

There was a prompt on some Halloween themed fandom challenge for October. Monday's was 'Black Cat' and for whatever reason. This is what happened. Bc im just going with that kind of thing lately I guess, I decided to spit it out here. I didn't beta this thoroughly enough I guarantee bc im lazy and also the fandom is like 20 people big, and generally full of forgiving, lovely, content starved ppl. The last point I am extrapolating from my own experiences of being in the fandom, haha.

_____

It's weird, he thinks, twining in and out of the fence post he's been following for the past few minutes, trying to get his bearings now that he's been saddled with twice his accustomed amount of limbs. It's weird that I'm not more freaked out about this. He pauses, grooms himself briefly and crosses the street under the lamp light. The bulb blows out halfway across. He doesn't even jump this time. Maybe it's a bonus of having nine lives, you don't worry so much about one or two practice runs. His ears twitch minutely as the wind shifts and brings a low, buzzing, sound sighing through the fronds of the willow at the edge of his yard. They're even more sensitive now that he's a cat- the ears that is -twitching at the slightest whisper of a sound in the night.

He doesn't even bother to slow his pace as he hops the fence and passes through his own back yard, simply fixing jade eyes on the window he knows to be Becky's, turning them away again with the knowledge that there's no way she'd be at home tonight. Not on a night where she's basically been given free reign to go full-tilt feral social-climber on every party in town. There's no gaining entrance into his lair in his current state (nor is he particularly keen to meet Rasputin face to face right now either) and his parents are out of the question. Can't guarantee his dad won't be too drunk this late on a Halloween to tie a bottle rocket to his newly acquired tail. Don't really care to see him if he's sober either. Or just in general

Instead, His attention remains fixed on the sound he'd heard in the distance before, as he cuts across lawns and ducks down the well trod neighborhood backalleys, avoiding any heards of desperate, last-minute, trick-or-treaters or gaggles of drunken party-goers he catches wind of.

He's at the point of shrugging off the weird sounds he's been hearing as the result of some sort of particularly lumbering rodent in the underbrush, turning his attention instead to the little flashes of lamp light glinting off of abandoned candy wrappers. Batting at one every now and then non-committaly. It wasn't as exciting as one might think, being a cat. Kind of a snooze even, as far as curses went.

Well, at least it had the wherewithal and the courtesy as a curse to take aesthetics into account.

He was definitely the kind of cat his father would have chased off the lawn with a bb gun, if it had showed up at their door looking for food. He examines the pitch-colored shroud of his newly acquired fur as best as he can, glad- in a removed sort of way -that at least he was a proper Halloween cat. Scruffy and mysterious, not one of those opulently fluffy, pearl-colored, fancy-feast models.

There was dignity in being a black cat on Halloween. There was style! There was pinache!

A whisper, a low hum beyond his perception.

There were secrets. There was power. All of it his for the taking now that the opportunity had been unwittingly granted.

He'd read a legend once- in one of his massive, dusty, volumes on the lore of shapeshifters, dating back to antiquity -that on Halloween, black cats were at the most transient state of their existances. They could- if they could find the right chinks in reality's armour, where the space between things overlapped and folded in on itself like challah -use the threads surrounding and connecting the worlds to perform any number of impossibilities. Assume other forms, be anywhere at once, sew prosperity or discord at a whim.

It was said that those creatures most in-tune with with the pathways could even travel between them all. All of the worlds bookended against and, at certain times like tonight, overlapping their own. Those most-adept cats could slip in and out of dimensions as easily as a shadow slips under doorway.

I mean, I guess now is as good a time as any to test that hypothesis, Merton mused, slit-pupils zeroing in on the slightest movement down the street from Tommy's house, which was naturally where his slinky, purposeful, wandering had taken him. There were no other thoughts to it really. After all. He and Tommy were each other's lifeboats, lashed together to weather whatever bullshit came their way, side-by-side.

At least where finding ourselves on the wrong side of dark magic is concerned. He amended to himself. There was no one else here so he wasn't sure why he even bothered really.

He hesitated silently under a street lamp. The crackling sound of the light flickering above him sounded grating to his sensitive ears. He could understand Tommy's super-hearing-based woes a lot better now at least. With his gaze shifting uneasily between the safety of Tommy's house- the safety of his company, and of his unconditional presence, and of his unwavering dedication to Merton's protection despite the workload that it was turning out to be- and back to the subtle, but suddenly noticeable undulations of the shadows at the farthest edge of the neighbor's hedgerows. An opportunity had manifested itself.

Almost neigh-imperceptably, something shifts in the air, pervading every cranny of the now darkened street.

A moment of choice for Merton. The unexplored possibilities mount in his head, weighed against the cons of breaching the utterly unknowable. He is bewitched, rooted to the spot. Eve on the precipice of the apple, by virtue of both temptation and fear.

He'd gone to more extreme means, on less intel, for far more ridiculous pursuits. This was just a short walk to the end of the street. But he hesitates nonetheless, his own mind overriding the detatched curiosity that grew into him- into his bones -the longer he was attached to this form. He feels the pull of the interstitial static of the spaces between space, it hums and pulses gently along to the music of the spheres. Soft, inviting, unknowable.

He thinks of slipping between the phases of reality. Could he regain his body on his own that way? Could he pick a better one? He pads gently forward, going only a few, cautious steps, questioning himself all the while and trying to brace his senses against the hypnotic call of whatever the netherspace was wordlessly offering to him. He is waiting to see when the time will be right. If it will be at all. What will come of it.

I can fix this on my own for once, right now. He tells himself . I can learn so much. About everything. I can fix so much if I can just...

The pull of the place between is Urgent. Heady. Disorienting, he finds. It beckons him more insistently with each passing moment, and every sound made in the darkness is a soft, sighing, call to action. To adventure. To satisfy all of his human spawned, feline fueled, curiosities alike.

But another sound, this one from inside Tommy's house- still nearly right next to him -severs the tie. It's Tommy's laugh, loud and sharp and as intimately familiar to him as a siren song of his own.

Tommy. His tail lifts up into the air of its own accord as he starts to correct course towards the tree in Tommy's back yard, one which frequent exposure to the Dawkin's household tells him leads to the- usually wide open -2nd floor window landing of his best friend's bedroom.

The whispering from behind him grows more urgent as he turns away from it. Easier to discern from the normal night-music of Pleasantville. It grows in pitch, insistent, like a vulture pecking at the stripped down bones of its roadside carrion.

Despite his growing unease, Merton still feels the gravity of the thin places of the world eying him up, clawing at him. He realizes, with detached horror, that if the last few minutes are anything to go by, in this form, he isn't even sure if he can resist it at all. Much less how long his moment of self possession can last.

Merton, as a cat, finds himself to be mostly a loose collection of animal instincts and a haphazard jigsaw of the the bits of the world that don't seem to want to fit right with himself; all of this sewed up into a body thats more suggestive of physical form than equitable to one. He doesn't know how to even begin to navigate the puzzle of resisting the undertow of the universe as it digs its fingers solidly into the newest and most vulnerable parts of his shared but singular conciousness. The shadows in the hedgerows, the ripples of what's underneath the idea of them, begin to pulsate. They flail. Or it flails, because he can't tell the collective from the distinct anymore, can only watch with awe as the patch of space and time it is currently occupying shimmers, and cracks, and grows, and reaches. Merton swears he can hear it SCREAMING in the back of his head. At the place where his thoughts dissolve into notions less definable by words, and transform instead into a swirling mass of impulses conducted by the now-shrill trans-dimensional, thrumming of the universe's insistent, staticky back beat.

He sees something solidifying in the ectoplasm of that open sore in the flesh of the world. Something besides the thrashing, churning, cult of tendrils reaching out from the places they can squeeze through in the cracks. The sight makes every single one of his hairs stand on end. Which is something, given he has a significant deal more of them now than he usually would. But there is no mistaking what he is seeing being melded together in the eye of that widening miasma. A hand claws its way past the meshing, roiling tentacles of that dark expanse. Pulling itself forward into the physical, out of the theoretical. A set of shoulders struggles past, dragging the other arm in to being along side it, pale and wan. There is a pause, one last still moment before, with repulsion thrumming through every part of him, he focuses on the well of dark magics still spewing forth parts of the creature. He sees the top of a head breech through the dimensional weak spot. The head turns in Merton's direction at his displeased hisses of fright. Merton locks up in immediate, gut-wrenching, horror when the creature gazes back at him, wearing his own face.

‐-----

I'll probably never continue this or even do anything at all w it,, but it was fun! In case you were wondering about the subtext between tommy and merton, yes. gay. Also whats dialague don't know her

[locktobre]

Could you expand on your idea of Emily Willows seeing/communicating with ghosts? (sorry for asking so many questions hdhfhhdhf I really like Barbie, especially PCS)

Oh boy, that’s a doozy... I honestly don’t feel like I have very much, as I haven’t had the idea for very long, but I’ll talk about what I do have! (I guess I came up with it last year, but for me, that isn’t really a long time.)

I’ve mentioned before, but I debated for a long time about even bringing Reginald and Isabella back, bc it has a lot of implications about life and death in the barbieverse. I’m currently operating on the assumption that while ghosts can exist, as souls trapped here on the mortal plane, if they ever cross over to the great beyond--that’s it. They’re gone, for good, and can’t ever be brought back.

Now, that goes against Marie’s appearance in Christmas Carol (which I used to justify having ghosts in the first place), since she clearly wasn’t hanging around that whole time... But as I mentioned the other day, Eden is actually a lynchpin in my barbieverse (the Brilliant Echo timeline, specifically). The universe would unravel if she ended up in that bad future, so an exception had to be made for Marie to come back. It was a one-time-only deal, and not something that can be done by just anyone. Certainly not Emily, in any case. (I’m still debating on who facilitated the Marie visit, as it could be one of two ppl. It might end up being both of them working together. But that’s way down the road.)

Anyway, I joked the other day about the possibility of Emily seeing more ghosts, but honestly, I don’t think I’ll end up doing that. Having ghosts at all feels like it raises a lot of questions, and I don’t really want to open those cans of worms, so setting very rigid rules about it seems to be the best compromise. And even aside from that, I don’t think a lot of ppl would even become ghosts in the first place; I really do like the classic rules of sudden/violent deaths and/or unfinished business being the reason they stick around. So she’ll most likely only ever see Reginald and Isabella, and her power will probably never expand in any way. I could change my mind later, but right now, that’s what I’m thinking.

And also, just like... seeing the two ghosts is more than enough drama, honestly.

The way I envision Isabella is very specific, but basically, she struggled a lot with paranoia and she’s very guarded. It got worse after she died, due to her being convinced she was murdered, but she had actually made some progress due to going to a therapist for the majority of her death. (Yes, I send a ghost to therapy. Yes, her therapist knows she is dead.) She managed to get to a place of... not really no paranoia, but much less. And then, she finds out that she was, in fact murdered, so suddenly all of her fear feels VERY justified, and that’s a huge setback. So her 18 years of trying to deal not only with her anxiety but her grief over the death of her child suddenly feels like it was all for nothing. She was murdered and her baby is alive and she missed her daughter’s entire childhood.

