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+--- Thread: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old (/showthread.php?tid=6298)
Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 06-12-2017
Nighttime settled over the island of Costa del Sol like a thick cerulean veil, the mellow glistening of streetlamps bathing the streets and cobblestone passages in rivers of bluish-grey light. The gentle rocking of the ocean and ships in their rectangular wharves blended with the distantly raucous whoops of the party district into a sweet, seamless cadence. When Jade chanced a look out towards the waterfront, the soft white sails of fishing boats hauling in their catch flapped and fluttered on the cool night breeze, the angling wings of seabirds and pelicans occasionally spearing through the clouds.
It was a lot different from the Nexus they had just travelled through, that was for sure!
An evening haze and churned-up moisture from the street cast everything in an almost palpable fog, falling flat in the presence of the gurgling fountain which sat at the center of the square. The leafy fronds of plant life sprouted from pots, — the area was littered with various works of ceramic sculpture— their green hues turned almost black by the absence of the sunnily bright light of day. Jade’s footsteps were soft as she strolled into the square, the gorgeous silver-gold bulb of a lantern passing over her head without a sound.
Rebecca was there, too, skipping behind and looking at the world around her with apparent wonder sparkling in her wide, pale eyes. While the twisted veil of naivety and childish imaginings had been partly lifted from her mind by Tearen Wover, Jade had no intention of letting the Little Sister be introduced to the darker parts of the Omniverse just yet. Even if she already had been introduced, technically, due to the Witch of Space’s carelessness back in the Frozen Fields and her own past life in... what was it...? Rapture?
With scarcely a swish of her starry skirts, Jade sat primly on the edge of the fountain. The concrete was cool and smooth when she laid her palms flat against it, carefully balanced so it would be easier for her to conjure up an evening meal. A comforting gleam of Omnilium settled in a molten liquid glob between her palms as she toyed with it for several minutes, pulling and weaving the soft strands into a cat's cradle of multi-faceted color wound around her fingers, eventually settling upon the idea of three nice, substantial sandwiches.
The first bite was crisp and sharp, ripe with juicy tomato and spinach leaves. Rebecca accepted one and nibbled at it, settling in beside Jade to stare out at the water, crow plushie tucked under her arm. As quiet and unobtrusive as ever, Becquerel sagged onto his belly and gobbled his up in one quick snap of his teeth, neon green gums and tongue flashing.
As she chewed, Jade thought that she could very well remain there forever. She felt present, wholly at peace with the still moment cast in dusky shadow all around her. To become a statue sculpted into the side of that fountain would have been a dream come true, her ears alone privy to the soft whispers of the gurgling water and the secrets it so yearned, ached to tell, kept safe-guarded in marble for a stony eternity.
But, the ocean beckoned. The shores of the island were pebbled all over with scalloped seashells and sharpened bits of glittering bottle glass, a magical and wondrous sight to behold at sunset. Jade had seen it— the domed roofs gleaming with a stately, distinctly imperial copper tone as the jeweled beach winked and shone like the dying embers of a fire, the orange glow flickering and fluttering until it was snuffed out by the lapping edges of the tide.
If such sights as that were so readily apparent upon first entering the Vasty Deep, Jade reasoned, then surely it could only become more magnificent the further she ventured out on the water. And the only way to do that, it seemed, was to take to the sea on some vessel or another.
The dog-eared girl had absolutely no clue of where she might find a boat, but the nearest harbor looked to be a reasonable place to start! So long as she kept her expectations relatively low and her head firmly on her shoulders, nothing at all could bring her down. It wasn’t as if she was expecting a yacht or a royal liner, after all, with champagne or stringed fairy lights or the purest sunlight captured in crystalline flute glasses. Even a dingy little fishing boat would do!
Kicking her feet up onto the stone bench, Jade scarfed down the left over crumbs of her sandwich, and then contemplated summoning another.
The world could wait for one more sandwich.
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 07-04-2017
Twin dashes of dark navy blue paint tastefully accentuated the clerk’s cheekbones, the fancy fantail of feathers attached at the back of his outfit fluffing up when he leaned forward to better hear her request. “Y'all needing a room?”
Jade nodded enthusiastically. After a time of wandering around the square and down several sleepy side streets, she had determined that they were in a strictly residential zone— no businesses other than the occasional flower shop or hardware store in view, with very few lighted windows giving them enough of a glow to see by. Poor Rebecca was dragging her feet against the cobbles, rubbing at her eyes with tiny fists, an occasional yawn breaking through Jade’s thoughts; even Becquerel seemed a bit worn out. They were forced to go all the way to the party district if they hoped to find a decent inn to use for a night’s rest— and, gosh, the hotel they found that actually had some vacancies left was beautiful.
While it was clear it was a pretty ordinary establishment by light of day, the decorations put up for the evening (and probably sun-up) festivities totally transformed it. A riot of color and opulence burst from every terraced window and the frilled costumes of those loitering inside the lobby, masks painted in greens, blues and accents of shimmery, rich gold drifting in the fog, star-shaped paper lanterns fluttering and the moon a smiling crescent hanging serene and silent in the sky.
I hope they have complimentary snacks, thought Jade.
“Yes, please!”
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 07-10-2017
One wouldn't know it from looking at the confident way she strode through the lobby, but Jade had never stayed in a hotel before. Like, never ever. And, as the young Witch of Space soon found out, Rebecca hadn't had the chance to, either! Taking the elevator was an adventure for the both of them, the girls giddily pressing the button for their floor and watching the doors clamp shut while several other visitors shot strange looks their way. Or maybe they were just looking at the giant, eyeless dog shadowing them everywhere like some kind of white-furred wraith. Who knows!
The key card, too, was super weird. Jade distrusted the security of that funny little rectangle almost immediately. Who on earth or off it used a dumb piece of plastic to open a door, anyway? Couldn't anyone just make up their own piece of flattened plastic and barge in on them? Transportalizers were clearly the best and safest way to gain access to any room, anywhere!
They ended up in a musty old one-bedroom suite, the bedroom separated from the main living space with it's long sleeper sofa settled against the wall. Hollywood-style lampshades and pearly, tasseled draperies were strewn across the ceiling, a cool drip, drip, drip tipping Jade off to where the bathroom was located. The taps were painted gold, chipped in places to reveal the silvery metal underneath, and the Romanesque tiles of the bath were cracked so thoroughly it was like walking over a dry riverbed in the middle of a desert. It was also pretty dang obvious that the room was meant as a honeymoon suite, and Jade had to scramble to explain to Rebecca that the plum-colored wine bottle sitting on the bed was not, in fact, free grape juice, but instead a complimentary bottle of drain cleaner as she dumped the strong-smelling Chateau Recougne Bordeaux Superieur into the sink.
"I don't know about you, 'Becca, but I could sleep for 1,000 years!" Jade exclaimed, knees causing dents in the comforter and her hands busily fluffing up the pillows and bedcovers as she prepared for bed.
She heard a muffled fwhumpff! as Rebecca flopped onto the bed beside her, giggling and rolling over the soft covers. She still had the stuffed crow Nealap-- Tearen had given her, as well as Jade's purple octopus plush. "No, 10,000 years! Feel the sleep of 10,000 years!"
Later, Jade was sure to flick on the bathroom light just in case the Little Sister woke sometime in the night and couldn’t find her way. Only then did she let herself settle in for bed on the sofa, wriggling under the scratchy blanket with a treacherous creak of the springs.
As she lay in the half-dark, listening to both the sounds of the street outside trickling in through the curtains and Bec's paws digging into the carpet as he began to patrol the room, she pulled a wrinkly tri-fold brochure out from her dress. It was crumpled from being in her pocket for most all of the evening, indentations scored into the paper from where it had been pinched between nervous fingers, but it was legible nonetheless. Bracing herself, Jade lifted it close to her face so she could read the lettering in the dark.
Rapture. Home of the future. Where the great will not be constrained by the small.
Rebecca's soft, whispery snores rose from the bed in the other room. The... small?
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 07-11-2017
Jade was roused from sleep by the sound of someone speaking in a hushed, urgent voice. Groggily, she wriggled her way out from under the blanket to squint around at the darkened room. All the information she had on Rapture was scattered about her, her limbs tangled in the blankets and a smear of drool stuck to one half of her face.
Light streamed in from the open hotel room door, the well-lit hallway seeming like the surface of the sun to Jade's tired eyes. Blinking, she tried to focus her blurry vision on the two figures in the doorway.
"It's 10am, sir. That's an hour past your checkout time, and I've called your room at least five times in the past forty-five minutes."
Sitting up and craning her neck to peer over the sofa arm, Jade saw that the speaker was the same guy who had handed them their key card the night before, only instead of being dressed in an ensemble of flamboyant blue-and-green feathers, he had a pair of copper spectacles perched smartly on the bridge of his nose and a much more subdued, dusty-colored train of tail feathers dragging across the floor behind him. He tugged at the crisp 'v' of his shirt collar, nervously glancing around so as to not be overheard by other hotel patrons.
Blocking entry, squarely in the middle of the doorway, was Bec. A "do not disturb" sign was plainly visible under one of his ginormous paws. It was a mystery how he had managed to answer the door.
"Whuff," said Bec, emphatically crinkling the sign under his paw.
The man from the front desk sighed. "I understand that the sign says Do Not Disturb, sir, but it's past checkout. You've even missed our continental breakfast, and we are a busy establishment! You and your party—"
Bec growled.
"I," said the man, seeming a lot less confident in hotel policy. His eyes flickered desperately around, face almost on the edge of despair, and then he met Jade's gaze. "Miss. Miss, our housekeeping staff is waiting to clean your room. Please do not let canines answer the door if you choose to stay with us again."
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 07-16-2017
Beside the gleaming blue marina was an open air market. Shady umbrellas and pavilions with vines curling around them lined the walkway, and industriously clucking chickens added a welcome dash of color to the otherwise plain brown planks jutting out over the water. The sound of chattering people trickled through the air as vendors sold tropical fruits beside the water, ripened bananas, clutches of grapes, and bright red strawberries among their number, lush and gleaming with moisture in the sunlight.
Numerous colorful goods hung from displays cobbled together from wooden pallets and old shipping crates, shades of aqua and red clay painted over them to advertise discounts in prices. Slimy fish fillets were strung up on barbed hooks, smelling fresh from the ocean, with strips of odious eel jerky drying in the sun alongside. Yellow sprinkled across the fluffy clouds like a spritz of lemon rind over buttercream, a chandelier of shimmers sparkling upon the waves.
Jade sighed, turning her back on the open window. The breakfast inn was little more than a glorified fisherman’s hut, a stone-lined hearth smoking merrily in the corner and swathing the room in a savory, salty fog. Stools and tables for lounging and sleeping were scattered throughout, mead-happy folk slathered across their surfaces like butter over bread, clearly still tuckered out from the festivities of the night before. The hidden upstairs rooms, offered for a night’s stay at best, seemed hardly used over the dining furniture. It was a far cry from the lavish establishment they had stayed in the night before, but it was close enough to the docks that Jade could smell and hear the ocean waves pounding against the shore. Plus, she thought it was plenty charming!
Well, aside from the food, anyways. A bowl of pottage sat before the young Witch of Space on the table, oily-orange reflections cast upon it by the firelight and a weird mixture of pulp and mush lumped within. It might have contained potatoes. Or minced rabbit meat, maybe even eel. Or... Uhm. Fish? She honestly couldn’t tell what it was; the weird gray color seriously put her off.
In the end, Jade shoved the bowl away with a pout, having lost her appetite pretty early on in the morning after remembering what she had read of Rapture the night before. She didn’t want to waste any more time on staring sullenly at what was clearly a lost cause! Beside her, however, Rebecca tucked into her breakfast with aplomb— at least she wasn’t put off by the mysterious character of their meal, though Jade couldn’t help fearing for her health.