On Reginald’s side, he had always tried to support Isabella as best he could, but the one thing he was adamant on was that his sister would not murder them. Like, she’s mean, sure, but murder? That’s a step too far. Especially after seeing her with students, he knows that she can be cruel, but killing her own brother and his family? Her queen? She wouldn’t! She couldn’t! And then he finds out that she did, so not only does he feel duped for believing that she wasn’t capable of it, he feels guilty for not being on Isabella’s side all those years. Isabella doesn’t exactly hold it against him that he didn’t believe her, since she’s well aware--especially after therapy--that her fears were not always rational, but it is kind of an ‘I told you so’ moment that neither of them ever wanted to be true. And obviously, he’d grieved for Sophia, too.

On the side of the living, Sophia is thrust into a role she never wanted and now has a million responsibilities she wasn’t prepared for, and she’s got to deal with all of the princess stuff while also having to deal with the re-opened investigation into her parents’ murders and Dame Devin’s subsequent trial. Her life isn’t her own anymore, it belongs to everyone else. And she doesn’t even know how to feel about Reginald and Isabella. And she especially doesn’t know how to deal with everyone comparing her to Isabella, her appearance, her mannerisms--is anything really her? Is this what it’s going to be like for the rest of her life, being compared to her dead birth mother that she doesn’t even remember? How is she supposed to deal with that?

So when Emily first stumbles across Reginald and Isabella, they’re still reeling. They desperately want to reach out to Sophia, of course, but they know that they’re really in no position to talk to her right away, nor is she ready to see them. Or even if they should reach out to her--would it help her to know that her parents aren’t really gone? Or would they only be serving themselves?

And there’s also the question of if Sophia is the only one they should talk to. Should Reginald tell Delancy that she still does have one family member left who’s good and believes in her capacity to change, that he knows she doesn’t have to become her mother? Should Isabella speak to her father and half-sisters, and tell them that she’s wanted to reach out to them for 18 years? The more ppl that know a secret, the greater the chance that it will get out--altho, in this case, probably no one will want to broadcast the fact that they’ve spoken to a ghost, but still.

And kind of in the middle of this is Emily, who’s 13 and in no position to be moderating this kind of discussion. She wants everyone to be able to talk to each other, for the family to be reunited, but she understands that it’s a multi-sided thing. She offers up the compromise of acting as a mouthpiece, if they don’t want to talk to anyone directly (since ghosts can manifest themselves at will, if they wish; Emily’s special bc she can see them in their state of rest), but even that doesn’t do much good. As far as anyone else knows, she’s obviously never met Reginald and Isabella, so she can’t exactly say with authority that they would be proud of Sophia, or that Isabella misses her father, or anything like that. It would just sound like a platitude.

I don’t even know what side I’m going to come down on, tbh. It’s such a multi-layered discussion, especially with Isabella and her father--he’s already grieved for her, so is it fair to tell him she isn’t (quite) dead? She now knows, firsthand, what it’s like to grieve a child and then to suddenly find out that child is alive and that she’s missed so much--and she would be putting her father in that same position. Is it selfish? Or is it more selfish to never reveal herself, especially with the way that she died angry at him, since he carries that guilt around, even if she ended up moving past it (in therapy). I may end up compromising on that front, and have Isabella write a journal or a letter, something that Emily can “discover” in the palace and pass on to Isabella’s father. Maybe.

As for Sophia... It’s trickier, but I’m leaning toward her finding out. Maybe not for awhile, it might take years, but I think they would eventually tell her. She might be the only one, tho... But then, at some point, does Nicholas need to know? Especially after they’re married, is it a secret that still needs to be kept from him? And, again, I don’t think there’s a single good answer, bc it’s just... such a weird quandary to find oneself in. There’s pros and cons to every side.

So... That’s where I am with Emily and ghosts, right now. And that’s why I feel like just the two is enough, bc it just dominoes out so quickly and becomes a LOT of emotional turmoil and moral dilemmas. As such, Emily will also end up seeing a therapist at some point, for sure, but all things considered, I think she’ll end up being remarkably well-adjusted lol.

[dndfuckhouse]

Session 39 - Farewell Shorewater

FEATURING RELEVANT EXTRA RP

Han and Rokka Climb the Airship - 4/17 🏹🐺

> 🎵  Picnic Road / Paper Mario: The Origami King OST

After a week or two of relaxing (with a castle ball in between) it seems the party’s time of idling in Shorewater is coming to an end. Though not before the dwarves of the Swallow’s Perch could throw them all a raucous farewell party. They all sit in the mess hall enjoying the lively atmosphere and the last dregs of a filling warm dinner as a jovial and bustling atmosphere surrounds them, filled with friends and stranger alike.

Though the celebration started at noon it continued well into sunset, right until now, the time they’re all soon expected to leave for the port district. Throughout the day many roving strangers saw fit to buy them all a drink or two for their heroic deeds, as well as the excuse to hold a party in the inn mess hall. Their packed bags and suitcases sit ready to grab and haul away on the floor next to their tables as the time to leave fast approaches.

Nearby family sit, next to and across from Cimmorro sit Willow and Duram, back from the day's work. As Willow unwinds with a drink they don't spare the chance to double check him with a lecture as he’s soon to leave, droning on.

Willow: -”and you’re sure you double checked everything earlier? You ought to get locks for some of your bags i think” Cimmorro: "yeap i got everything on me, some in plum's bag.... i should get myself one of those bags of holding one of these days" his cheeks puff a bit as he thinks about how how much those cost. one of many things to save for... "is there anything you want me to keep in check once i get home? unfinished errands you had left behind?" Willow: willow tilts their head a little amused "they're usually good investments i agree. nothing that i can think of at the moment though... maybe check in and see if mahalia and malaya are doing alright with their responsibilities" Cimmorro: "perhaps you can sponsor your son a little early birthday present? ehe?" he says jokingly. "and roger. i don't think i'll still be around the temple by the time you and duram get back...." he looks at willow like ->> 🥺 "will it be okay unattended for that long, you think...? you know, with you and ma not around" Willow: they smile "maybe if you're on your best behavior" they take another sip of their tea "it should be, i wouldnt have left it if i had worries, i have alot of trust in the acolytes, they should do well. and no doubt welcome your visit" Cimmorro: "i was just kidding! i will earn it myself heheh... you'll be surprised the next time you see me my bag of holding will be filled with the most precious of gems when i get home. " cimm nods more confidently with willow's reassurance. "that's true...! i'm so eager to see everyone again... hopefully those three rascals haven't spread any funny rumors about me in my absence" he huffs humorously Willow: "ah you're growing into a fine envoy for the goddess i see hm?" they smile again "hm i suppose you'll see wont you?" Cimmorro: "and i'm sure if some rumors did sprawl out, duram didn't bother defending my honor not even once </3" he elbows the his colder coworker as he jests.

Close by Plum’s family also hound them, Pimento similarly to Willow seems to be going down the parental checklist.

Pimento: “-and remember the warm clothes like i told you, ooh you ought to grab boots if you’re trekking about the countryside, check out the stores in the city when you get there” Prune: your other end she plays with your hair “i can see your roots again plummy…! you look like strawberry pudding, dye it a different colour before the next time i see you!” Plum: plum listens to their mom drone on with their head on their hand, leaning sleepily on the table. "yeah i got some...uggh i don't wanna wear shoes, okay fine. and if i see anything interesting i can send back home i'll let you know." to prune they're like "sure, which one? red has been so hard to match with all my green clothes, but a pudding's better than lookin' like a xmas tree." Pimento: your ma nods her head and puts up a finger "better wrapped then frozen" Prune: she swivels around you and puts her head on your shoulder "hmmm... go blonde, look like regular pudding" she smirks Plum: "i'm so confused about the weather up there, i thought it was ...a desert? actually you know more than me, i don't wanna freeze." plum leans their head on prune's. "i'll think about it. and what's with all the pudding, you hungry?" Pimento: she smiles "'s pretty all over, it snows further north but it can get pretty warm round near the swampier places, hence foot coverage! nothing like the plains around here" Prune: she rolls her head "the dinner was so good.....its on my mind..." Plum: "oh right it's all swampy up there, blehh." plum groans and sticks their tongue out. "guess i will get some shoes." plum then fiddles around in their pockets and holds a small amount of coins over prune's hand, "you can go grab some later with this amount i think?" Pimento: she snickers Prune: she goes 🤩 "YESSS....best parting gift ever" she quickly snatches them up and ruffles your hair while giggling manically

At Han’s right are Stella and Ruel, the former clings to her arm and pouts comically as they drink away.

Stella:“-and who else is going to shout me free drinks here now… oh our dear Hannie all grown up” she wipes a fake tear as Ruel snorts into her drink. Han: han rolls her eyes at stella "i am sure you can actually successfully seduce literally anyone else for free drinks...... wait layne makes me pay for your drinks, THEY ARENT FREE" SUSIE.JPG Stella: she looks at you like 🥺 "oh my gosh... i knew you were always a true gentlemen deep down han..." she puts a hand to her chest and leans back half jokingly "and its not as fun if its not a pal~!" Han: han huffs in disbelief and turns away from stella dramatically "cant believe this..." Stella: stella keeps leaning on your arm like this 🥺🥺🥺🥺 Ruel: she starts actually laughing

As the chatter continues Ferrie Chris emerges again from the kitchen walking over to the group’s table.

Ferrie Chris: “right well, i think its about the time you all need to be heading off, han get down here” she waves you down to her height with a friendly smile as Layne and Jessep walk up behind her with a grin and a smirk to see you off. Psalm: under his breath like "thank god I think if I drink anymore this week I might die" Keva: she snorts "you know you don't actually have to drink any of it" Psalm: "Yes well, where's the fun in that when someone else is paying..."

Han: han sits seiza style at ferrie's feet Ferrie Chris: she gives you a lopsided smile “it’s been a real whirlwind havin’ ya round here the past few years yknow? … but were going to miss ya’, and if you ever feel lonely ya’ always got a room and free meal to come back to here alright?” she pats your shoulder and pulls you in for a hug Han: she is definitely not shaking and crying and struggling to get words out "im.. really grateful.. that you took me in......." theres no snot going down her face no sir Ferrie Chris: she chuckles deep in the center of her chest "and we were grateful to have ya' round" Layne: as you hug back sniffling crying quibbling layne joins in with a 'wahey!' turning it into a group embrace "aw no tears han, byes are just an excuse to say hello again in the future!" Jessep: he seems to waffle for a few seconds before rolling his eyes and awkwardly joining the hug as well "..far in distance close in heart or whatever they say?”

Cimmorro: at ferrie chris' call he pouts into his drink "augh... for the first time i actually feel conflicted about coming home, only cause you two are staying here... 😭 i'm sure you're going to have a swell time now that i'll be out of the picture, duram" Duram: he rolls his eyes at the prodding as he sips his tea "i only speak truths when im asked questions, what comes after is not my responsibility" Willow: they pat you on the shoulder consolingly "at least we got to meet a little in a city across the sea" Cimmorro: cimm doesn't seem to respond for a bit until he hooks an arm around duram and messes his hair with a free hand. "i'll say it for the both of us cause you're soooo special but i was really happy to see you you know!! and you owe me! when i get home you owe me a lot of drinks!!! don't forget!!" when he finally lets him go he gives him a really huge grin before turning to willow with a somehow sad smile "yes it was very much needed as short as it was... those two years of loneliness got washed over" he gives them a fond embrace Duram: he yelps but bears with the noogie-ing embarrassed, his face growing a little scarlet "augh yes yes whatever it was good to see you too.... and sure sure if you've earned it you pain in the... ruby mother guide you" Willow: they accept the fond embrace while duram quickly folds his arms looking ruffled next to them “safe travels Cimmorro, may the ruby mother guide you. I hope to see you again soon, do take care to not blow up the temple while i'm away in the meantime however.” Cimmorro: cimm pulls away rubbing his face aggressively as if to brush off the fact he's tearing up. "you too, to both of you!! make sure you come home safe!! i'll check in with you after a few weeks too!! i'll also keep sending letters whenever i can!! >_< no promises about blowing up the temple too! L O L" he gives another hug and leans over to give willow a familial kiss on the cheek while playfully threatening to do the same to duram, which he fully expects to get pushed away and just laughs when he does Willow: they shake their head at the LOL but smile at the kiss and ruffles your hair fondly after noticing your almost wibbling "i look forward to it" Duram: as you approach duram he bats you away like a hissing cat 

Pimento: as ferrie chris speaks Pimento pulls you in for a warm hug while Prune tackles you from behind sandwiching you between them “be sure to write sometimes plummy, oh and tell that teacher of yours i said hello” Prune: she speaks quickly after with a grin “send more presents most importantly" Plum: "will do.. be safe on your way back you two." plum says letting themselves be sandwiched. "and so you can crowd your room with more stuff? i dunno about that 😄" Pimento: she squeezes you tight before letting go "same to you dear, ill tell pops ya said hello too!" Prune: as she lets you go she dances around you giggling "awww, whats another trinket or two..."

As the three dwarves let go of Han, Ferrie Chris turns back to the rest of the party saying their goodbyes and speaks up.

Ferrie Chris: “-keep an eye out for her alright? she’s the pride and joy of the city now, a real local legend, but that dont mean she won't accidentally fall down a hole and get stuck who knows where while i'm not looking.” she says it only half jokingly maybe Han: still Not crying and shidding and throwing up "i wont fall down hole... i know how to send letter, ill send letter" wipes not snot from her face bc she doesn't have snot on her face Ferrie Chris: she grins and pinches your knee "ya better, i expect some amazing penmanship from ya!" Layne: he speaks after "we'll keep em all nice and safe when we get em, a han letter collection"

Cimmorro: cimm tries not to talk about how han was trying to fall down a worm hole at the ball Psalm: i was literally like "what hole would be big enough"

Rokka: rokke salutes "i will try my best!" @ ferrie chris Ferrie Chris: she turns to you after and gives you an approving smile Finn: finn gives a polite wave and tries very hard not to think about how han should be a legend for her extraordinary stupidity only, lest he'll frustrate himself since he cant say it outright rn Psalm: "That's quite a task considering her tendency to just run off and do her own thing..." Jessep: he looks at psalm and gives him a face like 'lmaooo... true" 

> 🎵 Tired Rynoka / Moonlighter OST

The party all stand grabbing their bags, giving a few last teary hugs and goodbyes. As they step out of the inn into the cool evening air, friends and family give them waves from inside, shouting fond farewells into the night air. Soon enough they all trek from the business district over towards the bustling port district.

Celebrity Guest Aki: SHOREWATER FOREVER Han: SHOREWATER FOREVER Celebrity Guest Aqua: SHOREWATER FOREVER Rokka: SHOREWATER FOREVER

Eventually they arrive at the ports, looking around the area is filled to the brim with hustle and bustle, even in the evening. Travelers walk to and fro, and workers and dockmen move quickly through the crowds with goods and crates. As they glance around they spy the area for docking boats, and a little further down the ports for the airships.

As they all glance about at the size of the ships in the distance, a courier clad in yellow quickly runs up to Finn.

Mailman: “Letter and missive for a Finnian Barvotte?” the young man quickly pulls two things from his satchel, a dark purple letter and a smaller short white card with writing on it. as he hands them to you he quickly pulls out a scroll and quill “sign here, please sire” Han: medievil dhl Cimmorro: DAMn the express mail

Finn: "that would be me..." finns carefully stashes away the mail as to not put a wrinkle in anything, although he really wants to look Right Now Immediately as hes hopeful the letter might be from vorde, from the looks of it... he quickly signs the scroll and waves the courier off "dismissed" Mailman: satisfied he’s delivered them successfully, the courier turns with a short bow and runs off as quickly as he came off into the crowds. 

As ther party think on the curious mail finn has received, they walk off into the direction off the airship ports, the closer they get the grander and larger the ships stand in view above them all. On each port is a number and small administrative building on the pier. Within their pockets lie their groups ticket receipts, ready to be stamped off as they board. Glancing around the party spy no sign of Vinny until they see a group of three people quickly jogging over in their direction.

Han: han is just like :O at the ship (she still hasnt wiped her crying face) Keva: keva is too but less obvious LOL she's :O on the inside

Vinny: waving as he scuttles towards you all is a slightly out of breath vinny “h-hello! almost thought we…. wouldn't make it….phew” he quickly stops and wipes a hand across his brow, setting his case down beside him.

Behind him they see Cole and Ezra jog up, the latter seems also dressed to leave carrying a bag on his back with his sword at his side.

Cole: she quickly speaks up after vinny less out of breath than him “sorry!! I got so distracted pulling ol’ vinny’s ear about a last minute schematic...ehe….” Ezra: behind her ezra rolls his one eye “the two of you are chatterboxes at the worst of times” Cimmorro: cimm waves at them "had me worried there for a sec." he glances at ezra "more company? :D" Finn: he clicks his tongue in annoyance at vinny and his lot being nearly late. as he eyes ezra he feels somewhat annoyed that he'll have to deal with an even larger group now, but he doesnt say it. he already wanted to berate the group for prolonging their departure but he'll have to hold all this gossip in until he knows for sure whether he has to room with anyone or not Vinny: he laughs awkwardly Ezra: he firmly shakes his head after "nope, im just heading off as well. been here for a bit too long" Cole: she lifts her arm "and im just here to say bye!" Rokka: he’s looking about in wonder like :OOOOOO at everything around him before his attention turns to the trio "HI!!" Psalm: doesnt even see the trio bc he too is looking around at the airships Plum: they wave Cole & Vinny: cole and vinny both give rokka and plum friendly waves back 

Cimmorro: cimm looks a little surprised "oh, not boarding the airship then? where you heading busyboy?" Ezra: "nope, regular boat for me" he sighs "getting back to my guild, came here for a job after all, kind of botched it in retrospect" Cimmorro: "ah, sounds tough... twas the trickster, wasn't it? rickert? i thought you'd still stick around to hunt him down" Ezra: he scratches his neck "it was a timed gig from the client, i figure they wanted him out of the picture for something in particular but well. got stuck in a basement" he shrugs "he's still got a bounty 'course. but i came here for a specific request, grabbing him now wouldn't pay as well. his bounty isn't normally that high" Cimmorro: "fair enough." cimm nods but doesn't comment much else. it ain't really his biz. "may your future endeavors be more fruitful then and hoping your guildmen don't give you too much of an earful, ha." Ezra: he adjusts his bag on his back a little "thanks" then grumbles under his breath about something, though you get the sense its not directed at you and more him grumbling about the future Cimmorro: cimm turns to vinny like "here i thought you had so little faith in us that you hired ezra to come slice us down if anything happened to you under our watch <3" Plum: "after all that trouble we went to save him?" [laugh] Cimmorro: "well, he also headed to the light more times than i could count under our watch that night..." he snickers Vinny: he turns to you and blinks like he surprised at being addressed, messing with his case on the ground "eh? oh i cant afford ezra" he waves his hand in front of his face, at that ezra kind of raises a brow. he laughs alongside plum "and at a bargain rate too" Cimmorro: cimm also raises a brow at ezra "damn how much do you charge?" Ezra: he folds his arms and kind of looks off to the side "'s the guild rate not my rate" Cimmorro: "... which isssss...?" Ezra: "expensive." Cimmorro: "are the numbers so confidential you can't say? how am i going to hire you eventually 😩 " Ezra: he makes a face "dunno if i'd accept the job knowing what you all get up to" Cimmorro: cimm looks unamused. "so stingy... don't come crying to us when you need a job!" Ezra: "I'm not going to be in need of one but i appreciate the concern" he says it deadpan

Keva: while the group is chatting, keva spies writing painted or engraved on the airships and makes a bit of a 🤔 face, figuring they might be names like a store or something might have. Chip: that certainly is common 🤔 Keva: she's gonna squint and think real hard about it

Cimmorro: cimm huffs. "what's your guild anyway? must be one of the more popular lots if you charge so high" Plum: "or one of the less popular ones if it involves bumping people off" Ezra: he stares at you two a moment before rolling his eye "'s called the marble mast, up in sharrif" Plum: plum is genuinely surprised he responded which is obvious on their face

Keva thinks on the name and notes she’s heard of them once or twice before in a rumour or two. She knows they're a group of bounty hunters but not much else, people are usually scared of em. Psalm also thinks on the name, he’s heard them? maybe? marble sounds distinct enough but its a surprise to him theyre from sharrif, like wow i didnt know new york was in america.... crazy stuff.

Cimmorro: "huh, never heard... is it only a bounty hunting guild? or does it do a lot of anything else?" Ezra: he nods "its bounty hunting, but not just grabbing criminals and all though, monsters too if the client wants"  Cimmorro: "oh, handy. sounds like you hop around a lot then. maybe we'll bump into you again at some point :D" Plum: "do you also do things like locating people?" Ezra: he shrugs "you might, if you're running about anyway" then at plum "i mean i locate people for the job but usually to do something with them after or haul them some place, not for the sake of it" he thinks "nice when the client tells us where they exactly are but the others call me lazy" Plum: "ahh, gotcha." plum mulls this over. Ezra: he gives you a curious look but shrugs

As Ezra meanders on, people continue their shuffling around the group on the ports, Vinny stands from where he's messing with his case and pulls Ezra in for a friendly hug.

Vinny: "well in any case see you ezra! it's been a while since you were around, a real pleasure!" Ezra: he stiffens but sighs through his nose as he pats him on the back “If my job brings me around again i’ll pop in” Vinny: he laughs as he releases him Cole: she quickly laughs before punching ezra in the shoulder “take care not to lose the other one!” Ezra: his face remains deadpan as he sighs “you too”

Ezra begins walking off, he gives a lazy wave with the arm not holding his bag before he fades into the crowd.