Bec leapt up onto the table and lapped at the contents of Jade’s abandoned dish, paws scratching loudly on the wood. Jade winced and sent an apologetic look towards the hostess, a sturdy woman who seemed hardly bothered by the presence of an animal in her establishment.
"Rebecca, there's something I want to talk to you about," Jade said, turning in her seat to look at her small companion. She placed her elbows up on the table and leaned forward, making sure to speak extra quietly. Only quiet voices could be used when talking about serious matters, after all! "It's about where you came from. It's O.K. if you don't wanna talk about it, all you have to do is say so, but what Tearen said really bothered me and I think we can get past that! Okay?"
Probably sensing the serious tone of voice Jade was using, Rebecca immediately looked up from her meal, spoon dribbling a bit. She frowned, yellow eyes squinching up in confusion, as if it was causing her a small amount of real, physical pain to even think about it. "O-kay...?"
Jade put on her best and brightest smile, trying to project encouragement and good feelings. That's what Tearen would do in this situation, right? "Okay, glad to hear it! Now, what do you remember that was the absolute silliest thing about Rapture, huh?"
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 07-16-2017
What Rebecca found to be silly about Rapture was not, in fact, very silly to Jade. While the information she had gathered from her reading wasn't especially incriminating and emphasized the wonders of a city unhindered by meaningless social constructs, Tearen's hinting and Rebecca's words thoroughly cemented in Jade's mind that something was horribly, grotesquely wrong with the city under the sea.
One thing that left her literally shaking from rage was when the Little Sister mentioned being "in a box" at some point, and getting "stung by little fizzle-pops" depending on which option she selected from a choice of two buttons, something that sounded suspiciously like psychological conditioning to Jade. When pressed for more information about just who corralled her inside a box, perhaps a bit too harshly by an overexcited and overzealous Jade, Rebecca became unsure and confused, focusing instead on her abandoned bowl of pottage rather than the conversation.
Feeling remorseful, Jade let her interest subside, and then took Rebecca out to a popsicle stand she'd spied beside the inn's front door. For herself she bought something colored a vibrant green that tasted like limes, while Rebecca opted for the sweetest, most colorful rainbow pop the vendor had in his cart. The girls talked about anything but the city of Rapture as they walked across the docks, eating their frozen treats in peace, listening to the gulls crying and the sound of wooden vessels creaking with every shift in the tide.
And that, as they say, was the end of it.
Only, it really wasn't. Gears were already turning in Jade's mind, some damn stubborn gears— she would get to the bottom of this or die trying! And then, even after dying, come back and try again, even more vengeful and full of wrath than the first time! Yeah! She could see it now—
All they needed was a boat! Which was... kind of a big problem? Jade didn't know how to steer a boat or build one that could be suitably watertight for crossing the roughest, toughest ocean waves. So, she would need to locate someone willing to take them along for the ride. Someone open-minded enough not to ask too many questions! Simple in theory, a bit rough in practice. Back to the drawing board.
Another issue was that Rapture was apparently lodged in the muck of the ocean floor, which greatly reduced their options when hitching a ride there. They would need to find a submarine, maybe, or invest in scuba gear if they hoped to find their way into the city. Apparently it was a super exclusive place, too, so that was just another obstacle for them to get over. Ultimately, the trip seemed to be a lot more trouble than it was worth, but there was still one very, very important factor to consider: whether Rebecca really wanted to go there or not.
Well, Jade wouldn't have been surprised if she didn't. The place would probably stir up a lot bad memories, although the young Witch of Space suspected Tearen had done something needlessly complex and cerebral to mitigate the inevitable damage to Rebecca's psyche due to her experiences. But, that didn't change much. The fact that there were likely hordes of little girls running around under the influence of mind-altering trauma and substances didn't change anything. It would still fall to Rebecca to decide, and Jade would never, ever leave her to pursue some crazy, impossible cause, no matter how pure it was.
Tearen had made that mistake once and maybe even regretted his choice, at least a tiny bit. Jade could scarcely stomach thinking about it. This left her at a bit of a loss when it came to broaching the subject again, because Rebecca seemed so... so happy, and Jade didn't want to mess that up. Her whole face lit up when she smiled, eyes shining like twin stars and the sallow, greenish pallor of her skin receding in direct sunlight. It made her seem like any other child, healthy and happy and full of the fruits of life. It was almost enough to make Jade rethink her decision to find out more about Rapture.
But, the subtle traces of baby fat in the little girl's cheeks unsettled Jade. Reminded her of what she suspected had taken place, and what she knew would affect Rebecca for the rest of her life.
Leaning against the cemented railing of the docks, the crashing and splashing of the waters below creating a nice, ambient pulse, Jade turned to Rebecca.
She couldn't let it rest.
"Do you want to go back to Rapture?" Jade blurted, blinking in surprise a second later at her own words. Well, at least the question was out there. Abrupt, quick and easy. Like ripping off a band-aid.
Rebecca looked up from where she was seated on the ground, dress riding up a little over her knees and Bec with his head resting heavily in her lap. The wolf-dog's ears pricked up a hair at the question. Rebecca appeared mostly unaffected, but shifted a bit uncomfortably.
Eyes widening in alarm, Jade quickly back-pedaled. "I mean, it's totally fine if you don't want to, 'Becca. There's a whole Omniverse out there, after all! Who knows how many things there are to see and explore, how many people we might meet... All without going there! Maybe we can meet up with Karkat again, huh? You liked Mr. Shouty McGrumpypants, right? And, hey, I'm sure Valerie is around here somewhe—"
"No."
Jade stopped babbling. Maybe stopped breathing, too, but her blood was roaring so loudly in her ears from residual panic that she honestly couldn't tell.
Wilting just a tad, she nodded in understanding, trying to prevent the mingled sorrow, disappointment and relief from showing on her face. "I totally get it. We can go somewhere else, then, if you'd like! How about a zoo? I hear they have those here!"
Rebecca shook her head, greasy black hair swishing silently. She seemed frustrated, though at what, Jade couldn't tell. "No, I want to... I want to know."
Jade blinked. Okay, what? "Know...?"
"I want to know." Rebecca repeated, nodding once to herself, as if making some grave decision, and then looked to Jade. It was enough to make Jade start, turning her body and feet to fully face the Little Sister. Her yellow eyes seemed more focused than Jade had ever seen them, not as if she were in some other place anymore, lost to fantasy, but truly present.
Stunned and a little numb from shock, Jade nodded. Then, tentatively, like the girl might scare at any moment and take off at a gallop, she smiled.
"Okay. Okay, I think we can do that."
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 07-17-2017
There wasn't much that she could tell Rebecca on the subject of Rapture, locked up tight as the Dataverse files and the city itself were, but, sitting on the docks with her legs dangling over the side and the sun's rays beating down, Jade did her level best to explain all the same.
And, well. It was a biiiiiit pathetic, considering all that she knew could be named on a list of fewer than ten items! Those items, as it so happened, were:
1. Rapture was a city located somewhere at the deepest, darkest depths of the Vasty Deep.
2. It was advertised as a place of capitalistic freedom and entrepreneurship, hence the crumpled pamphlet Jade had managed to stumble upon in the streets.
3. Many public services were sacrificed to achieve the above. So, it stunk pretty bad if you weren't flagrantly amazing or wealthy enough to make a living.
4. Some guy named Andrew Ryan founded the place. No, Jade didn't know much about him, either.
5. Tearen had been there.
6. Tearen had found Rebecca there and removed her for reasons mostly unknown to Jade, although the predominating reason was that something was deeply wrong with the way 'Becca was being treated at the time.
All of these tiny things motivated Jade to want to pursue the thread and snip it off, so to speak, if only to save Rebecca the pain of recalling her experiences in full later on, when the nightmare was discovered to still be very much real and glittering menacingly from the ocean's depths. Still, although Jade was definitely raring to go, Rebecca seemed unusually subdued as she listened to Jade speak about the place she likely once called home, her hands fumbling at the ends of her dress and a crinkle in the middle of her forehead.
Watching her, Jade couldn't help the rush of thoughts as they occurred. Not for the first time, she wondered where Rebecca's actual, biological parents were, or if she'd simply been summoned just as she was for some unknown, heinous purpose. A deep sadness settled at the bottom of Jade's stomach, twisting along her insides until she kind of wanted to curl up and turn into a weepy, teary-eyed mess over it, but that just wouldn't do. No good ever came of sitting down and turning on the waterworks, her Grandpa had always said, and Jade wasn't about to start now. She had to be strong for Rebecca!
At long last, Jade finally ran out of things to say, panting like a dog and really feeling the heat of the sun searing through her dark clothes, sweat tickling at the nape of her neck. She felt a bit light-headed after doing all that talking, too; Rebecca had only broken her steamrolling by asking the occasional question here and there! Thankfully, it was now Jade's turn to turn her full attention on the Little Sister, waiting for the final verdict on whether Rapture was something she wanted to excavate from her shadowy past. She wanted to be there for her either way.
"Well?" Jade asked, trying to stifle a yawn with the back of her hand. She winked at Rebecca when she was finished, a slow, tired batting of an eye. "What do you think?"
"I want to go, I do! But— but I'm scared, Doggy Lady," Rebecca admitted, looking down in apparent shame, "The angels..." The little girl shook in what was almost a convulsion, shoulders hunching defensively and her eyes squinting tightly shut. Her lower lip trembled, eyes threatening to spill hot, tremulous tears.
Becquerel sat up with a whine, tail thumping against the ground as he set about licking the sadness from her face.
Jade panicked a little bit, having clearly lost a handle on the situation. "Hey— hey, it's okay! I won't let anything get you when we're there, if this is really something you wanna do," the young Witch's voice was tight with concern, and she placed a hand on Rebecca's back, trying to smooth away the child's terror with calming, slow rubs. "I'm tough, you know that! I can take on anybody! You don't gotta worry."
A wet sniffle was all she received in answer as the Little Sister wiped at her leaking eyes and nose. Ears drooping, Jade leaned down so that she was nearer to Rebecca's eye level and smoothed her hands away from her face.
When golden-yellow eyes finally met her emerald gaze, the dog-eared girl smiled warmly, buckteeth gleaming and on display. "Hey, there you are. You okay?"
Dragging her wrist across the side of her face to rid it of any snot (something which totally did not work, Jade noted, cringing internally,) Rebecca nodded, mouth still turned slightly downward.
Well... it was something! Jade sighed, gently tucking a few strands of the Little Sister's dark hair behind her ear. "It's okay to be scared, 'Becca. I mean, I'm scared all the time! I bet Bec even gets scared every once in a while, right Bec?"
At Bec's answering "Whuff!", Jade continued, "You just don't need to let it get you down. Fear is the mind killer, didn't you know? Your mind is too beautiful for that."
Now that got a reaction. Eyes wide, Rebecca turned to look at her with something akin to hope flickering in her expression, like the tiniest spark of sunlight shining along the furthest reaches of the pre-dawn horizon. "Really?"
"Yep!" Jade nodded, curls bouncing with every vigorous jerk of her head. "I'm not telepathic or anything, but I can 100%, 11/10 guarantee that your mind is simply the prettiest there is. Scout's honor, kiddo!"
A small smile worked its way onto Rebecca's face. "Okay," she said in a voice so quiet it was almost a whisper. Then, "Yours is the most prettiest, though."
Jade ducked her head with a loud snort, shaking with mirth.
"Well, I don't know about that, but thanks. Now, let's go find a boat!"