Cole: before anything else can be said Cole then quickly also pulls Vinny into a backbreaking hug immediately afterwards “safe travels boss! take care not to get stabbed while you're gone again!” Vinny: with a wheeze and a laugh vinny returns the hug “so long as the building is still standing when i'm back i’ll be happy Cole” Cole: she laughs and releases him, setting him down. she turns to you all quickly after, grabbing and giving your hands all a firm shake "good luck everybody, and thanks again for all the help! and i expect those letters to start flowing through" she gives a wink at plum in particular Plum: hopefully i won't be too busy" plum winks back Cole: she winks back at you, again. the cycle continues  Han: "oh shit i can write you letters too" brain being expanded right now. also han gives her a hug when cole gets to her, like the bro shake hands hug type Cole: the bro hug handshake is firm. powerful. she smiles "yes, letters from everyone! exciting..."  Cimmorro: cimm returns cole's friendly hand shake with a thanks too Psalm: he nods Rokka: "Thanks cole! Been a while since I've written letters so I'll try to remember to report to u !! Gonna miss ya 😖 " firm handshake returned Cole: "i'll do my best to read it champ, and awww i'll miss ya too buddy >_<"  Keva: keva returns her handshake with much less enthusiasm, but thanks cole all the same Cole: the thanks makes her look quite pleased Finn: finn nods, a little caught off guard by the sudden handshake but returns it "farewell" Cole: she smirks a little as you wobble

 As she gives her last cheery exclamations, she smacks Vinny on the shoulder jovially one more time for good measure before she begins to walk off. Waving and shouting grandly the whole time, getting a look or two from the crowd, she disappears as well.

Vinny: as she does vinny smiles and adjusts his glasses "im going to miss her energy a little, as hectic as she always is" he looks over at the airships "off we board then?" Cimmorro: "are you gonna cry? haha. i can't blame you though, it is nice to have" cimm turns to start le boarding Vinny: he laughs a little "im not going to cry! i wont be gone that long" Rokka: tail wagging from excitment and begins chanting, more to himself "let's go let's go" Keva: keva's peering at her ticket curiously even tho she can't read any of it other than any numbers Plum: plums trying not to get nervous

Han: vinny "ill miss her energy" vinny bro ure stuck w maniacs Chip: who will be the moegirl to fill the hole in his heart Keva: rokka ofc Cimmorro: han and rokka Psalm: SO TRUE

The party all trot off together and line up to board the airship amongst a crowd, the sound of steam and magic thrumming in the air as horns bellow above them is almost as intimidating as it is impressive. The hull stands emblazoned with the words 'The Pelican' on its side.

A few people in uniform stand at the top of the deck, as they reach them they stamp their tickets and hand them their room keys, a set of four, two keys for each room. seems they’ll be paired off for their stay aboard. They number rooms 225, 227, 216 and 217.

As they shuffle on board they take in the layout of the ship, they note a number of floors, with the top decks free for passengers to roam as they like. A dining hall sits in the hull, and the passenger rooms are laid out in a set of hallways below deck. They shuffle over to the passenger deck with their bags, they stand in the hallway as them and a few other guests look about at the signposting on the wall for their room.

Han: han leans to rokka "im going to climb to the top so fast" Rokka: Rokka is like :O! "We can climb it!?" Han: "do you need permission to do cool shit?????" Rokka: "I don't know the laws of the sky..." he scratches his head "I'LL CLIMB WITH YOU THO!"

Psalm: he’s like of course of course we are of course we're sharing of course "The Pelican, that's a rather cute name for a ship 🤔" Keva: "what's a pelican?" Psalm: "It's the name of the ship." Keva: "fuck you" Psalm: "?????????????????????????" Plum: "it's a kind of sea bird" Psalm: “OH” Plum: "has a large beak" plum makes a gesture with the hands to indicate the large gull part and rolls their eyes at psalm Han: "those birds look so fucked up" Cimmorro: cimm snorts at whatever's going on between keva and psalm Psalm: "Sorry, grew up around the ocean, didn't realise what you meant." he just shrugs at Plum like 😢 Keva: "yeah okay" she doesn't entirely believe you lmao Psalm: he just 😅

Finn: "hem hem" finn clears his throat and comes up before cimmorro, smirking "ive decided to offer you the- i mean. i mean" he fumbles "i think it would be most wonderful if we roomed together for this journey ^_^” Cimmorro: I LITERALLY SAID HELL NO OUTLOUD Rokka: Rokka in shock Psalm: OHGHFGJDJASDFJAF Plum: LOOOOOOL

Han: "oh, right, we need to do roomies" Plum: "were they not assigned?" plum says and looks at their ticket curiuosly Finn: "...........were they? haha..... "<- was spacing out for the last couple hours at this point Plum: "i just assumed, but i guess not."

Cimmorro: "no," he says flatly "i have a guest." he points at vinny. cimm has more reasons to not room with finn but he is using vinny as a scapegoat rn Vinny: he blinks over at you like [nyoron?] Cimmorro: "unless you also don't want to room with me whhich is also fine." he seems very carefree abt alla this rn Finn: "tch..... have it your way then" he gives you a disgusted look Vinny: he smiles and looks between finn and you confused like hes not gonna unpack all of that "not a problem i dont mind, roomies it is" he pumps his fist a little Cimmorro: "really? even after the misunderstanding finn had? im surprised" he laughs as he hauls his stuff and jasper's carrier into 227 Vinny: his face goes a little red like it slipped his mind "y-you dont have to remind everyone" he trots into the room after you wilting a little Cimmorro: "don't have to do it. they have their own imaginations ^_^ " he lets jasper out to roam Vinny: he rubs his face as if to try and force it to stop going red "ahhh...." he busies himself setting aside his suitcase and glancing at jasper like 🥺 as she sniffs around the place

Keva: keva's going to go into 216 lmao Finn: finn sighs in relief that he wont be forced to room with keva, from this point on he doesnt care who he ends up with Keva: tfw keva picked first bc she knew finn wouldn't want to room with her and vice versa so it didn't matter who she roomed with Chip: 5d chess

Han: hans like "woah holy shit, i think i can actually sleep on one of these" and she goes into 217 and drops on the bed Rokka: he’s about to follow han but then stops to look at plum seeing what they'd pick Finn: FINN RN LIKE. IS HE GOING TO ROOM WITH PLUM??? STARING LIKE HIS LIFE DEPENDS ON IT Plum: feeling an immense pressure on me right now "uh, i'm fine with anything. i don't care." Finn: @ rokka "so....did you want to room with han or...someone else?” Rokka: "huh? oh! i do!" h Plum: "do you want to room together or something finn, are you okay??" Rokka: rokka does not want to room with finn after witnessing all those bad vibez Psalm: just thinking to himself like what's the optimal situation here so someone doesn't end up killing finn

Finn: "why yes, im feeling just fine. if youd like im more than open to rooming with you plum" Psalm: he just sighs and heads to room 216 Plum: "well, if you'd do me the honour, milord." plum says, and idk takes a room key for [225] and hands it to finn Finn: "but of course ^__^" (<- very happy hes not staying with psalm) he opens the door for plum and helps shuffle everything in Plum: plum just not even sure if they should ask

As the roomates settle in the party quickly get to chatting amongst each other.

Rokka: seeing as how everyone has grouped up, rokka begins to move to han's room busting thru the door "HANNY I'M HOOME" Han: han lifts her head from the bed, kinda sleepy from how nice a mattress is lol "ROKKAAAAA, MY MANNNN. did the rest figure out what rooms they want?" Rokka: he nods and begins listing out who roomed with who while gesturing about "...and so then that left with me coming here!" Han: she gives him a thumbs up "we have easily best room. others should be jealous" 😏 Rokka: "YA THINK SO!? that is awesome" he laughs for a bit then perks up remembering something "btw when do we climb?" rokka lazily tosses his stuff on the bed Han: han looks at him mischievously thru one eye while still lying down then suddenly goes "now" and bursts thru the door giggling Rokka: he immediately chases after her giggling just as much "HEY WAIT UP!!" everyone suddenly hearing STOMP STOMP STOMP and giggles in the hallway

Keva: she snorts seeing psalm enter the room. she's only just dropped her bag on her bed and looks like she's about to head to the top deck already. "you won a card game just to get stuck with me? not very lucky, are you" Psalm: "I remember saying I didn't have anyone in mind, as long as it wasn't Finn so it worked out didn't it." 🤷‍♂️ "Not that that really matters again." He dumps his bag on the other bed, and then because he's one of those insane people that uses drawers at hotels he starts to unpack some stuff onto the side table Keva: she sort of mumbles, "that goes for both of us," tho not so quiet as to hide it. she starts to walk only to slow a bit seeing that, raising a brow. "what are you doing? Psalm: "Hm, how so?" He raises an eyebrow, "Im unpacking my stuff?" Keva: "don't know if you noticed but finn and i don't really get along." giving him one more strange glance over, she's going to continue her way out the door. "right, well, i'm going to watch the ship take off. see you later." Psalm: "So you're saying we do? 😯 " He calls out after her. Keva: "what do they call it, 'lesser of two evils'?" keva's going to make her way to the top deck and peer over the sides at the people below on the docks Psalm: he snorts and finishes unpacking his stuff. He's gonna head out soon after to go look around though

Cimmorro: cimm eyes the room as jasper does her thing. he starts to settle his things properly into the storage of the right bed before he glances at vinny "you don't have a preference which bed to take, yea?" Vinny: he looks over "hm? oh eithers fine with me... weve already started putting stuff away in any case, would be a little akward to switch" he adjusts his hat as he shuts the case again, rubbing his face as he walks to glance out the window a little curiously Cimmorro: "great. now that's settled, i want to go exploring! ^_^ surely the view is better seen on the decks than through that teensy window" he calls for jasper to get ready to walk around the ship then eyes vinny "want to come?" Vinny: "i suppose you're right about that, its hard to see through the glass at night anyway.." he walks up to stand next to you shaking away the last remnant of embarrassment "i wonder if the stars sparkle brighter the closer you are to them" he muses this to himself a hand on his chin Cimmorro: cimm goes 'oooh!' and looks up in thought as well and begins walking out the room. "i didn't consider that! hopefully it's not too cloudy tonight. i wonder how thick the fog gets at night this high up.."

Finn: "what do you wanna do about the other bed? since i wont be using it" Plum: "oh, right." plum thinks for a second. "nothing, i guess? i don't really need much space." they gesture to themselves. "you can keep your stuff on it if you want." Finn: "mm" finn also thinks for a second "we can both use it as storage, then. if the need arises" Plum: "sure, or we could have a sleepover. whatever's fine. you sure you're okay? seemed kind of antsy there." Finn: "a sleepover? eh..." he trails off, obviously not pleased with the idea but then laughs a little "i was worried id end up with keva is all" Plum: plum just laughs because they brought up a sleepover specifically because they thought finn wouldn't like the idea, and they were right. "ah, i get it. i'm the same so you did me a favour really." Psalm: everyone like thank fuck i'm not rooming with [    ] !