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 07-23-2017
The ship before them was a work of art. Larger than any whale and built with about as much infrastructure in mind, the vessel's magnificent steel framing gleamed in the sun, all seventy meters of the polished ribs put on stark display. Thousands of iron rivets and thick welded sheets of metal held the behemoth together, the two passenger decks and the bowels of the ship layered one on top of the other like a tiered wedding cake. Funnels sat on the top like the thick, round trunks of trees, dense clouds of gray smoke phoomph-ing out at odd intervals. The three masts between the bow and stern had flags streaming from them, but their vibrant blue-and-green patterning held almost no meaning for Jade.
A crowd of people milled about by the walkway leading up to the ship’s berth, a sharp-dressed man waiting to accept the tickets of boarding passengers. He wore a glossy black-billed cap and a white neckerchief tucked beneath the collar of his navy blue uniform, brass buttons glinting like a bunch of golden coins down his front. His teeth were a bleached white when he smiled at Jade’s approach, accepting her boarding ticket with a nod and a curt, “Welcome aboard Le Dauphin, miss.”
If it was even possible, the ship was even more exceedingly impressive up close, the chemical smell of fresh paint and shaved pine wafting along the airy promenade deck that curved along its sides. From the bridge at the fore of the ship down to the main deck they had just stumbled onto, precisely amidships, dozens of glass window panes glinted in the sunlight, much larger than the round portholes Jade had expected. Several of the private verandas attached to the ship’s staterooms were already occupied by traveling aristocrats, quiet voices and laughter filtering over the hum of activity from the harbor below.
Squaring her shoulders and placing her hands on her hips, Jade turned to look back toward the isle of Costa del Sol, peering down at the waters sloshing up against the boat’s sides in the hopes of seeing a few fish slipping under the boat. To be honest, the idea of being on a ship such as this was a little daunting to her. Unlike sailing across the stars to new universes and to escape certain destruction at the hands of a time-traveling demon, she didn’t have complete control over the direction this voyage might take.
It was scary. Jade didn’t want to place her life in someone else’s hands like that, but it seemed she didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. Although she did not know for certain that this ship could deliver her to Rapture, she figured that simply making her way out to sea was a good enough place to start. Coordinates could wait for later.
A cool breeze stirred up from the east tousled her hair and skirts; she could hear Rebecca already skipping off down the deck, laughter tinkling like a bell as she called out for Becquerel to follow. Jade bit her lip, chewing contemplatively. They really should just go inside and relax for a while after being in the sun all day, what with heatstroke being a thing and all—
Oh, who was she kidding? They hadn’t brought any luggage aboard, so there wasn’t much sense in going to check on their cabin just yet! If worse came to worst, she could just find something to drink in one of the ship’s many refreshment centers, just like the travel agent lady at that kiosk in the market had told them; this boat sure had a lot of neat stuff on it! It should have been easy to toss aside her cares when things were already so thoroughly taken care of!
Whirling around to chase after the runaway Little Sister, Jade let out a small “oof!” when she crashed straight into a parasol-toting, veiled woman, nearly bowling the lady right over the railing and down the side of the ship. Whoops! Her hands flew out to steady the woman by her arm, a few embarrassed apologies already fluttering in the air between them. “Sorry, sorry! I really should’ve looked to see where I was going, huh? And now your pretty dress is all rumpled, gosh. That’s just not good at all! I am sooo sorry!”
Instead of answering, the woman’s covered head tilted to the side, almost questioning. The veil was white and made of a feathery, gossamer material, perfectly made to conceal every bit of the wearer’s features, but try as she might, Jade just couldn’t see through it. The thing was impenetrable!
Still very flustered by their initial collision and perturbed by the woman’s lack of response, Jade continued to babble on. “Uhm, are you okay? I didn’t hurt you by accident or anything, right? Sometimes I’m not very careful about my strength and I— whoa.”
The woman’s head twisted 'round at an almost complete 270 degrees, revealing a hooked beak and two dark, unblinking eyes. She had a pale face, the area of her brow dipping inward so that it formed almost into a heart shape, with fine, dewdrop-shaped speckles of silver scattered across the soft brown feathers of her cheeks, crown and neck. It was fairly obvious that she was not a merrymaker wearing a mask.
Jade’s lips parted in an ‘o’ of surprise. So the veil hadn’t been a veil at all, but the back of her head!
“Cool,” Jade breathed. The owlish woman’s head tilted.
“Who?” she asked, beak parting so the word could escape. Her voice was eerie and soft, exactly as one might imagine an owl’s lonely coo might sound while tromping through a forest on a foggy, cold autumn night. The parasol twirled a bit over her head, tiny trickles of sunlight filtering through the pretty lace and over her feathers. She was almost as beautiful as a painting!
The dog-eared girl blinked, brow furrowing in confusion. Who, indeed? Was the nice lady asking for her name? Deciding to go with the flow, Jade stuck out her hand all in a rush and grinned a wide, buck-toothed grin. “Hi, my name’s Jade Harley. It’s very... nice to meet you!”
There was a worrying moment where Jade thought maybe the lady wouldn’t return the gesture (maybe handshaking just wasn’t a thing owl people did?), but her worries were put aside as a hand gently clasped her own. Light grey talons jutted out from the woman’s fingers, encircling the Witch of Space’s wrist in a delicate hold.
After one quick shake, Jade extracted her hand (being especially careful to mind the talons) and smiled. “You wouldn’t happen to have a name, too, now would you?” she joked, mouth again splitting into a friendly grin.
Large black eyes stared back at her, watchfully and seemingly penetrating into the girl’s very soul. Jade’s smiled wavered, one corner of her mouth inching downward. “Um…?”
“Doggy Lady! Jaaaaade!” The pattering of feet over the planks and Rebecca’s shouting drew Jade’s attention away from her conversation partner. She was almost thankful for the diversion from those blank, void-colored eyes. It was even worse than staring into the pitch blackness of space, really!
Turning to see Rebecca’s panting, slightly-winded face and Bec trailing not too far behind, Jade’s brows drew together in concern, immediately sensing the worst. Steeling herself, Jade chose her next words veeeery carefully. “What is it, ‘Becca? What’s wrong?”
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 07-28-2017
“Come see!” Rebecca chirped, and proceeded to drag Jade in the direction whence she had come, only stopping when they had reached a section of the railing that overlooked the waterfront.
The dockyards opened into a massive fish market, hundreds of boxed-in stalls lining the streets as far as the eye could see, the midday shopping crowds blending all messily together to form a muddled landscape of color and skin. She had to squint against the blazing twinkle of sunlight across the rooftops to see what Rebecca was pointing at, and even then, her eyes only narrowed further in confusion. “Who are those guys?”
Jade was, of course, referring to the two-legged lifeforms striding purposefully through the chaos of the street. There were six of them in total, all clad in white armor that flashed like some material caught between plastic and metal, boots thudding relentlessly upon the ground, complete with weaponry and helmets that seemed, altogether, very military to Jade. The light cast upon the protective body armor over their black uniforms glinted severely, making them appear as radiant angels walking among the natural dust and disorder of humanity. No one seemed overeager to get caught standing in their way, either, if the frantic scurrying of the outdoor market’s patrons was anything to go by.
“Who?” asked Jade’s most recent acquaintance, the lacy parasol twirling over her shoulder as she, too, peered over the ship’s railing.
“I don’t know,” said Jade. She tracked the progress of the shiny white knights across the marketplace, noting that they were all distinctly forward-facing— were they headed towards something in particular? Yeah, that was it! They must have been there to deal with some kind of problem. Some kind of…. Really difficult to discern, possibly imaginary problem?
At this point a commotion had built up on one side of the marketplace, culminating in much shouting and excited murmurs. Leaning forward over the railing and craning her head to see, Jade noted that a throng of people were looking out to sea, a view that she herself would only be privy to if they were on the reverse side of the ship; the soldiers continued on in that direction, eventually straying from her line of sight. A few dark clouds crept along the edges of the ship’s hull, too, as if a storm were building somewhere in the distance, but it was super hard to tell. The frustration of not being able to see precisely what was going on made Jade slump into a pout, ears flopping dejectedly against the sides of her head. Something really important could be happening and she wouldn’t get to be a part of it at all!
… Oh, well. She, Bec and Rebecca could have plenty of fun without having any more near-death experiences, thank you very much! Plus, they had a brand new friend to hang out with! Turning to Rebecca with her winning-est smile, Jade asked if the Little Sister had seen anything else in her brief exploration of the ship.
“Welllllll…” Rebecca looked especially serious all of a sudden, chewing her bottom lip in thought. Slowly, her face broke out into a somewhat crooked, silly grin. “There is a swimming place, with a slide-y tube and everything!”
Jade snapped her fingers. Perfect. “Great, let’s go!”
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 08-05-2017
Aboard Le Dauphin at around noontime, the surging mass of passengers turned as one from the shoreline and, as if by some inexorable, magnetic force, strained to see out across the saltwater horizon. The ship groaned as it pulled out to sea bow-first, slicing easily as a knife through butter over tranquil waters, its colossal displacement causing a swell to build within the harbor that nearly wrenched several lesser vessels from their mooring cables.
Despite this near accident, the ocean-liner was nevertheless able to carry on with its nautical journey. The propellers picked up speed, increasing the momentum of the steel colossus as it stood against the wind and pushed on toward far-off wonders. Slowly but surely, the voyage began.
The rumors were incredible, wild, and completely manic. There was no good reason for it, as that sort of situation tended to go. The cabins were clean, the linens were fresh, the walkways were polished with so much wax that the grain of wood glimmered through like flecks of gold dust, and the crew was impeccably dressed; but none of these good things could have prevented the whispering.
“They say this boat is haunted,” said the more seasoned travellers, drifting along the outside walkways despite the playfully stubborn breezes that battled for dominance with their clothes. “One time an entire family clan vanished clear into the night without so much as a nose hair left behind on their pillows. All in third class, of course, or there’d likely be more of a stir. Hey, pass me that cue-stick, mate. Your reign as Shuffleboard King has come to an end!”
A blast erupted from the ship’s horn as it moved off, signaling its departure from Costa del Sol.
-
After capering down the wide promenade deck and arriving at their destination, Jade was quick to turn in her god-tier robes for an almost identical dress of a much less absorbent, but slightly springy material comparable to a wetsuit. The space before them was completely thrown open to the radiant blue sky and cottony clouds above, sunshine streaming down to dapple across the saltwater pool in pale slivers of light. Becquerel was quick to flop over in a shaded sitting area littered with umbrellas and black tables, correctly determining that he was no longer beholden to take part in the day’s activities.
At the Little Sister’s insistence, Rebecca was outfitted with a floppy sunhat that looked kind of like a sunny side up egg had been squashed over her head and her usual dress, and Jade helped her into the shallowest end of the pool, grinning helplessly as the girl whooped and splashed about like a porpoise. Bubbles and swells of water cascaded everywhere as they played, and Rebecca swooped down the slide at least a billion times; only a few other passengers were also enjoying the poolside experience so soon after boarding, so they practically had the entire space to themselves.
The owl lady, who Jade still had not learned the proper name of, sat on the edge of the pool, dabbling her feet into the water with a supremely cautious manner. Unsurprisingly, her toes were much like her fingers in that they each had a wickedly hooked talon on all of their ends, the sharp nails tapping out a scritch-scratchy pattern against the pool tiles. She seemed at ease enough, though, and Jade wasn’t about to pressure someone into swimming if they didn’t want to— that would just be a dick move!— so all she did was float over from time to time to talk, answering the unfailingly recurring question of ”Who?” to the best of her ability.
“Who?”
“That’s Rebecca. We’re not related, but she’s pretty much family, if that makes sense?”
“Who?”
“Are you asking about Bec? He’s a good dog, and my best friend. Although he’s doing a spectacular job as a lifeguard right now, too. Wait. No! Bec, nooo! Don't eat that, you don't even know where it's been!”
When at last they had exhausted the fun-ness factor of the pool (or, rather, exhausted themselves,) Jade hopped out and shook herself off in a way that was befitting of the percentage of her genetic makeup that was canine, droplets of water flying every which way. Her fluffy white ears pricked upward in a show of good humor, hair still dripping and already frizzling up as it dried in the sun. “Well, that sure was fun, guys! What do you wanna do now—“
“ESPERA!”
Jade startled at the unfamiliar, bellowed word. Whirling around, she was met with the sight of a curly-haired, olive-skinned man armed with a fiddle striding across the deck toward them, the long coattails of his red velvet jacket swaying with every impatient jerk of his legs. Sweat beaded quite prominently upon his brow and made his black hair all kinky-- a combination of the heat and the thick, heat-sapping fabric of his clothes. His gaze was locked pretty firmly on Jade's owl friend, lips tugging downward in displeasure and his dark brown eyes fraught with anxious twitching.
Reaching the owl lady's side, the man paused for a moment to regain his breath, the crisp white vest locked around his torso (and under the suit-jacket!) probably not doing him any favors. He took in the dainty parasol leaned against her shoulder, her talon-tipped feet dipped casually into the pool, and then fixed beseechingly upon the clouds above.
"Espera, how many -- *huff* -- times do I have to -- *huff puff* -- tell you, you cannot wander off like this! We have to be on the stage in the dining room in nine minutes. Nine! Minutes!"
The owl woman's head tipped to the side, cautious. Her black eyes stared blandly up at him. "Who?"
"Even less than that, now! Eight minutes!" The fiddler exclaimed, his tone of voice rapidly approaching hysteria.
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 08-13-2017
Feeling very much confused, Jade’s brows drew together, eyes flicking between the agitated fiddler and her owl friend as if trying to decide which could provide a better explanation. At last, she arrived at a decision, her gaze settling upon the former. And, well! Upon closer inspection, his legs appeared to be covered in these… tiny, brown, almost barb-like spurs, their ends hooked back towards the bend of his knees in a way that was reminiscent of the thorns off a rose bush. As he absent-mindedly began to rub one leg behind the other in a indication of his distress, Jade was even more thrown off by this peculiar part of his anatomy when a thin, wiry hmmnnzzmm began, barely noticeable over the cries of gulls and the near-constant fluph-whapping of the flags flying overhead.
As Jade looked at him, the fiddler continued to speak shrilly, his voice oscillating between quiet urging and outright panic. He reminded her uncannily of a cricket. She couldn’t help but stare, either— in fact, she practically goggled at him for a half-minute or so more than would be considered polite. This gave her the opportunity to notice that the sideburns curving along the edges of his jaw were very, very comparable to mandibles, the… mouthparts twitching about whenever he opened his mouth to speak to... Espera? That was what he had called her owl friend, right? She was learning so many new things all at once, it was getting to be a lot to take in!
While this was fascinating, cool, and all other words for absolutely stupendous that lay in between, Jade still felt a little bad. It was a real bummer that the guy seemed so stressed out! Maybe she could help?
She tuned back in to the (largely one-sided) conversation. The fiddler gestured frantically around him, the instrument in his arms slicing the air with every pointed word. "I can't even tell you how frustrated you make me feel sometimes, Espera! I give you a calendar. I give you a planner. I give you a printed schedule, not written like the last one, and what do you do? You throw it all to the wayside! What do I need to do in order to get you to a performance that isn't me coming to find you every single time? Smoke signals?!"
The last word was nearly a shriek, something which made Jade's enhanced canine hearing pretty unfortunate. Even the smell of the wooden planks was getting to her, the fresh polish and distinctive grain tickling at the back of her throat like a good whiff of cinnamon. Espera didn't seem as bothered as Jade, her large, dark eyes merely glittering in silent amusement despite what Jade knew about the typical owl's hearing. Perhaps she was used to it? Cringing against the assault on her senses, the young Witch of Space turned her attention to helping Rebecca to get out of the water and get dry.
As she began to towel off Rebecca's arms and legs with a complimentary fluffy white towel (warmed to the perfect temperature by the sun), Jade cocked one ear so she could continue listening to the insect gentleman's lament.
"And if that wasn't enough, well, I'd say that you've worried Mister Kelvin almost to death. He might be all muscled-up and play at being the tough one of our crowd, my dear Espera, but he's a man of deep emotion! You disappearing after scarcely an afternoon of shore leave... it was a cause for concern for us all! What if something had happened to you?"
Oh. Jade grimaced. Ouch. She didn't know who this Kelvin guy was, but he was one heck of a trump card when it came to a good guilt trip, apparently. Glancing over to check Espera's reaction, she observed that the owl woman had stood from her seated position on the pool's ledge to face her companion's ranting and raving head-on, talon-tipped fingers hanging loosely at her sides. She appeared to be at least a little bit sheepish now, her parasol ceasing in its aimless twirling.
"Who?" she said quietly, and it was more of a statement than a question, really.
The fiddler sighed, slumping with the weight of the pushover-itude settling upon his soul.
"Yes, really, and-- wait," he paused, finally seeming to notice that his friend was not exactly alone. His brown eyes narrowed in clear suspicion, first at Jade, then Rebecca. "Who are you?"
Putting on her best 'I'm a professional!' face, Jade stuck her hand out in greeting, staunchly ignoring the fact that she was clad in swimwear and dripping saltwater all over the place. After a moment where the man seemed torn between hesitation and outright refusal, he returned the gesture. After that was all over and done with, Jade smiled. "Hi! I'm Jade, and this is Rebecca. Sorry if we stole your friend, I honestly had no idea that she had anywhere to be and she wasn't opposed to coming with us or anything, sooooooo... itwasanunintentionalkidnappingimsorry?"
The man squinted a tad more, the mandibles attached to his cheekbones clicking in soundless contemplation. At last, he spoke. "Your apology is accepted. As for introductions... while ordinarily I go by Archibald, at the moment I am Extremely Late," Archibald looked to Espera, gesturing with an undue amount of impatience for her to follow. "Come on, then. The others are waiting. Your friends may join us, too, so long as we do start to move along."
With that, he turned and made to walk-- no, glide away, he was that goshdarn important-seeming, at least four persons left behind to stare dumbly at his back.
Turning to Jade with a look that was clearly askance, Espera widened her large eyes in a look that was blatantly meant to convince them to follow, her parasol and feathers fluttering from the winds blown off from the sea. Jade, for her part, thought that whatever this "performance" was couldn't be too bad on a boat as nice as this, and so she readily agreed.
And, hey, this turned out to be a great idea!
As nice as the dining area was with its fancy-shmancy tablecloths and wall-to-wall glass windows with the horizon stretching wide across them, Jade found the group playing on the small, curtained stage to be the coolest thing to take away from the experience. Well, that and the syrupy peach crumble she was served, bits of granola and mint leaves placed precisely atop the dessert's crowning swirl of cream. It was well worth trading in her wet clothes for a more formal attire, really!
What was most amusing to Rebecca was the waiter who kept coming back to check up on them; he was dressed in a slick black suit with a white front like a bobbing penguin, something the little girl couldn't seem to get enough of. The greyish pallor to her skin was beginning to reveal a more natural skin tone, a bit of pink and brown reaching her cheeks whenever they were flushed from delight; And, while there was still something decidedly... off about her biology, Jade quietly treasured the thought that she might be recovering emotionally. So long as Rebecca was content, so, too, was Jade.
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 08-30-2017
The clouds outside were gathering and dark before the dinner crowd finally dispersed, tableware and dimmed candlelight glistening faintly in the sudden absence of smoky, leather-smelling cigars, the clinking of glasses, and pleasant table discussion. Only the waiters and waitresses were left, the subdued hues of their clothing causing the room to appear bereft of the pulse and flow of life.
Jade sat before the empty stage, her hands resting on her lap and her legs tucked under her chair. The musicians were sequestered away behind a curtain that she didn’t feel would be all right for her to investigate, so she was dreamily content to sit a make light chatter with Rebecca, the grey-skinned girl’s easy cheer and upbeat smile having returned, so different from the sad sack Jade had been only a couple of hours ago.
But, now… now, Jade could hardly stop her cheeks from smiling! There was something so, so magical about being cast off into a new situation, a new place that excited her to no visible end. It had been almost impossible to keep herself from staring at all of the diverse, many-faceted people milling around her in Costa del Sol, and now, in such close quarters inside the bowels of a cruise-liner, she really couldn’t keep herself from staring. She drank in the sights, the clothes, the fancy hairdos and the smell of product in the nearest person’s hair, even the infinitesimal twitches and expressions people made, sometimes the scarcest, shrewd tremble of a bottom lip spelling the cavernous difference between joy and sorrow.
Sure, she had been to Minas Tirith for the Colosseum— that had been a wonderful experience in and of itself!— and she had made all sorts of new friends along the way, but it never ceased to amaze her how so many people could gather in one place, talk to each other, crack jokes, argue, live, breathe, and just do all of the insignificant yet earth-shattering things that made a society… Well, a society! It was incredible. It was terrifying. It was something she had never before in her life borne witness to.
Until now.
She almost wished she could ask some conductor to put on the brakes and tell everything and everyone to slow the hell down, because, hey, she could hardly catch her breath over here! Honestly, she could see why some people became overwhelmed by it all and chose to live in isolation, but... Jade just couldn’t tire of it. It was a dizzying sensation, as if she'd been inhaling nitrous oxide. She was sure she would one day make herself ill from it all, like a dehydrated person might after supping water down too quick, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.
Listening to Rebecca talk, Jade leaned heavily into one of her palms from where her elbow was propped up on the table, a faraway smile on her face. She really had spent so much time alone. Didn’t she deserve something as simple as this?
A thick thummflp like the heavy fall of fabric made one of Jade’s ears flick, the white-furred shell cocking to the side. Turning her head, she watched as Espera and the other two players emerged from behind the velvet curtain, the owlish woman holding a flute in one hand and a small white cleaning rag in the other.
“Who?” she asked, glancing pointedly between Rebecca, Jade, and then the lounging form of Bec laying at their feet.
Cricket-like spurs on the backs of his legs rubbing together, the fiddler looked somewhat annoyed when he translated: “So. Would the three of you like to go for a break with us?”
Jade had no idea how so much information could be crammed into the single, unassuming syllable of ”who?” She ultimately found that she didn't care.
“Sure!” Jade said, bouncing up onto her feet. "Where to?"
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 10-12-2017
It was curious, Jade thought, how the engineers of Le Dauphin had chosen to design the ship’s interior. The carpeted hallways with their hypnotically-patterned rugs were all well and good— as were the golden and glittering lamps, shaped more like a deer’s antlers than a more practical candelabra, the bulbs casting pale yellow light over the walls and Jade’s skin— but really. This was all a bit… well, bizarre!
Out of some desire to preserve the appearance of being ashore rather than thousands of miles out to sea, a small café had been placed within the tallest and widest room of the ship’s interior. The décor around the shop bore some resemblance to the well-travelled Parisian streets one might find in an off-the-wall romantic comedy film. Charming flower boxes and wreathes hung from the nearby façades of streetlamps and signs, a trilling, smooth tune playing over several cleverly hidden audio devices. Colorful window displays and the spicy-sweet smell of pastries wafted from the shop’s open doorway, gleaming black metal furniture arranged outside and surrounded by a cast-iron fence. A pyramid-shaped skylight allowed for light to seep into the room, although it waned and quivered with darkness as the evening grew nearer.
A woman stood at the center of the tall room, right where the prismatic rays of light met and coalesced into a point of fine, pearly brilliance. Clutched in one of her hands was the handle of a bucket; in the other, a plain-colored washrag. She scrubbed at a small section of the floor with a fierce dedication, knees bent to the floor and her lips twisted into a frown, searching almost obsessively for any rogue specks of dirt. It was evident that she wouldn’t be finishing the job of cleaning this area anytime soon, as countless passengers with varying degrees of dirtied feet were constantly coming and going, but Jade admired her perseverance all the same.