Finn: "seems like we did that for each other ^__^" he sighs in relief and plops down on his coffin, remembering the letter, card and sachel hes gotten ....  "did you want to go exploring right away or are you gonna stay here? i assume everyone must be out right about now too" Plum: "i might stay here, because as you said, everyone must be out right about now. and that means they might be causing trouble, and i'm a bit tired. and i want to organize some things." Finn: finn genuinely relaxes a little...why didnt he spend more time with plum before? theyre so... agreeable "funnily enough i wouldve told you the same thing. id rather not run into everyone else right now, especially not when theyll be causing trouble. ill just be reading, so feel free to organize in peace" Plum: "right, i'm sure rokka and han are doing something ridiculous as we speak... and i'm not going to let it stress me out. and thanks, i'll be quiet so you can enjoy your reading." plum's just gonna think about what to alchemize + their belongings because their player needs to think about what they should alcehmize Finn: "most likely. im sure we wont hear the end of it since theyre rooming... who knows what they'll scheme" he gestures vaguely "i appreciate it. ill let you know when im done though" he begins to take a look at his mail..! Plum: plum hums in agreement, already lost in concentration

As Finn and Plum settle in and the others chatter and head aboveboard (Keva waits for the deck to thin out before she goes up there) Han and Rokka immediately run over to attempt to climb to the blimp. Though as soon as she attempts scaling a few of the ropes up there, a couple of crewman walking around notice and quickly run up to her.

Crewman: one shouts "hey hey hey, off limits!! no climbing those get down!" angrily waving his arm at you to stop and hop off Han: "aw what!!! but you get to climb them!!!" she points at the crew judgingly Rokka: rokka pipes up to defend han "yeah!!don't be mean!" Han: hans like yea dont be mean, sticks out her tongue a little at the crew Crewman: a few of the others nearby give them withering looks "are you wearing a uniform like me! no! down please, now!! quickly!!" Han: "so i need uniform to get up there.....? does it give u some magic power to get up there?" narrows her eyes checking the uniform out Psalm: watches this with no desire to intervene like "It hasn't even been 10 minutes aboard, sorry Ferrie Chris."

Vinny: "it was clear when we got on, it would be nice if it stayed that way for our first night at the very least" he looks pleased at the thought as you both head up above deck Cimmorro: cimm shuts his eyes briefly like >_< trying to manifest clear skies bc he really wants to see the stars. after some walking "you said this is your first time on an airship too, yea? do you think you'd get airship sick?" Vinny: he thinks very seriously "ive never gotten sick on boat rides but whos to say... maybe the altitude change makes people queasy" Cimmorro: "ah, same h-" he gets stunned at the sight of han and rokka causing a ruckus and turns away. this is not part of his job description... good bye. "i suggest we go the opposite side where they are. anyway, apparently your ears might ring too while in flight. seems like my coworker suffered a bit of that during their trip over" Vinny: he looks over at han and rokka like 😶? "you sure... im not sure theyre quite allowed to scale it..." he follows you as you scuttle away though thinking distractedly "..oh right ear booming...hope thats not too bad" Cimmorro: "they are adults and i'm sure the airship has a capable crew set. i need not to involve myself in this mess."

Crewman: "the magic power is i work on the boat, hurry up were about to ship off!! [cursing in infernal]" they seem to be growing more impatient tapping their feet and still waving their arm looking annoyed Psalm: what'd they say in infernal Chip: shit fucking cunt of a day already Rokka: rokka putting the math together like han+uniform=climb person-uniform=han "can u let han borrow ur uniform? :D" Han: han was making similar maths in her head and lights up when rokka says that "yea, can i ????" :D Crewman: hey look close to popping a blood vesel until you both ask "....does it look it would even fit either of you!?" they slap a hand to their face "you have ten seconds before i kick you off this thing, im counting now, TEN-"

Keva: keva asks a nearby crew mate who's watching all that hoopla, "when are we taking off?" Crewman: they look over at you as they wearily rub their head, a barrel on their shoulder "aye....er a couple minutes, or when they're done i suppose" Keva: lmao keva says "right, okay," and she inhales and shouts at han "GET THE FUCK OFF ALREADY! WE CAN'T LEAVE UNTIL YOU GET DOWN" Crewman: the crewman next to you jumps a full foot as you shout  Han: han goes grrrrrrrrrrrrr and gets off the ropes, crossing her arms and glaring daggers at the crew, GLARES DAGGERS AT KEVA TOO NOW but shrinks more into herself Keva: keva 😤's and goes back to looking out over the docks, her hidden mild excitement growing Rokka: rokka pats her and whispers "this boat sucks..." Cimmorro: when he hears keva he just snorts and goes "they listen to her better anyways" Vinny: his eyes go a little wide at keva but he laughs almost out of surprise "i suppose you're right about that” Cimmorro: "you'll get used to them :y the absence of cole's liveliness temporarily replaced with... whatever all that is." he vaguely gestures at the group there. cimm's gonna find somewhere convenient to sit or at least lounge about while waiting for the airship to lift off

Crewman: the crewman shakes their head "THANK you, do not go pull that again madam if you'd please" they quickly walk off to tend to other things while cursing to themselves further Han: whispers back "laaaaame. atleast, we get to stay on deck and watch..." sad she didnt get to climb up tho Rokka: "yeah! i've never been in the sky before so i'm excited!" Han: han quickly gets over not being allowed to climb w rokka here :) "me neither!! i've never been on boat at all, actually...its kinda freaky 😅 " Rokka: "it is....i wonder if the air is different higher up..... " he begins to breathe slowly trying to remember the feel and smell of the current air Han: :O "your nose is better, lets keep track" han does a deep inhale "smells like sea and fish right now" Rokka: he scrunches his nose "yeah, reeeal fishy" the jocks unknowingly doing breathing exercise

As the group mingle aboveboard before they set off, Finn gets stuck into reading the mail he was delivered earlier at the ports.

Dearest Finnian

Thank you for the information, the leads themselves are quite curious. I suspected Theyord’s group weren’t the only ones toiling around to whatever ends he was pursuing but it's good to have it confirmed. It’s harrowing to know his body could act as a cipher for black magic on this plane, perhaps demons are smarter than most give credit? Either way I shall keep my ear trained for rumours of new forms of black magic teeming in the underground.

Speaking of, I've heard wind of rumours of a strange form of sorcery being practiced in Figstup’s town of Greenpea, not en masse of course, but by some sort of enterprising type living in the backwoods. There lies a possibility it relates to ‘blood’ or ‘life’ of some kind? If you’ve the time, do look into it for me. I've no reason to believe it is related to our Letterheads, but it would be good to confirm it either way.

As to the crest you spoke of, I do in fact recognise it, it belongs to a small noble family, Acrkranian, the Jaccoud’s if I recall correctly. Though as far i know the last of their line died 20 years back. I’ll look into the lineage and see if anything turns up, I will keep you informed. You yourself ought continue looking into leads about Theyord’s other associates and their locations whenever possible.

I’m happy to hear about you learning to make friends, though forgive me if I doubt the veracity of these claims somewhat. I look forward to you proving to me how good you’ve become at socializing when we see each other again, do keep practicing. I’d start off with cutting out the word ‘savages’ if you’re in need of a tip. I miss you as well.

It would be good to see a play soon I think, once all this has died down a little.

Signed Vorde Barvotte

Dearest Cousin

Sad as I am that I cannot see you off, the least I could do was send you a missive. Thank you again for your assistance picking out gifts, and say hello for me to the other buffoons back home when you arrive ahead of me, ‘till we meet again.

Exemplar of Love Katrina Barvotte

Finn: finn reading this like 🥺 and 🤨, switching depending on the paragraph. sadly, 'savages' was one of his special, favored words. but he'll have to stick to lesser ones such as 'scum' he supposed...vorde recommended it, after all. several prospects of his uncles letter are exciting nevertheless and he tries to make a mental note to REALLY perform the sending on this trip..........

> 🎵 Nalhegrande / Granblue Fantasy OST

As the party all settle in above and belowdeck they suddenly feel and see the ship horns bellow above them again in unison. What follows is the distant sound of crewmen shouting off above deck. Slowly they all feel the airship begin to move as ropes are untied and things are unclasped. They all feel the airship push off from port, glancing out the windows of their rooms and over the side of the boat they can see themselves begin, ever so slowly at first, rising above the ocean.

Those above deck, as they glance out they see the city shining underneath them in the dark, the airship rises higher and higher into the clear night, and the moon and stars glisten atop the waves. The breeze is cool and blows their hair about but the sight is unlike one they’ve ever seen before, the city practically glitters underneath them as the airship rises, sailing further and further away with a bellow of its horns. Flags and sails whip in the wind.

Keva: keva grips the edge as she feels the ship take off, biting her lip in excitement and nerves. she lifts herself up a bit on her toes to peer over and watch the city grow smaller and farther away before pulling her hair our of her face and taking in the night sky. for once, she's smiling pleasantly. Cimmorro: cimm's literally just like 🤩✨🌃 Psalm: Psalms just thinking to himself like "THIS IS SO FUCKING COOL" Rokka: rokka like 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 at all the sight might just cry a little Han: han is breathless at the sight, maybe holds onto rokkas strap to ground herself, who knows Rokka: rokka would uknowingly hold on to her hand thats holding it, like bro ya seeing this beautiful stuff? Chip: party this session

Cimmorro: ltiuerally Han: lieitielray

Rokka: "what a lovely view of the sky at night“ Han: "what a lovely view of the sky at night..."

As the ship sets off, Plum and Finn remain belowdeck in their room for the time being. After he reads his letters Finn quickly chats Plum up for a favour.

Finn: "are you good to talk or would you rather i leave you to your organizing in silence?" Plum: "no, talking's fine. was gonna ask you the same but wanted to leave you to your reading, [laugh]." plum says without looking up from their task Finn: "oh its just-" he feels himself interrupted by the departure of the ship, briefly distracted by everything "my uncle mentioned it in his letter to me...i will simply have to see or inquire elsewhere if i'll have the time to look into things there" Plum: plum looking out da window "ah, something serious or just some errand?"

Plum thinks on what they know of Figstup, they’ve heard of it, it’s a little island country filled to the brim with forests. Most notable thing about the landscape is almost its entire coastline is steep clifffaces, making it almost look like it sits higher up in the sea. Houses are carved into tree bases and roots most of the time in towns and villages.