Espera sat beside Jade at one of the café's tables, her white robes resplendent in the light and her owlish features still and unblinking. Montes, Jade learned as the three-person ensemble conversed, was the name of the cricket-like fiddler, and seated beside him, seeming like a giant hunched over in one of the café’s tiny iron chairs, was an outwardly human person by the name of Kelvin.
Kelvin was a large man with arms as big around as tree trunks, his shoulder-length dark brown hair standing out against his reddish, clay-colored skin. If Jade recalled correctly, he played the cello— and he was pretty amazing at it, too! When not in use, the instrument was tucked away into a hefty black case that he held under one arm as easily as if it were a swaddled babe. His laughter was loud and boisterous as he listened to something an irritated Montes said, erupting into the most sincere belly laugh Jade had ever had the pleasure of hearing.
He reminded her pleasantly of her grandpa, and she listened to him with wide eyes as he went on about something he had overheard one of the dockworkers saying, something or other having to do with an altercation between a seagull, a fishing line, and someone’s anchovy sandwich. A fine porcelain teacup was pinched between his thumb and forefinger like the leg of a baby bird, the contents sloshing around as he gestured excitedly, miming the flight of the seagull.
When Kelvin had finished his tale, he turned to her, arms resting on the table’s surface as he leaned forward in interest. Jade looked back at him, not a little bit self-conscious. She didn't have anything to worry about. Espera and Montes had migrated to a separate table, taking Rebecca and Bec with them. When Jade glanced over with a subtle flick of her eyes, the trio appeared to be playing a card game, the Little Sister practically bouncing in her seat from excitement while Becquerel was curled up at her feet, snoozing in the fading light. The song playing over the hidden sound system gradually faded, descending briefly into silence before abruptly bursting into a more jazzy, upbeat piece.
“So,” Kelvin boomed, grinning wide, “You’re the girl who’s befriended Espera. She was telling us all about you between songs, couldn’t seem to stop! Jade Harley, isn't it? I was curious to see if she would ever introduce us, though Montes had his doubts about you. Don't worry if he gives you a hard time, he's like that with everyone. What brought you aboard Le Dauphin, if you don’t mind my asking?” He waited for her answer, seeming expectant.
Jade fidgeted despite herself, but returned his smile without an ounce of deceptiveness. It just wasn’t her way. “We’re just roaming, really. I’ve never been to the Vasty Deep before, but I figured it would be a nice change of pace from all the places I’ve already visited! Plus, ‘Becca wanted to see the ocean.”
Which was all technically true! At the time, Jade, Rebecca, and Bec were “just roaming,” seeing as they had absolutely no idea of how to get to where they wanted to go. Nope, it was definitely not a lie.
Anyway.
The man seated across from her nodded with a lot more energy than was strictly necessary, in Jade’s book. It made her a little dizzy just to watch him, eyes struggling to catch up as the top of his head bobbed up and down. “I see! My sister and I were the same way, much like you and yours. Living in Coruscant was stifling, I think I like living on the open sea much better.”
Much like you and yours…? What in the blue blazes was he talking about? The dog-eared girl cocked her head to the side, nose crinkling in deep befuddlement. “Uhm? I don’t have a sister.”
“You don’t?” he asked, seeming surprised and… very, very nervous, the hard set of his jaw and lips now completely frozen. When Jade shook her head, the man’s face hardened like stone, a very unusual look for someone who had been nothing but jovial in her presence thus far. “That… may present a problem for the both of us, to tell you the truth, Miss Harley.”
Uh-oh. She didn’t much like the sound of that. Jade’s hackles rose unbidden, and she noticed Becquerel’s snout twitch in their direction out of her peripheral vision. The wolf-dog had sensed her discomfort. “How do you mean?”
Kelvin sighed, his great, galumphing shoulders rolling forward and making him seem like the whole of the world rested on his back alone. It was both sad and worrying in equal measure. Jade had to almost physically restrain herself before she tried to tackle him into a hug. No one should ever look so sad! But, before she could do anything silly like that, the gigantic man continued to speak.
“I had hoped I would be mistaken, and that little girl over there was kin to you, but since she isn’t… It is very unusual to see a Little Sister outside of Rapture, do you understand? You’ve put me in a bit of a hard place, and...”
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 10-15-2017
“I meant, uh- of course she’s my sister! You confused me for a sec there, hah, we’re not sisters by blood and it just hasn’t sunk in enough yet and,” Jade paused to take in a breath, eyes darting to and fro as she quickly realized her crazed stammering was going to get her nowhere. Her shoulders slumped, her body feeling leaden with tiredness. “…Look. If you’re going to attack or threaten me, you might as well get it over with.”
She was met with silence. It was not a complete silence, because people’s footsteps echoed enormously on the polished floors, shrill voices and choice phrases bouncing off the walls, not to mention that Kelvin’s confusion was almost palpable. Rebecca had also apparently won whatever game they were playing at the other table; the little girl was celebrating by singing an outstandingly high and off-key song. Jade couldn’t keep a small smile from appearing on her face at that.
Returning her gaze to Kelvin’s face, Jade was surprised to see the almost complete lack of emotion visible there. His expression was mostly blank, only the slightest furrow between his bushy eyebrows betraying how deeply confused he was by Jade’s words.
“What do you… Why would I attack or threaten you, Miss Harley? Have I given you any reason to think that I might?” Kelvin asked, his voice carefully measured and slow, as if to keep a tremble from creeping into it. His large brown eyes, to say something more, were liquid and sad.
“Humnm,” said Jade. Now she was confused. “…No, I guess not?”
For the second time in her life, it occurred to Jade that maybe she had jumped to conclusions a little too quickly. Kelvin’s stony expression from earlier, his restrained facial movements… all of it had probably been a bid to conceal some very private, painful feelings. And Jade had just ruined everything by accusing him of having some kind of ulterior motive. She was the absolute worst.
There was a short rustling sound as Kelvin reached into a hidden pocket of his velvet jacket. He then laid one of his hands flat on the table, his massive fingers outstretched and at least four times the size of Jade’s own. A small bundle was tucked under his hand, and Jade tilted her head curiously to try and get a better look at it.
It was an envelope. Rectangular, creamy in color, and bulging from all of the folded papers stuffed inside it, the parcel peeked out from the gaps in Kelvin’s thick fingers. Loose script trailed across the paper, nervous and quick and so jittery that the writing looked almost like chicken scratch. Jade could only assume that whatever written letters were inside it would appear much the same. But, before she could question the appearance of the parcel, a heavy sigh whistled out from Kelvin’s nose, his lips curling into a rueful look. Jade’s eyes flickered up to his face. He looked… crestfallen.
“I had hoped to run into someone who might be able to deliver this to my sister. She lives in Rapture, you see, and it isn’t easy to remain in contact when communications are so… scrambled down there, and because of you and your sister, I’d dared to hope again-” he paused, sending a wistful glance to where Rebecca was happily climbing atop a table, much to Montes and Espera’s chagrin. “I didn’t mean to frighten you, Miss Jade. It was certainly never my intention to do you any harm, either. Now, if… if it’s alright with you, I need to step away for a while. I’m very sorry.”
Jade stared, struck speechless and utterly stupefied, as this massive, muscular, meek man shifted his chair back from the table with such care and gentleness that she feared that she could actually feel her heart beginning to bleed.
That was it. She was a terrible, terrible person. Why did she act like this? What kind of human being was Jade, to make other people feel so bad in her company?
I am a human trash heap, it is me.
Kelvin’s retreat was stalled when a hand reached out and gently landed on his forearm. He turned back around to face Jade, every aspect of his being visibly cringing away from further reproach.
Bright green eyes searched his face for a moment. Was it not unusual for him to be looked upon differently because of his outward appearance? Had other people, long before Jade, taken one look at his enormous stature and muscled arms and assumed that he might one day mean to do them harm?
The dog-eared girl couldn’t imagine such a life. It was only just a week or so ago that she’d been exposed to human— physical contact, even— on a regular basis, after all. Her chest ached for the man sitting across from her, ribs and lungs crumpling under the weight of her wretchedness.
Jade’s chin met her chest as she looked ashamedly down at her lap, her cheeks and insides flushed warm from embarrassment. She spoke haltingly, voice struggling to stay above the tide of her mind-numbing mortification. “Hey, I’m… I’m sorry. It’s just been a rough past couple of weeks for me. I guess I’m having trouble getting used to real people again, but that’s no excuse. You’ve been nothing but nice to me and ‘Becca. I shouldn’t have assumed… that… about you.”
In the seconds following her apology (it seemed almost like years!!!!), Jade cringed internally. Well, that was just it. She was the complete worst at apologies, the reigning champ across the entirety of the multiverse, anyone else stuttering their way through a simple “I’m sorry” could go home! To make matters worse, Kelvin was still standing beside their table, just staring at her, his face totally unreadable. Jade wanted to die.
Slowly, as if he were trying not to spook a wild animal, Kelvin sat down again. The close quarters of their table made it almost impossible not to have the urge to whisper, the furniture being crowded so close giving the impression that only private conversations were to be had there— that, and the exchanging of secrets. An attendant bustled out from the café doors to clear a table that had been vacated only seconds ago, discarded napkins and plates littered with crumbs strewn everywhere. Jade’s canine ears picked up on the sound of Montes wheedling his cricket-like legs together, the trilling tune feeling almost ticklish along the lining of her eardrums. Smooth jazz continued to croon from the hidden speakers, the air filled with the steady, trudging beat of the music.
Resisting the urge to shift awkwardly in her seat, Jade returned her full attention to Kelvin. “So... What’s this about your sister?”
Bafflingly, Kelvin’s face immediately bloomed into a grin, a hopeful light brightening his eyes. “You’ll do it? You’ll deliver my letters?”
Jade was uncomfortably reminded of how incredibly trusting she had been just a year ago, willing to forgive the demonically-overpowered Jack Noir for going on a murderous rampage and killing her friends. Now, even when faced with a person who seemed outwardly kind and harmless, she found herself constantly checking for double meanings, that fine line where truth simpered into untruth. John would say that she’d become awfully jaded since then, but he wouldn’t understand.
There had been an awful lot of time for Jade to think about what she would do better next time, being alone on her Prospitian battleship for so long. Really, in the grand scheme of things, delivering a few letters for an amiable acquaintance was the least she could do.
“Of course!” Jade eagerly replied, scooting forward in her chair. “I mean, if I can. I’m still trying to figure out how to get there, honestly. The only information I’ve managed to find was by downloading brochures off the dark web. The rest I found out by word of mouth!”
A confused pucker appeared between her conversation partner’s brows. “But… if you don’t know where Rapture is, then how…?” Kelvin trailed off, eyes shifting pointedly to Rebecca.
The young Witch of Space shrugged and smiled, an obvious non-answer of ‘what can you do?’.
“Right, then,” said Kelvin, pondering this new information— or, rather, lack of. “I do know of one way that you might learn something valuable. There are any number of fisheries scattered across the Deep, one of them is bound to have some ties to Rapture. Any such relationship is probably kept terribly quiet, though.”
“Well, hey, that’s something! All I have to do is visit a couple of those and ask around. Simple!”
Kelvin smiled. “Too true, and I’ll tell you what’s more. Le Dauphin will be anchoring briefly for a celebration on deck— fireworks, music, the whole shebang, all of it tomorrow night. I know for a fact that there’s an underwater fishery near where we’re scheduled to stop, it’s very impressive, but you’ll have to be careful in approaching. Everyone’s always got an eye out for pirates! Maybe take a submersible to seem like you’re supposed to be there, on official business and the like?”
“Yeah!” agreed Jade, eyes flicking between Kelvin’s satisfied face and the envelope he still had resting in his hands. He held it like it was something truly important to him, like an injured bird or a fractured part of his soul, and it made Jade all the more determined to succeed in delivering his letters to his sister.
It was a pretty excellent plan, almost too good. Jade could picture it clearly— she’d go down to this fishery, leaving Rebecca in the care of Bec, Kelvin, and the others, and then come back to the surface just in time to take part in the festivities! And, and, and, aaaand then she wouldn’t have to worry so much about locating Rapture anymore, and she’d be able to deliver that letter and—
Abruptly, Jade blinked, her mouth falling half open in realization. “Wait. Wait, wait, wait. How will I find your sister when I get there? If you don’t know where she is, I certainly won’t! How will I even know where to go?”
Hardly batting an eye at her very pressing and important question, damnit, Kelvin responded: “Fort Frolic, that’s where she is. I remember reading it in one of the, er, invitations she was given. Not to be too puffed-up, but we are both fairly good musicians, and Fort Frolic is apparently the place to be for those with artistic ability.”
Jade nodded, shooting him a grin. “That makes sense. You’re a really, really excellent musician!”
“Thank you.”
“But, something still isn’t making much sense to me,” Jade continued, chewing worriedly on her bottom lip. She didn’t miss how Kelvin stiffened. “If it’s so easy to find information on Rapture’s location, and you have all these plans for how to get it, why haven’t you done it? Not to turn around and accuse you of being terrible again, but you’ve got to admit that something smells a little fishy, here.”
The man across from her suddenly looked embarrassed. He looked away, high points of redness appearing on his cheeks. “Ah, I knew you’d find me out. You’re a little too smart for your own good, Miss Harley!”
“Thanks…?” Jade had to fiercely tamp down on the flush of warmth that filled her at Kelvin’s praise. Instead, she watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed, an audible click accompanying the movement. She suddenly felt bad for putting him on the spot like this, but while Jade didn’t necessarily want to believe he was hiding something from her, something was clearly up. Suspicion prickled at her brain like suspicion is so often wont to do, setting her teeth on edge.
Kelvin continued, “Well, you see… I have a condition. Or, uh, a particular and perfectly reasonable apprehension in regards to water. Namely, drowning. I don’t want to drown. That’s it, that’s the condition. And you’re a Prime, so it won’t take much for you to do this, for me, in my place…?”
“I guess not,” said Jade, although she didn’t recall ever mentioning to Kelvin or the others that she was a Prime. Maybe secondaries could sense that kind of thing?
Ugh, she hated these terms. They made her feel like… like she was supposed to do something impressive, something world-changing, to earn such a grand title. Who cared if you could manipulate Omnilium or not? Apparently, everyone. Weird.
A loud whoop derailed the Witch’s train of thought before she could express any further doubts about her new mission. Jade’s light green eyes immediately focused on Rebecca, the Little Sister approaching fast with a happy skip in her step. Without missing a beat, the young girl climbed Jade’s legs and stood on her lap, all the while gripping Jade’s shoulders and jumping from excitement.
“Jade! Jaaaaaade!” Rebecca exclaimed, leaning into Jade’s space and shaking her.
Very much bewildered, all Jade could do was blink rapidly at Rebecca’s whirlwind-like delight. She grinned her trademark buck-toothed grin, laughing a little. “Uh-huh?”
Rebecca paused in her jostling, keeping Jade at an arm’s length distance by placing her palms flat against Jade’s shoulders. Her yellowish eyes gleamed, face squinched-up and smiling. “Espera and Montes say there’s gonna be a party tomorrow.”
Oh, Jade just knew where this way going. She chose to feign ignorance, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. “Mm-hmmmmm?”
“A party, Jade!”
“Yes?” Jade asked, the corners of her mouth twitching up. She heard Rebecca heave a heavy sigh of exasperation, probably lamenting Jade’s utter cluelessness.
“Well. We should go!”
“Oh, I don’t know, ‘Becca,” mused the dog-eared girl, adopting a grave and parental tone as she looked at Rebecca. “Parties are serious business. We’d have to, like, eat candy and stuff. Are you sure you’re up to it?”
“I am!”
“You’re sure? Absolutely, positively sure?”
“Absolutely, positutely!” Rebecca exclaimed, sagging dramatically. One of her hands rested over her heart as if she was reciting an oath.
“We-eell…” Jade giggled, clapping a hand over her mouth to keep herself from outright guffawing. Her eyes met Kelvin’s over the Little Sister’s shoulder, the both of them shaking from laughter. Once again slipping into parent mode, Jade arrived at a verdict. “Well, then. I guess we can go!”
Rebecca nearly fell to the floor from relief, hooting in delight. Bec snorted in Jade’s periphery view, tail thumping once against the floor.
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 10-18-2017
Jade sat at the edge of her cot, one of two makeshift beds jammed into the boxed-in cabin she and Rebecca were to stay in during their voyage over the ocean. The air was stiflingly warm and thick, but Rebecca seemed unbothered— she had dropped off to sleep nearly an hour ago and was snoring softly now, pillows and blankets puddling around her slumbering form in the greying light. Becquerel rested beside the door, his white-furred body still as stone but emanating an electrical hum that tickled over Jade’s skin, a steady reminder of the wolf-dog’s enduring vigil.
She slumped to the side and fell against her pillow. Weary after such an equally exciting and troubling day, Jade found her eyelids beginning to droop as if weighed down with lead. Her thoughts, bits and pieces of random feelings and vague worries, struggled to the surface like gnats pattering against a window pane. Jade wished her brain would stop tormenting her by keeping her awake like this. She just wanted to slip into blissful unconsciousness and sleep.
A subtle shift in her mood had her looking around at the room with a speculative eye. Walls the color of a stale cracker crowded close around her with a claustrophobic weight, painted a woozy shade of almost-green that made her feel all queasy in the pit of her stomach. Looking at that color, Jade could almost feel the ship swaying under the onslaught of crashing waves, the underside sighing and groaning noiselessly like the belly of a whale filled with saltwater.
She jerked, suddenly wide awake, as a creak came from the direction of the door. It was indistinct enough to almost go unnoticed, but Jade’s canine ears immediately latched onto it, her head twisting sharply toward the thin panel of wood and what lay on the other side. Spatial senses flaring, a faint glow appeared as a pulsing green outline took shape around Jade’s frame, her eyes staring with such intensity at the wall that it seemed she was not looking at it, but rather through it.
Her higher senses, the ones beyond just plain sight and hearing, gave her a barefaced schematic of the hallway. Every crack, every whorl of wood in the furnishings, every spear of metal nailed into the floorboards— all of it became startlingly clear as if put under a microscope’s lens. Yet, there was nothing out of the ordinary, despite what Jade’s thundering heartbeat seemed to be insisting upon. No cause for alarm, certainly, as not a single living (or indeed non-living) being that could have made the sound registered to her radar-like scrutiny.
Slowly, but still staring quite fixedly at the door, Jade sank back into the plush comfort of her pillow. She tried to compose herself, wondering if she should wake Rebecca— but, no, that wouldn’t do at all, the little girl needed her rest, or at least that was what Jade gathered most small children needed to stay healthy and happy. What would she even say after waking her? That she had heard an odd noise and felt spooked by it, like a toddler on Halloween night?
No, no… Jade wasn’t going to be a ninny about this. Bec hadn’t even so much as stirred: there simply couldn’t be anything to worry about. Feeling satisfied with her assessment of the situation, Jade folded her hands over her stomach and closed her eyes once more. Several moments passed in the dark, only the subtle shifting of the ocean and the warm air of the cabin as her company.
Crrrk-kk.
Jade’s eyes snapped open. That had definitely sounded like a floorboard creaking underfoot, and Jade would bet money that it was right outside their cabin, too. Her hands grasped at the bed covers, fingers clawing and curled into fists as she shoved to her feet and stalked over to the door. She yanked it open, perhaps with more force than was necessary.
The hall was silent, well-lit, and, most perplexingly of all, empty. Lightless shadows appeared to melt from the ceiling, coiling around the illumination cast by lamps stretching along the walls from left to right. Several cabins alongside theirs were occupied; Jade could feel the steady constriction and stretch of dozens of sets of lungs, and so she knew these other passengers to be fast asleep. None of them were the noise’s cause.
Abruptly, at least to Jade, the air became eerily still. The hairs on the back of her neck spiked upward, an icy cold sweat beading across her brow. After several moments of deliberation, Jade extended one foot out into the hall, eyes shifting cautiously around as if she were testing shark-infested waters, but nothing unpleasant happened. No hidden trap was sprung, though Jade’s stomach still roiled with nerves. Somehow, this was even worse than being outright attacked.
Shaking her head, Jade retreated inside her room and shut the door once more, sweaty and shaking hands fumbling a bit with the knob. She knew she was acting incredibly silly, getting all worked up over what was probably just a byproduct of the roiling waters below them, but some part of her brain found her concern to be completely rational and noteworthy. It frustrated her to no visible end.
Returning to her perched position on the side of her cot, Jade resolved to at least get a few hours of sleep that night.
-
She didn't sleep a wink.
When Rebecca woke in the early hours of the morning, it was to light steaming in through the narrow porthole on their wall and Jade bent over the pieces of what was clearly some kind of gun, eyes squinted in tired concentration. Struggling out from underneath the covers, Rebecca tried to nudge Bec with her bare toes to get him to move out of the way so she could stand properly on the floor. When that didn't work, she huffed in exasperation. At last, she elected to simply stand on him until he moved. It was a tactic which didn't have it's desired effect, however-- Becquerel continued to laze about on the floor, apparently totally unfazed by the Little Sister's full weight pressing into his rib-cage. His tail even whapped a few times against the floor: it shouldn't have been possible for a dog to be so darn ornery, but here they were.
Rubbing at her eyes with balled-up fists to clear them of sleep, the Little Sister tilted her head to the side in bewilderment, surprised to see Jade up and about so early.
“What’re you doing?” she asked. Her voice broke off into a loud yawn about halfway through, but Jade appeared to understand anyway as she paused in her tinkering. She looked up briefly from the electric green pieces scattered across her lap, mustering up a grin at Bec's antics despite the obviously exhausted pallor over her face.
“Just a little side-project,” said Jade, lifting one shoulder in a shrug. “Nothing very interesting, I'm afraid! But hey, we can go get breakfast whenever you’re ready. I hear they've got some pretty nice pumpkin pancakes somewhere on this boat.”
Her head still rang with doubt, but Rebecca whole-heartedly agreed that pancakes would be a great way to start to the day.
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 10-18-2017
Many hours later, evening…
Dark clouds gripped the belly of the sky. The whitecaps rose and fell, frozen like the caps of mountains and colder than any rime of killing frost. They leaned, pulled, and jabbed at the metal flanks of Le Dauphin, seeming like shark’s fins in the fading light. Salt spouted upward in spumes of droplets, a sound like the crunch of bone grinding over the dark waters as the waves bucked and rolled, returning to the savage force of nature that had birthed them. It was terrifying. It was exquisite. It was jealous, guarded, and treacherously venomous, chilled breakers of oceanwater swallowing the ship’s sides like a spider devours her mate.
A young sailor toiled along one of the ship’s many decks, the grips of his boots sliding as a chaff of bracingly cold water spilled over it. His seaman’s gown, once a pale blue, was soiled and colored dark as coalsmoke by the raucous churning of the sea, his coppery red hair bristled and streaked with shining crystals of damp. He shivered, tugging the folds of his wet coat tight around his torso, shivering harder as the wetness crept under his skin. Yet still he soldiered on, stumbling against the onslaught of the briny deep and nearly pitching forward whenever he encountered slick puddle deposited on the deck by the tide.