Finn: "mm.. potentially serious? hes asked me to look into some rumors if i have the time. so id like to, of course" Plum: "not something you wanna discuss with the group?" plum raises an eyebrow. Finn: "not necessarily. this is a request to me specifically and not part of your work." he shrugs Plum: "oh i see. thought it had something to do with the cult etc. if you want to stop around there you could probably ask the group, not like we're not making a couple detours already." Finn: "well, we do want to stay on this airship from what i understand.....i certainly wont be paying anyone to accompany me, but i suppose if anyone is interested, provided we have the time, i might let them accompany me" Plum: plum won't lie, finn could be confusing sometimes. "sureee," they say. "if i can be helpful anyways." Finn: "i would certainly rank you among the more capable of our group" he snorts and sits up "what are you exactly organizing anyway?" he tilts his head and watches curiously Plum: "why thank you, but funny you say that, because right now i'm trying to figure out what the fuck to prepare for this trip. to keep it short i can make a bunch of small tools that might help us out later when we inevitably have to fight some freaks in another basement, but it's hard to decide what. never had to use these things to fight before, and all." Finn: finn laughs a little but thinks about this genuinely. fighting is all hes known after all. well, not literally, but hes never once considered his sword for anything other than fighting. "well... if you cant figure out what you need, it might be easier to figure out what you dont need" Plum: "that is......." plum looks at finn with their eyes wide. "that is so smart. i've never not needed something-- my room's basically a junkyard. but i'm sure some of these spells will be pretty useless. like i'm pretty sure we won't need a swimcap that helps you breathe underwater while we're out in vargonia. thanks." Finn: finn laughs again and gestures vaguely but its definitely in good nature, hes glad to have enlightened plum "that will most definitely be useless for our ventures - lest you wish to dive with the crocodiles..." Plum: plum shivers. "actually i can't swim, so i guess that would help me out. but i'm trying to think of things that would be most useful for the group. actually, i guess i could ask them too." Finn: "i was only kidding about diving with the crocodiles, yknow? i doubt we will need to get ourselves into a swamp..like...really" he grimaces a little Plum: "that's a relief... that would be nasty. but the thing is you can never really tell what you'll need, which i actually find a bit aggravating." Finn: "certainly...." truthfully, hes never even nearly been as vexed about this as plum has been "....hence sorting out what you definitely wont need...perhaps you ought to set versatility as your main goal" Plum: "yeah... instead of not dying. are you familiar with combat? and i don't mean just fighting, i mean like, being in a situation where you have to fight." Finn: finn tilts his head again, not entirely sure if he understands the level of nuance plum is asking of him here "eh...you mean like, life and death situations like when we fought the letterheads?" Plum: "yeah, pretty much. i've been curious about how normal that is for the others." Finn: "cant say ive had the opportunity to go out of my way to end up in such fights yet. at worst ill deal with some cowardly bandits every now and then" he mumbles "...which is precisely why that basement was so thrilling" Plum: plum scoffs good-naturedly. "thrilling you said, well at least one of us had fun." plum recalls he'd actually been near finn for a large portion of that fight. had he been having fun? they had been a bit too busy to tell. Finn: "well.....i have an eternity to live, and an eternity to die..." he glances out of the window "if theres a way for me to go, combat is certainly the one" Plum: "ah that's right... feel like i keep forgetting. but that makes sense to me, i dunno. out with a bang or whatever." from what plum knows of finn, theatrics make sense. "i don't mean this in any rude way, but have you been alive for awhile?" plum is internally warring with themselves to not say "because it doesn't feel that way", and they decide not to. not sure what finn would take offense to Finn: finn nods at the first part liking that plum is smart enough to follow his line of thought. at the other question however hes not sure how to feel... "i assume you mean in a mythical-500-year-old-vampire kind of way? no. not at all." Plum: "yeah i do mean in the mythical old as fuck way. but if you're not then i don't think you have to worry about an eternity. if you think about it, you're about as killable as the rest of us, probably. you never know what will happen. which i guess is a weird thing to say but" [shrug] Finn: finn sighs and plops back down on his coffin, staring up at the ceiling "it must be nice to be able to say that..." Plum: "oh? i thought you died if the sun touched you, my bad 😯 " Finn: finn glares at plum briefly before returning to look at the ceiling like an anime protagonist "well, yes! but! you dont understand......its very unlikely!" Plum: plum is a bit surprised by the glare. then they realize, talking to finn makes plum feel like they're talking to one of the kids from their village sometimes. it's like they didn't just isolate the fact that finn was into theatrics. "ohh, okay" they nod. "well that's good, i've been kinda worried for you whenever we go around outside." Finn: "ive been living like this for a while now.... ive become adapted to this lifestyle. itd be pathetic if the sun was the end of me" he grimaces "by the way, i think youre smart enough to think of it, but ill just say it, please keep the curtains closed during day time" Plum: "oh i think what i said came out wrong. i didn't mean to say that you would die by something so easily, just that immortality might not be all that concerning, since it does seem a bit lonely. also sure. i'm pretty smart, yeah, but i did say i keep forgetting. feel free to remind me if there's anything else whenever in case i'm the end of you. wouldn't want that." Finn: finn wonders how he should respond to this "i try not to think about it too much" is the best he can think of for the time being. he nods even if plum isnt looking "i certainly will. although i doubt theres much more for us to look out for during this ride than that" Plum: "true, except for the others. speaking of, i'll probably go upstairs and grab something to eat. feel free to come with if you wanna."

> 🎵 Pastoral Excursion / TangleDeep OST

As the two finish their talk, back on the deck the others chat amongst themselves as they enjoy the view of the night sky and the city growing smaller in the distance.

Cimmorro: cimm thinks out loud "didn't think too much about saving the city but i'm glad we did, wouldn't have been able to see this otherwise" Vinny: "ive thought the city was beautiful since i moved here but... a fresh perspective is always grand" the lights from below seem to glint off his glasses as the ship moves off Cimmorro: "i've a similar view back home on our tower, you get to peer over the town at night all light up and nice too. but this one's a whooooole city...." he leans on the side of the ship as he continues to watch "i'm surprised you haven't been on one of these since you live here. you really don't travel a lot, do you?" he thinks its funny compared to ezra who does the opposite Vinny: he smiles a little wistfully "well if i ever need to head anywhere its usually due to the accord... magic makes things easy but you do miss out on the little treasures like this" he props his chin on his hand "besides its hard to travel when you've a business to run... to think all those people i know are down there" as if he just remembered something he glances up to stare at the sky instead now Cimmorro: "ah, i thought that was the case. teleportation circles and whatnot. mm.. convenient, but not as fun." he side eyes vinny as he pauses. "what's up?" Vinny: he tilts himself towards you and points up, still staring "i think.... they might just be the slightest bit bigger.." he thinks for a moment again "though it could be my glasses" Cimmorro: "oh! the stars!" cimm also gives the sky a good stare "nah... they do look brighter, hehe. even the moon is more luminous than ever 😌 " he enjoys the stargazing for a little longer and says "oooo, now i want to experience a meteor showeer on an airship...!!" Vinny: he nods his head pleased at the prospect  "i thought so i thought so...." he turns his head to look at you a little at mention of a meteor shower his eyes lighting up before he furrows his brow "how high does this go...i wonder if you'd be in danger of getting hit" his mind seems to churn through the logistics of it Cimmorro: "eehhhhh...?! do you think those fly that close to the earth....? 😵 my dreams crushed before it even began..." Vinny: he laughs a little at cimm's reaction "i suppose the crewman would know...though airships are relatively new, maybe no ones experienced a meteor shower up so high just yet" he looks back up pondering Cimmorro: "ah... then i suppose i'll let some folk carry out such experiments before i decide to book another flight for such a sight...." he starts to light his pipe as he gets more comfortable "but wouldn't they be lovely though, rocks from the sky. surely they must be pretty... i wonder if the ruby mother would like them" Vinny: he smirks "not much for experimenting about are you? my brains already firing off ideas..." he nods in agreement before speaking as if he just got an idea that particularly pleased him "id have thought by that logic you'd think meteor showers would be gifts from the good lady herself, raining down goodies in the night, or maybe a sign of good luck" Cimmorro: "experimenting is fun if I don't risk falling thousands of feet.... i guess it's a little less risky for you since you can float and whatnot...." cimm gives vinny a look of concern but he does give it some more serious thought once vinny romanticizes the idea to him in that way, going hmmmm... "if you put it that way then it makes me want try and nab them even more.... 🤤 what're your bright ideas then?" Vinny: he smiles "i dont know if we could grab them out of the sky, theyre burning hot, but i wonder... with the right combination of spells.." he begins rattling off random ideas, flip flopping between then as his thoughts stray and flow between each other "-thats of course if the blimp kept stable... and if the puncture didn't damage the meteors themselves...size is also a factor..." he's off in his own world.... Cimmorro: cimm looks like he's between fascinated to straight up dizzy but he's listening as vinny bounces his ideas off of him. his imagination is something more of a flash mini game in the 2000's of the airship trying to catch as many space rocks... "i wonder how big they can even get... do you think they can be used for energy too if they were preserved still burning....?" his mind starts to wander at the possibility of it all like whoaaa.... space energy Vinny: “there are craters of all size out there... depends on the rock i suppose" he moves from leaning his chin on his hand to folding his arms to look up at the sky again "it could...like a self sustaining contraption" he looks lost in his head again before he shakes it away, realising how long hes been going on "haha, well this is all theoretical anyway, putting into practice is always the challenge, but this sort of thing is what im usually going on with back home..." he gazes back down at the city growing tiny in the distance across the sea scratching his neck Cimmorro: cimm is currently daydreaming abt his jasidan tower being lit with a sexy shiny flaming space rock

Cimmorro: "it's refreshing. that kinda thing, i mean. my everyday job mostly consists of less theories and more data collection, collecting facts and evidence and whatnot...." his sentence trails off as he comes to another thought "actually, that brings me curious about something, have you ever worked with our clergy? my mentor said we sometimes get into touch with the accord" Vinny: he laughs "reminds me of writing out runes in spellbooks..." before turning towards cimm again "not personally no, we dont have a church in shorewater, i meet plenty that travel through especially with a shop like mine but nothing related to assisting them" he tilts his head "i usually try to keep out of accord affairs anyway...this is the most they've bothered me in a while, ive been flying a little under the radar for too long i suppose" he sighs a little "here i thought maybe i could quietly fade out of their minds" Cimmorro: he makes a face that kinda says 'ah makes sense' before looking at vinny again as he says the last part "really wanna disconnect huh? honestly, between you and me, even willow thinks the accord is a little irritating" he snorts as he continues "if willow can say something like that about some group then they surely must be headache-inducing" Vinny: he smirks a little ruefully "that's because they are... ahhhh mired in politics constantly they are, for an arcane group, its like you're always playing chess games over the smallest things with them. its nice when you join, feels like a real comradery of new minds all around you, but the inner circle are notoriously... cruel id say." he scrunches his face "if they want something they'll get it. somehow" Cimmorro: "ooh.. yikes... sounds like a whole can of worms. i hope they havent roped you into such antics at least?" Vinny: his eyes grow a little foggy as he stares off at the sky one more time before shaking his head "well nothing lately, aside from the palace fortification anyway" with a smile he looks over at the sea before rubbing his hands across his arms "much as i love the view im getting a little chilly... i might head back and continue unpacking i think.." he turns to you and smiles "thank you for the chat cimmorro, it was quite nice being up here, heres to our er-..." he thinks then holds out a hand for you to shake "future journey across the seas" Cimmorro: cimm just thinking like.. is it that cold already... 🤔?... still, he gives vinny a friendly little smile as well "sure, think I'll stay out here a bit longer. and back at you :D thanks again for coming along, really means a lot." he laughs a bit as he takes his hand to shake "if you get airship sick just let me know" Vinny: "ah dont mention it, it's the least i could do after all this" he smiles at the last part as you shake "luckily im rooming with the resident doctor around here huh?" he laughs a little before giving you a wave and trotting off below deck again... Cimmorro: cimm waves at vinny as he goes then watches jasper for a while as he smokes in the open air, observing the view and studying what he can make out of the airship structure around him. after he exhausts his pipe, he'll cast sending to his sister malaya "im on my way home with jasper. we should get there in a couple of weeks...! be on your best behavior xoxo" and she can practically hear the ^_^ in his voice Malaya: you hear a slightly dazed voice go hmhmhmhm? before replying "ohh cimmy! coming home? i'll get all your favourites ready for ya hehe... red delights and strawberry jam...." the voice seems to petter out tiredly before the spell ends

Vinny shuffles off as Cimmorro continues to enjoy the night air, Psalm, Rokka and Han feel a bit of queasiness hit as the ship sails on but dispel it with a shake of their heads. Rokka feels a similar queasiness start to wash over himself as well, though it’s not vomit worthy yet he gets a feeling like he would like to go sit down for a little bit now....

Keva: keva's like this for a bit waiting for the feeling to pass, goes from watching what's below to looking for the spring constellations

Rokka: he sways in his stance a bit and quickly grips onto the railing "ohh......han.....i....i think i neeed to sit down....." he slowly slides down to the floor while still holding the railing groaning Han: han jolts out of her stupor staring at the way to the sea rather than the city for the last minute, feeling nauseous "oh, shit, you okay? ferrie said boats can do that... you just gotta look at horizon and breathe" she tries to manhandle rokka into a sitting position and sits down with him Rokka: "ughh....wish i knew about this sooner...." he takes han's advice and tilts his head up and continues the slow breathing "maybe...its the air up here is not good for me...idk how.... i'm gonna make it han"<--being dramatic Han: han gets teary eyed and grabs rokkas hand (also dramatic) "no bro.... bro...! you gotta make it....!!!! maybe you can breathe into cup, its your own air, thats good for you, right?????" Rokka: he places his hand on top of her hand, turning to look at her "do.............you have a cup..? oooghh" head flopping back <---still dramatic Han: "i dont............................." Rokka: "i'm not making it....ughh" Han: "nnNOOOOO YOU.. you just sit here ill go ask for cup" han goes to harass a crewmember this tirm on purpose Rokka: he just nods and weakly waves her off like yeah u go do that <dying>

Ghester: as you gaze over the bow psalm you hear a familiar voice pipe up "i'll say this is a sight ive never seen myself before" Psalm: "No airships back when you had a body?" He nods, "I was just thinking to myself that so far the nausea is definitely nothing close to the trip over to Shorewater." Ghester: "not a one, though im sure people got around in the sky in other ways if they really desired" he hums amused "more boatsick than airsick, a good thing to remember" Psalm: "Hmm well I hope the patron is enjoying himself." Psalm shrugs, "Well I think I'm also in much better condition, all things considered. I suppose the ocean can be a bit more unpredictable too..or at least I'd hope... " Ghester: he chuckles "im sure they're as mesmerized as you, a true pair. and true enough, a little mental relaxation can always help with a journey, doesnt help to be to tense when you set off for worlds unknown" Rokka: rokka just slowly sinking to the floor to lay flat on the ground while he waits for han, mostly accepting his fate atp "maybe i'll just......yep....yeah............ok......." Psalm: "Yes, well, mentality and no..." he trails off when he notices Rokka. "Are you alright...?" he calls over Rokka: he doesn't even bother turning to look who is asking "uuughh" is all he says Ghester: "seems hes on the way to the other side..." Psalm: he laughs at this but eh Han has it covered.

As they chat Han quickly approaches a crewmate for airsickness help.

Crewmate: as you approach one walking by the deck they tilt their head at the request "aahh ye can probably grab one from the dining hall, whasit for?" Han: "my friend feels sick..." Crewmate: they nod their head understandingly "ahhhhh, here i know a quick fix. grab an egg and a orange, squeeze together and make a juice with some salt and herbs. instant cure" the crewman nods their head wisely "ask th' kitchen down there, they'll give you something" Han: han is so shocked by the recipe she almost loses her sense of urgency "huh... really...? that sounds kind of disgusting... ill see if he can stomach that...." <- kind of wants to try it herself.

Han heads to the kitchen in search of the klitchen staff and returns with 2 cups of the concotion, one for Rokka and one for herself.

Han: han comes jogging back "ok i got something, its kind of disgusting if im being honest but kitchen staff swore up and down that it works, but i wasnt gonna let you die tasting it alone so i got one for myself too" she hands u the glass Rokka: "ur the best han...." he props himself up with his elbow and downs as much of the drink he can Han: han downs it like a shot

As Rokka glugs his down he quickly begins feeling better, almost instantly cured. Han notes he taste is nothing to write home about...but her stomach feels a sense of ease come over it.

Han: han closes her eyes and wrinkles her whole face, sticking her tongue out Rokka: rokka makes the same expression as her "yucky....what's in this? i think its working though...! I'm feeling better already" he beams at han "u saved me han" Han: hans looks away, proud but shy "he... twas nothing.... more like the kitchen guy saved you" keeps heheheing to herself proudly Rokka: "i owe u one! let me know whenever and i'll do it!" Han: "one what?" Rokka: "one anything!" he smiles Han: han blinks for a second "no debts between us, bro" punches his shoulder lightheartedly Rokka: he touches his shoulder with an oof "but I want to repay u! I seriously almost didn't make it just now if it weren't for u!" Han: "well... its like... what that word.... you know, we are team (not to mention ure my Bro), of course i would help you... its guaranteed. so you dont have to repay... just have my back too" Rokka: rokka is extremely touched by this "han....I will fight for u" he holds her hand 😭 Han: GRIPS HIS HAND.............

Rokka: he wipes a tear "so, any other plans for the night on this torture boat?" Han: han leans in to whisper "i still want to try and get up balloon--" and then in normal voice "but until then, i heard theres some band and food here, wanna check it out? maybe they have good bard on board.." Rokka: he whispers "but we'll get kicked off....i don't want to fall from the sky..." and back to noral voice "that sounds fun! I could use some food after all that" Han: realization washes over han "oh thats right.... i have my little magic, i could get up, but if you fall, i could only ensure safe landing... into sea...." :( her mood picks up at snacks tho :D "lets goooo" Rokka: he shudders at the thought but cheers up when han agrees to go "goooooooooooooo"

Ahead of them both, Keva independantly heads to the dining room where the band is currently playing, she eyes the place for what food she can snag herself.

The menu for the moment appears to be spiced potatoes and eggs, hazelnut bread, and shepards pie, as she glances around she also sees some goat cheese rolls. She stuffs a cheese roll in her mouth before wrapping two more and some hazelnut bread in some napkin she takes, stuffing them in her pockets.

She heads back up deck, passing Psalm, Rokka and Han as she goes, and sees a few crewman idling about still and seems a little dissapointed. She properly bites into her cheese roll and takes it in her hand, chewing as she thinks she'll have to wait a bit longer probably, and goes back to the railings of the ship.

As the three roll into the place Han eyes the band playing and notes, why its only the hottest band this side of the airship, Fever of Bliss... she doesnt really recognise the guest slot though, some elf fella...? hm. Though they're playing a pretty subdued song right now. maybe because its the evening on an airship.

Han: "think they should play something cooler...... get party started here" Rokka: "i got this" he pats hans arm and walks off towards the band, using this moment to repay han. rokka slides over 5pp to the band "um...excuse me! can u guys play something more upbeat to liven the place please?" 🥺 Psalm: 5PP? WHAT ARE YOU RICH Keva: that cello player sitting up taller eveyr time rokka walks in now Han: bro that celloist better suck his dick Psalm: 5plat Like If i was the celloist I'd rename the band Rokka and the rockettes Chip: Fever of Rokka

Psalm: I feel like this entire airship ride for Psalm so far is just watching Han and Rokka get up to varying levels of idiocy but anyways he's going to get some food and just watch.. whatever it is Rokka's up to unfold Celloist: a fella on the cello gives you a glance and his eye boggles a little at the pp before he cooly adjusts his hair and shoots you a grin "not a problem buddy, any specific requests or you just want it a little jumping down here?" Rokka: "whatever gets the people jumping!! thanks!" he wave at the guy before making his way back to han "got it 😎 " Han: han is just like yaaaaaaay :D "whadya ask for??" Rokka: "i just asked for whatever that gets people to jump! so I do not know :D" Han: "nice" >:D Rokka: >:D

As the music in the dining hall gets more upbeat, the airship sails off to destinations known. The party say their farewell to the ever glittering Shorewater, what the night and future will bring is a mystery to all for now....

—

Notes

The roomates have been assigned, to 🌳Figstup we go!

—

Han and Rokka Climb the Airship - 4/17 🏹🐺

Han: while sitting in the resto area chewing food han leans to @Rokka Warra and whispers "we should steal some uniforms, i mean borrow well give them back?" Rokka: half way through chewing he whips around his head to look at her in shock, relaxing after hearing more of what she says "STE-oh  yeah we can borrow! I wonder if they would let us..." Han: han nods "i feel like we shouldnt ask though, cause like, that dude was kind of an ass. and what they dont know doesnt hurt them, ya know?" Rokka: rokka scratches his head thinking something....not right here..... "that's true...he was kind of mean...but we should still let them know? OH how about we leave a note!" chalking this all up to well we ARENT stealing and just borrowing anywayz Han: "hmm... note......... i mean if we take and bring it back before they notice, we dont even have to do THAT" Rokka: rokka tilts his head at han "oh, really?" Han: she nods "totally bro" 👌 Rokka: he gets excited "OK THEN! LETS GO GET THEM!" shoving the last bit of his food in his mouth

Rokka thinks for a moment before suddenly going wait a second... this is stealing.... a criminal act.... a crime.... by criminals.... it couldnt be.....

Rokka: oh em gee the brain circuit has linked! he pauses his movement with food in his mouth "i think we should still leave a note, it doesn't feel very heroic of us to not let them know :/" Han: han thinks for a couple moments, making some weird thinking faces, seeing as her jig is up "ok but can we take note away when we get back and no one has seen said note" Rokka: rokka taps his chin "hmmmm...." he shrugs " yeah i dont see why not haha" Han: U CAN CLEARLY SEE HANS RELIEVED even tho she tries not to do some outward gesture like PHEWWWW "okay, did you finish eating? lets bounce?" Rokka: rokka still taking mental note of her lying to him but doesn't want to dig into it so he files it away, more focused on wanting to have fun with han "LETS GOOOOOOO"

The two head off in search for the goods, Han casting pass without a trace over the two of them beforehand. They pass by unseen by crew members as they skulk around looking for the crew quarters, Rokka almost takes a wrong turn somewhere getting lost under the decks but Han is luckily able to maneuver them both in the right direction. They find one of the bunks as they head inside, and laying hung up and strewn about the bed are a couple of crew uniforms   !

Han: whispering "yessssssssss fucking easyyyy" han looks around for smth even relatively her size and one for rokka, before putting it on "well, how we looking?" does it make her ass look fat

The two stand having thrown the uniforms on. Rokka is bursting out of it a bit... its definitely gonna rip at the seams if he turns a little weird. As he looks at Han he notes that its like if someone put a childs clothes on an adult but she is wearing a grown adults clothes as an adult.