Several minutes went by, the boy continuing to strike a labored but swift pace across the planked floor. A peal of laughter rang out from somewhere up above, bright as the tinkling of a bell over the steady growling of the waves. It was warm and comforting and everything that the sea was not. He envied that laugh. Not necessarily the owner, but the laugh itself. The sailor dearly longed to be as full of light, expelled from the lungs in a rush of unabashed warmth, chilling in the night air in one second and reaching another set of lungs in the next. He wanted so desperately to be warm, up there with the boozy festivities and twinkling fairy lights. The cold numbing in his limbs felt unreal.
At last he reached his destination, the all-seeing eye of a lantern up ahead casting its light over his gangly, soaked-through appearance. Two men stood beside a firing instrument aimed precisely over the side of the ship, the gaping black mouth at its end appearing to suck the darkness of the night inside it. They were smoking, too, the little beads of flickering light making them appear like blue phantoms hiding in the shade of a church tower, solemn faces illuminated all in yellow. The sailor stumbled blearily towards the light, his legs seeming to buckle slightly with every step.
“Finally! Over here, Sinkapace!” said one of the men, his pea coat stirring and serving to distinguish him from the shadows.
“D'you have it?” asked the man sat beside him, propped up on a crate beside the cannon. “I’m not likin’ how still it is out there, boys.”
He held a hand out to Sinkapace, askance, like a paranoid addict searching for his next fix. After a moment’s hesitation, too short for any one of them to think of commenting on it, the boy reached inside his coat. His hand emerged a moment later with a bundle of small rockets, each one covered in a unique pattern of colorful, crinkly paper. It was swiftly removed from his hands, both men leaning in to examine the explosives tied together with rope.
“That’s the stuff,” the second man remarked, and Sinkapace could see his satisfied nod even in the near-total blackness.
Passing it off to the first man, he went about examining the rest of the rockets in this manner, and only once this examination was complete did he dare relinquish them. The other began to stock the cannon, methodical clicks ringing out as every spare metal component clicked into place. Tubes packed with gunpowder were placed inside the gun, steady gloved hands ensuring that everything was in its proper position.
The careful mixture of charcoal, sulphur, and potassium nitrate ignited, and with a forceful jamming of the gun’s internal mechanisms, rocketed up into the sky.
An explosion of fire, noise, and trailing smoke rattled through the air. Vibrant ruptures of color, each one different, erupted into view and illuminated the dark waters below in a shattering dance of light and shadow. Red and emerald dragons spouted fire, spinning wheels of shimmering celestial silver spun in perfect time, and howling serpents of purest gold hissed through the night, cracking like pistols in midair.
The three men gazed up at the pyrotechnic display, listening to the crescendo of oohs and aahs from the topmost deck, the sound of a strident fiddle under-cutting the crackle of gunpowder.
"Ah, I love my job," said the man in the pea coat at last, flicking his cigarette over the rim to join the light-show. It slipped seamlessly down into the water, trailing orange slips of ash like a falling comet.
Despite the numbing cold overtaking his extremities, Sinkapace couldn't help but agree.
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 10-27-2017
It was a clear midnight. As the night slid into cold gales and icy seas, the warped clouds spread over the sky slowly lowered until they were tucked into thick, sweeping folds of darkness, all of it touched with the white specks of coolly burning stars. A shimmer like emerald-green electricity sparked tantalizingly over the white clefts of icebergs, crevices and fissures crusted over with salt reminiscent of the snowy world Jade Harley had left behind.
In numerous places the sundeck was stippled with crystalline dew, paper lanterns swaying faintly overhead like dozens of fireflies flashing and spinning among the limbs of trees. Purplish draperies smoothed over with the shadows of dusk shifted and shone as brightly as the warm orange-yellow of a hearth’s glow, dainty cloth butterflies fluttering in the faux sunshine. Women clad in frothy, wide-sweeping dresses coasted across the dance floor, their hair adorned with blossoms and soft metal circlets. Seemingly everywhere, darting beneath tablecloths and exchanging sweets on the sly, children with freckled impish noses and curled hair pranced cheerfully about in the well-lit twilight. Men sitting up proper upon barrels of ale smoked from long pipes and tugged at their overgrown beards, commenting upon sensible things such as the weather and the state of their familial assets.
This celebration was unlike anything Jade had ever seen— there was dancing, sampling of warm, juice-dribbling pies and orchard preserves stuffed with sweet jams, and common festival competitions such as pin the tail on the Wampa and whack-a-basilisk. A voluptuous chorus of sweet, trickling notes ran through the minds and hearts gathered over the deck, eddying from one place to another as surely as the ocean waves down below.
Despite the chatter of the party around her, Jade sagged against the table she and Rebecca had claimed as their own, her dark hair spilling over her face and the white table cloth in an absolute riot of curls. After the rough night she’d had, it was a colossal effort to even keep her eyes open. A band played up on the stage with a stringy-tuned instrument-- not unlike a banjo -- and the rare, but soulful whistling of a flute, bodies swaying gaily to the melody and sheltered beneath the canopy of the stars.
Espera, Montes, and Kelvin had apparently been spared the task of performing this night, though Jade had yet to see them all in one place since talking with Kelvin that morning. The man had taken one look at her face and known something was up, his eyes widening in concern and making Jade feel about ten times worse than she already did. Still, she refused his offer to let her return to her room while he looked after Rebecca— Jade refused to let the Little Sister become a burden, able to be passed along to others like a bag of contraband, so she’d powered through and made it through the day.
Now, if only she could stay awake!
Voices came from behind a weft of foliage thick with lupines and lusciously red poppies; Jade couldn’t help but pay attention to them, unwilling as she was. A trio of persons chattered over beside a table laden high with finger foods, their collectively baleful stink eye directed at a lovey-dovey pair wrapped around each other on the dance floor. One, a bird-nosed woman with reddish piebald skin, continually dabbed at her cheeks and throat with a handkerchief. It was as if she simply could not endure the thought of two people being happily in love.
“I just cannot fathom what she sees in him,” bird woman crowed, clutching at her aristocratically pointed chin. “That Deborah Jones should have chosen my son to wed— he has the loveliest coop of chickens, selected directly from Minas Tirth soil. Prime-summoned. Brilliant in pies.”
“Now, Mrs. Pigeonbrew—“
One of her companions ventured to butt in on her tirade but was soundly cut off. “And look at her now! Cavorting about with that— that farm boy!”
The impressively mustachioed man who had attempted to speak, a gentleman named Mr. Cline, sighed before tipping a bit more tobacco into his pipe. Mrs. Pigeonbrew was always on about those chickens of hers, wasn’t she? By golly, he couldn’t see anything about them that was so special. They were a little on the bony side, all feathers and no plumpness. Their gizzards weren't even that healthy, mucking about with the poor birds' digestion and such. And that flighty son of hers! Rumors were circulating, perhaps around this very party, that he had spent an evening with an elvish boy rather than the good stout human lad who had been after his hand since last spring’s harvest festival, and by golly would that make for juicy gossip come Sunday morn—
Something brushed lightly against his shoulder in passing, a touch of what felt like a thousand winters’ ice creeping up his arm in an almost painful numbing sensation during that brief span of contact. The man shuddered and shrugged inside of his light tan jerkin, glaring after the hooded stranger who had collided with him as they wandered past, clearly en route for the dancing grounds.
“Excuse you,” Cline bit out, rubbing agitatedly at his chilled arm.
His face then screwed up in confusion. The tart redberry wine had loosened his tongue, but certainly not his senses. He didn’t recognize whoever the person was, clad all in dark clothing as they were with a ratty hood tied fast around their neck. What seemed to be some sort of grotesquely grey mask concealed their face; perhaps they were an entertainer?
No matter. He turned his face to regard Mrs. Pigeonbrew, her lips flecked with spittle as she prattled on about the unwise decisions of youngsters these days, when the flute-blowing and banjo-stringing unexpectedly fell away, replaced with an enormous, high-pitched shriek of POOM-FOOM-POOM.
All cheery activity ground to a halt. The women stopped dancing, the children ceased playing, and the men set down their pipes for a moment’s pause. Slowly, as if by gravitational force, all eyes swiveled towards where the band had stopped playing— and, by extension, to the spectacle breaking out over the sky.
The crackle of fireworks blasting across the sky, combined with the vibrant flares of color, was what finally roused the musicians on stage from their stupor. The tiny traveling band played its heart out, notes swelling and stuttering as delightfully as a heartthrob.
Like Mr. Cline, Jade stared up at the sparkling display in open wonder, but was briefly distracted by something that appeared out of the corner of her eye. It was, in fact, the same hooded person who had bumped shoulders with Cline mere seconds ago. The figure appeared like a thin siphon of coal smoke etched between the well-dressed dancers, tall and sketchily limber with lengthened evening shades clinging to its skinny frame.
Much to Jade’s surprise, her telekinetic sense couldn’t get a lock on the person’s position, the space that it occupied seeming empty and void much like a narrow crawlspace between the stars. Her brain continued to grasp at the figure, but it was as fruitless as trying to scoop black oil out from water. If it were not for her eyes, Jade would have had no idea a person was standing there.
It was particularly odd, the mask which the hidden personage wore, something Jade noticed as its head inclined towards her. It very nearly glowed, this mask— not quite wood and not quite metal, but as something wrought from an ancient bone might under the torchlight of a mausoleum. The creased shades upon it appeared to lean and stretch, extending into deep, unearthly grooves along its smiling cheeks. Black shadow crawling like bracken warped along the smooth, almost reptilian imitation of skin, golden-yellow candlelight cresting in various places about the person’s features. It sent shivers down her spine, the dog-eared girl curving into herself to ward off the chill.
Shaking her head roughly, Jade huffed through her nose as if attempting to expel a foul odor. "You're tired and seeing things," she chided herself, frowning at her own silliness, "That person's obviously got a pretty serious skin condition and you're over here being a total butt-face about it! It's nothing!"
Still, Jade grabbed her glass of water and looked towards where she had last seen the figure standing, feigning a casual glance-over as she tipped the glass to her lips. This whole charade didn't go nearly as smoothly as she would have liked, however, and Jade almost chipped a tooth from smacking her mouth too ardently against the glass, letting loose a small yelp of 'ow!' and a string of muttered curses.
"Jade! Are you okay?" Rebecca cried, appearing at the most inopportune of moments like some kind of reverse fairy godmother.
"Fine! Just whacked myself in the face," grumbled Jade, clutching at her possibly split lip and glaring at the glass that had betrayed her. She noticed Kelvin hovering over Rebecca's shoulder and started, promptly forgetting all about the weird person in the mask. "Oh! Hey Kelvin!"
Leaning forward, the muscled musician cast her mouth a critical look. Predictably, he completely ignored her greeting. "Are you sure you're alright?"
Jade removed her hand from over her mouth, grimacing a little at the slight sting the change in pressure brought on. She licked the front of her teeth, already picturing the ugly bruise that would form. "Bleugch. My pride really took the fall here, if anything. Don't worry, guys. It'll heal!"
Kelvin nodded, seeming appeased. "If you say so, Miss Harley. There was something I meant to ask you-- I'm very lucky Rebecca here found me and led me to you, otherwise I might have never located you. Are you ready to go?"
"Go?" echoed Rebecca. She glanced between the pair of them worriedly, seeming particularly lost as she hugged Becquerel's neck where he lay sprawled over the planks. Kelvin turned to look at her just as Jade did, the very picture of adults talking over the heads of children to keep them content. Even Bec seemed worried, his ears standing rigidly atop his head.
Jade could have smacked herself. How could she have forgotten to tell Rebecca about Kelvin's plan? Deciding to play damage control, Jade crouched down in front of the Little Sister and hurried to explain, her expression bright despite the apologetic twinge to her words.
"Just for a little bit. I'm gonna go investigate something reeeeeeal quick and then I'll be right back here with you!"