Han: "....................... this is how most clothes sit on me" 😐 <lying to herself first n foremost Rokka: rokka moving carefully "is it supposed to feel this tight? ugh this is why i don't like shirts" he tugs at the neck a little, turning to look at han "oh!" he just smiles at her to refrain from saying anything bad Han: she sighs "not really........... i dont like shirts that much either... someone else always made them for me so i never bothered in city..." Rokka: "oohh that's cool! special made shirts!" he's about to walk out until he remembers "OH THE NOTE! I have parchment but nothing to write with...." he looks up at han like spare pen? can i have a spare pen? Han: han looks in her bag like i gotta have.. some piece of chalk or some shit right.........

Han pulls out a piece of charcloth for Rokka to write with from her tinderbox, his penmanship on the note ends up being incredibly masterful. The note he’s leaving behind may be the most beautioful piece of writing he's ever done, he’s almost sad to leave it behind.

Rokka: rokka writing it with the most care in the world like this is an act of heroism.....this note HAS to be perfect.... he hold the note up to han "i wrote HELLO MY NAME IS ROKKA AND I WILL BE BORROWING 2 (TWO) UNIFORMS FOR MY FRIEND HAN AND I. WE WILL RETURN IT DO NOT WORRY! THANK YOU! signed Rokka 🌟 " waiting for peer review  Han: internally han is like i GOTTA get rid of this shit holy fuck but also damn that handiwork.... "wow you really have knack for writing... this is kinda.... beautiful........" stares at it a bit mesmerized "now we really have to come back because i want to keep it? can i??" looks at rokka Rokka: rokka beams pleased to hear the praise "ya think so han!?" he looks at his note once more before putting it down somewhere easy to spot "huh? I'm a little embarrassed now if u say that but sure!" his tail wagging omggg Han: "we dude, its awesome!!!" she steels herself "back to our mission "get on the giant balloon" now... we'll back to your artwork later" clenches fist

The two swoop out of the crew quarters with nary a sound and make their way back up on deck, once there they continue their stealthy advance, until they reach an area with no visible crew members around, they peer around for a good spot to start hiking up the ropes in the dark. As she squints around in the dark Han actually kind of finds it difficult for her to tell..... what attaches to what and where...erm....

Luckily Rokka's eagle eyes spot the same spot they were trying to rock up the balloon earlier! He ascertains its about as stable as they can get in any attempt one should make to scale the balloon, aside from ropes occupied by a crewman here and there.

Rokka: "how far up are we climbing?" Han: >:) "to the top, of course" Rokka: "oooooooooh like the mountains.........LETS GO" getting more excited by the second Han: HAN PUTS HER FINGER TO HER MOUTH LIKE SHUSH BUT SHES CLEARLY ALSO HYPE

Han ties a rope between her and Rokka and they both begin their attempt to climb the ropes yonder high.... and dont get too far. These uniforms constrict them far too much, its so hard to move where they want theirlimbs to go, NOT TO MENTION in the dark on a flying ship they aren't too familiar with. At some point they both slip off the ropes simultaneously and go flying back down, luckily back to the deck floor, with a loud CRASH and OOF.

The loud sound of them both draw a few nearby crewman over to investigate, though they quickly manage to drag themselves behind a few nearby stacked crates and hold their breath. Silent as a mouse, they aren't discovered for the moment but a few of crewmen stand nearby now, glancing about suspiciously. They hear 'maybe one of them fell?' 'dont look smashed..' it seems this spots now bust for sneaky climbing...rats!

Han: "i think we gotta ditch the shirts.. this shit sucks" Rokka: "you read my mind" already stripping himself from it

The two quickly remove the tops of their uniforms, and search about for a new spot. Han continues having trouble but with Rokka's keen peer review they find another spot that looks climbable, though not nearly as ideal as the first, the crewman on the ropes are somewhat on alert now as well. They’ll have to be sneaky going up these ones.

Now frtee of their restrictive cloth bindings though they find it much easier to get to work and carefully and silently heave themselves upwards through the night. As they slink their way up higher and higher their view over evening sky and ocean grows grander and grander, the wind whips their hair and fur about in the twinkling darkness.

They reach near the top of the ropes and see small sort of wooden perches attached to the upper half of the balloon. Similar to a crows nest you'd have on a ocean faring ship, although there are multiple, spread out across the balloon up here. They sit directly under one now, a glance tells them one is occupied by a crewman but on the other end of the balloon, he ought not see them messing around should they pull yourselves through quickly enough. Though they’ll need to open up the little trapdoor to allow you entry, its got a strangely complicated latch.

Han: whispering "can you see this thing? its so dark here..." Rokka: "inddedilydoo i can!" rokka like i got this babe

That latch is nothing, Rokka slides it open with ease and above them sits the best seats in the house.

Rokka: rokka cant help but giggle out of excitement "this is so coollll!!!!!!" Han: PUNCHES U PLAYFULLY N GENTLY N WHISPERS "YOU ROCK DUDE!!"  Rokka: he hold the punched area and laughs "WE ROCK!!!" his tail wagging more weeee

> 🎵 Tramont Island / Granblue Fantasy OST

They slide on up and shut the door underneath them carefully so they can stand in the perch, they're up as high as they can go on this thing. The ambience of the dark and view of the night sky as they sail through the clouds blows them away.

They see little lantern lights here and there beneath them on the deck of the ship as crewman and a few passengers walk about in the night. The lights give off a faint glow of fuzzy light beneath the two of them, a familiar sign of life in the endless dark blue and white.

Han: "woooooooooooooooooah.... worth it" :D she puts out a hand to rokka for a fist bump Rokka: "totally...." he fist bumps her back while looking out to the sky in awe, rokka turns to look at han "i can't wait to tell the others what we are seeing right now hehe" biggest grin plastered on his face Han: >:) "i bet theyre gonna be totally jealous .." han is vibing feeling the air on her skin Rokka: "I wish we could bring the others up here too..." he sighs and looks back out at the night sky feeling almost nostalgic from the view Han: han looks between rokka and the view, feeling nostalgic too "yeah, me too... i missed views like this.. and doing stuff like this... i think i miss mountains more than i expected" Rokka: "yeah? I kind of miss roaming nature myself...but I think I like it more now that I have someone to share the view with this time" he smiles at han "would you ever want to go back?" he looks curiously Han: "ye, roaming nature with someone else.. thats life" han thinks for a moment "i dunno. if i could guarantee theyre all...." she trails off "if it was just the nature. would you?"  Rokka: he nods "it sure is" he looks at her, turns to look down, and up to the sky again "and if you could?" he takes a deep breath "not really...it's lonely in the woods" Han: "if i could, yeah. i would love to travel all across world... im not really sure why i stayed so long in shorewater, to say honestly? it was nice change of pace but i miss this.. and i miss having constant companion with me... i guess i understand why keva keeps amos and cimm, jasper..." han looks at rokka at the last comment "listen... cimmorro and keva told me off last time, so you dont have to talk about it if you dont wanna, but didnt you have clan? tribe? village? i dont think i either travelled alone for long periods of time..." Rokka: "i feel the same way. staying in shorewater was an accident, meant to be just a quick pitstop to earn some cash and back i go" he laughs a little seeing where he is at now compared to what he thought he would continue doing "they did? I'm sorry...i get sensitive sometimes about it...I'm not used to talking about myself so much especially with a group of people.....i guess i was just...i don't know." he turns his head and speaks a little louder eventually softening his volume at the end "i do have a clan! or used to at least..."  Han: hans nodding at the shorewater stuff ... "no, no, i get it, i would probably get mad too if someone got too pushy with me, its fine." she nudges him with her elbow gently "if its any condolence, i also used to have tribe" emphasis on used to Rokka: he lets out a light laughter while being nudged "what happened?" realizing he may have asked too much he backtracks "AH you don't have to answer if you don't want" he's learning...... Han: han looks at rokka for a moment, just kind of...... not looking at him, but thru him? and then she gives a little smirk but her eyes look sad "wanna hear secret?" Rokka: rokka gets a little worried he may have gone too far "sure, it'll be safe with me" he gives a small smile hoping that would lighten things a little Han: "we got blown the fuck up. i was on watch and slept through, until heat woke me. than i ran, because i fucking hated it there, and my only option was escape, lest the chief lived and wanted me for dead." her weird non smiling smirk stays on her face the whole way thru, and she watches rokka's face as she retells this Rokka: rokka's eyes grow wider and wider the more she talks, not expecting such a secret at all "woah...um...i-i'm sorry for asking...i didn't think-" he looks away to carefully find his words "I'm glad you're still safe and was away from there...?"  he is trying so hard to not make this any more painful for han "i promise to take this secret to the grave! and if the chief is looking I will protect you" he says the last part with a serious tone Han: han snorts and laughs quietly "its okay, you dont have to be nice. we got torched for a reason, you know." she gives a genuine smile tho "thank you. im sure theyre unkillable and have only become crazier since" she grins at rokka at the last bit "same goes to you too, then. if someones after your ass, ill help get rid of them" she mimes a karate chop Rokka: he tenses up hearing the unkillable and crazier part but he relaxes seeing her grinning at him "that's a little concerning!" he laughs at her karate chop "y'know hearing this makes me feel a little closer to you! honestly, i've had this familiar feeling when i got to know you, han, and this just confirmed it." he smiles at her, his tone is also softer than the usual Han: re:thats concerning "rightfully so" she gives him a smirk, u cannot tell if shes fucking with u. she gets soft at the familiar feeling comment "actually, you reminded me of my sibling at first. though, i think ure less alike with more time spent together.... youre far gentler. and thoughtful." :) Rokka: "well i am your "bro" afterall!" he laughs "really? being gentle wasn't what was liked about me back then though..." he mumbles to himself Han: she giggles over the bro comment, then more quietly "oh? back when?" Rokka: "when I was younger and still with my clan" he looks back out at the sky "kind of the reason for why i don't have a clan actually....being too gentle hearted and thoughtful..." he tries to laugh the nervousness off Han: "oh, really? i thought you were about to tell me you used to be bloodthirsty killer" phew, she leans back relaxed "well.. i''m not whole clan, but i appreciate that about you. maybe they had no taste for good company." Rokka: he makes a  😮 face "bloodthirsty killer!? ME!? I ATE TREES FOR A WEEK JUST TO NOT HUNT RABBITS!"  he laughs out loudly "well, i thought i deserved ending up where i did...i did fail them in a sense... but meeting you and the others is starting to make me change that thought a little." he nods at himself now that he's seriously thinking about his current spot in life rn Han: pfffthahaha "yea, that shouldve told me everything.." han listens to rokka but stays quiet for a little bit "i think its the same, but opposite for me... even though i was bloodthirsty killer for my family, i dont think i was ever good enough for them." she sighs heavily, lost in thought. "i think its not very good, to chase after others like that." Rokka: "huh...we share some similarities just different situations" he pats her on the arm "i agree! also what i said before should count as my secret to you in return! i think?" Han: she smiles and sighs softly at him "sure, secret for secret. though i meant what i said before, no debts. you didnt have to, if you didnt want to." Rokka: he smiles at her "I did." Han: 😄😄< two idiots at each other like this rn

The two spend time gossiping up in the perch for a time, until they eventually scuttle down in a rush when a crewman looks their way, happy with their escapade for the night.