The Little Sister blinked, her yellow eyes wide. "But I... do you have to? I don't want to be alone..."
"You won't be alone, Rebecca, because I will be with you!" Kelvin boomed, smiling broadly. "And Montes and Espera, too, of course."
Voice filled with her sincerity, Jade nodded. "It'll be alright, 'Becca. Promise."
Rebecca's bottom lip wobbled a bit, nearly sending Jade into full-on cardiac arrest as she floundered on unfamiliar emotional ground, but she eventually nodded in acceptance. A quiet sigh of relief heaved through Jade, the teen reaching out to ruffle Rebecca's hair fondly.
"Excellent!" Kelvin rubbed his big hands together, looking to Jade in obvious satisfaction. "Now, all you have to do is take the crew stairwell over beside that table, go down as far as you can go, and then you'll find yourself in..."
As he continued speaking, Jade couldn't help but notice the way Rebecca was watching him. Her eyebrows had a tiny worried crease between them, her hands digging furiously into Bec's fur as she seemed to scrutinize Kelvin's words, his brilliantly white smile, and the subtlest gestures he made whilst explaining what Jade needed to do. She looked supremely concerned. For a moment, Jade wondered if she really was the best decision maker in this situation or not.
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 11-10-2017
After Kelvin had finished instructing her about where to go, Jade took Rebecca aside to talk at the corner of the raised stage area where the musicians played.
Garlands made from shiny baubles and grapevines festooned the stage, creating a curious mixture of both lavish and modest. Puffs of baby blue flowers, sweetly-scented orange blooms, and purple flowers shaped like fluttering, wispy moths blossomed from a crystal vase at the center of many tables, their stems stirring seemingly in harmonious accord with the music.
“You aren’t listening to me!” Rebecca whispered loudly, stamping her foot on the ground. Several partygoers turned to look at them, all of them looking just as startled as Jade felt. The Little Sister’s fists were clenched so tightly that her knuckles burned white, her face crumpling from a mixture of sadness and fear.
Now that got Jade’s attention. She had never witnessed such an outburst from Rebecca before. The little girl had always been cheerful and complacent, sometimes unhappy and pouty about certain happenings like this one, but never passionate enough about something to get so… so angry. It occurred to Jade that this was a good thing. A very, very good thing. It hadn’t been healthy for Rebecca to be so thrilled about everything all the time, the mental controls on her mind having made it impossible for her to feel anything but mindlessly contented for so long— something which Jade was only just becoming fully aware of as new emotions broke free. Tearen had removed that psychological deadbolt, so to speak, and now all of the ordinary reactions a small child might have to things like change and different circumstances were flowing out, slowly but surely and without much direction.
But, such expressive reactions were few and far between. Since Jade was only just picking up on this change now, she recognized that the Little Sister was likely experiencing these fluctuations in mood gradually, surges of emotion making themselves known one at a time. Wasn’t it only just that morning when Rebecca asked if Jade was okay, concern and worry and all sorts of intrusive emotions bleeding through? Hadn’t Rebecca been scared about going on the hunt for Rapture, but simultaneously determined to learn of her origins and the place that had shaped her? She felt monumentally stupid for not noticing Rebecca's struggle earlier.
Jade knelt before the other girl, hopeful that being at eye level would help her many frustrations abate. It seemed to work well enough; Rebecca’s hands relaxed, her shoulders slumping as she reached up to rub at her nose. A quiet sniffle broke through and Jade’s entire bearing wilted in shame.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Jade said, a regretful grimace on her face, but confusion still permeated her expression. “I just… I don’t get it, Rebecca. What’s wrong with Kelvin? Why does he make you feel bad? I thought you were getting along fine with our new friends… you guys played card games and stuff, right? What brought all this on?”
“It’s not them— not Espera and Montes. It’s him. Just him.”
Jade nodded, quietly mulling over this information. “Okay. Did something… happen? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
She wracked her brain for times that she might have been separated from Rebecca in the past two days, but couldn’t come up with anything substantial. There had only been tonight, at the start of the party, when Rebecca had run off to play with a few other children and left Jade to watch the fireworks alone. Rebecca had run into Kelvin then, but surely he couldn’t have hurt her, threatened her, or worse while around so many people, right…? She didn’t know what she’d do if he had.
Kill him, an ugly, dark part of her said, but was quickly swamped by a firm shut up! from the rest of her mind.
Giving her head a slight shake, the young Witch of Space turned a narrow-eyed look toward the dancing grounds again. Kelvin had vanished from sight, but a quick second of nudging around with her spacial sense revealed that he was over by the buffet table, gleefully speaking to an elderly woman and munching on a handful of powdered donuts, the white powder dusting all over the front of his clothes. He certainly didn’t seem very threatening. Even less so when he reached over to get the old lady a cup full of cherry red punch, smiling a beatific smile.
As if sensing her scrutiny, Kelvin’s eyes flitted up and met her own from across the deck. His expression immediately lit up. One of his hands, the one not holding the punch, raised in a friendly wave.
Belatedly, Jade returned his wave and was promptly reprimanded by Rebecca’s frustrated sigh. Welp.
“No, but can’t you see? He doesn’t even have to try, and suddenly you like him more than you like me!” Rebecca seemed devastated by this admission, her eyes brimming with tears and all the signs of an incoming breakdown making themselves known.
What? Jade looked at Rebecca, thinking fast, her green eyes wide like a deer caught in the headlights. She certainly hadn’t noticed that happening. She was just keeping an open mind, and that was it! Not every stranger was out to get her; Jade needed to start acting like it!
Still, Jade nibbled at her bottom lip, stuck deep in thought. When she finally spoke, her words were slow, the dog-eared girl taking the time to carefully articulate the words-- more for herself than for Rebecca, to be honest. “I’m sure you don’t mean that, ‘Becca. I think Kelvin’s an okay guy, but I definitely like you more. Do you really think I’d ditch you for some random person I’ve just met?”
With an irritated sniffle, Rebecca crossed her arms over her chest. “It sure feels like it.”
“Oh, ‘Becca,” Jade sighed, her shoulders sagging. “I have to go and do this on my own— it’d be too dangerous for you to come. And even Kelvin isn’t going since he’s so scared of the deep water, so I’m not abandoning you to go on cool adventures with him, got it? I’m going it alone, I’m taking a lot of precautions, and if all goes well, I’ll be back before sun-up. There’s nothing you need to worry about.”
Rebecca seemed to turn this over in her head for a while before speaking. "...And you'll be okay? You'll come right back?"
"Mm-hmm," Jade said, the simple hum as good as a promise.
Rather suddenly, Jade had an armful of a still snuffling Rebecca, a soft 'oof!' leaving her as the girl's arms were thrown around her middle in a tight hug. After a moment's hesitation, Jade returned the hug, sighing as Becquerel crowded in close as well to lick her face.
"Don't worry so much," Jade murmured into the other girl's hair, leaning over to give Bec a welcome pat on the head. "It'll all turn out for the better, just you wait."
-
It had been a while after Jade had left, the fireworks in the sky resuming their fiery show. Rebecca stared up at the flashing and exploding lights in awe, her yellowish eyes eerily bright whenever the rockets burst. She had never seen anything as pretty, and felt pretty bad that Becquerel didn't really have any eyes to look at it with. She tried to point each starburst out to him and turn his muzzle in the right direction, but it didn't really seem to work. The wolf-dog would just huff and snort, apparently totally unaffected by the view.
A big green tongue licked at her face-- Bec had evidently decided that she wanted kisses and hadn't been trying to help him. The Little Sister giggled and bopped at the enormous barkbeast's snout, trying and failing to turn aside the onslaught of goofy puppyish behavior.
"No, doggy, no!" she shrieked. She wrapped her arms around the woofer's large head, smoothing down his ears and the tufts of fur on his cheeks with her hands.
"Worff," said Bec, flopping over onto the ground like the furry behemoth he was. Rebecca was pulled along for the ride, tumbling over the smooth wooden planks and laughing delightedly at their new game. As the two wrestled, all thoughts of Jade and whatever dangers she might face below fled from her mind.
Abruptly, Bec stilled, his ears snapping to attention as he craned his head to look at something behind Rebecca, electric yellow tongue still lolling out of his mouth. Turning, Rebecca saw that another young girl had approached them, standing at about her height and with curly brown hair that curled up like a pom-pom around her scalp. She was wearing a small red petticoat and several block-like copper bracelets on one wrist.
"Hi," said the other girl, looking shyly at her feet. "Can I play, too?"
Rebecca's brow crinkled in confusion. "Huh?"
The other girl winced, scrubbing at her arms with her fingers. She had big round cauliflower ears, Rebecca noticed, and her dark, russet brown skin was only a shade healthier-looking than her own. She also stumbled over her words, like she was embarrassed to even be seen speaking to her.
It was kind of sad. The Little Sister didn't like to think that someone would be worried about just talking to her. She hadn't really tried to interact with any of the other children aboard Le Dauphin, so she hadn't been outright rejected by anyone, but she had noticed some strange looks from young and old alike. Rebecca knew, at least on some very deep, sequestered level of her consciousness, that there was something about her appearance that put people off.
"It's okay if you don't wanna," the other girl said, shrugging. "The other kids don't want to, I'll understand if you don't, it's just the first time I've seen anyone with eyes like mine. People don't like 'em."
The two girls made eye contact, the other girl seeming hopeful while Rebecca was just confused. Her eyes were just fine, she couldn't see why anyone might have a problem with them! They were big and round and had black pupils with the brightest golden irises, and if Rebecca could be bothered to say so, she'd say they were the prettiest eyes ever. Seriously.
Turning to Bec, Rebecca silently asked for permission to play with another person, to which the wolf-dog merely whuffled quietly. A bright grin splitting her face, Rebecca turned back to face the other girl. "Sure! I'm Rebecca and this is Bec. What's your name?"
"Elizabeth. But my mom and pop call me Eliza," Eliza said, a small smile working its way onto her face. She joined Rebecca where she was seated on the floor, reaching a hand out to let Bec sniff it. After a moment of snuffling, Bec licked her fingers, to which the other girl giggled happily.
"That's a pretty name," said Rebecca, nodding solemnly to herself like she was the universal authority on such things. "What do you wanna play, Eliza?"
Eliza seemed shocked to even still be sitting there, but she took Rebecca's question into careful consideration. After a moment of thinking, her face brightened. "How about... pirates!'
"Pirates? How do you play that?"
"You make things up, you know. Pretend! Look over there," said Eliza, pointing towards a table draped in heavy, shimmery cloth. "That's a spoooooky cave. I bet we'll find treasure in there."
"Whoa, you're right! Now we have to go check that out." Rebecca exclaimed, surging to her feet with purpose. She could do this; she could do something to take her mind off the entire reason behind this voyage. While she was still worried about Jade, all her worries and cares squirming like ugly, cold worms at the back of her mind, she could do this.
With that, the two pirates eagerly ran off to explore, Becquerel always loping a few steps behind.
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 11-18-2017
As was to be expected, the crewman’s passageway was oppressive and dark.
The skeletal railing of the stairwell and the slate gray walls made Jade feel uncomfortably boxed-in, the rectangular shaft seeming to descend into nothing but chilling black space. It was almost as if she might find herself drifting around at the bottom of the ocean once she reached the last step, surrounded by stygian shadows and all sorts of strange, ghastly creatures, their tooth-mangled and carnivorous maws cleverly hidden by the darkness.
There were no windows. If there had been windows, Jade might have been able to catch a glimpse of the roiling, churning surf outside, the shatter-glass reflections from the fireworks sending ripples of reds, blues, and greens across it. If there had been windows, which there definitely were not, Jade would have seen rather than felt the presence of the verse’s massive sea pressing against the glass with punches of seawater, roaring like a very determined burglar or a man locked out in a blizzard, ‘Let me in! Damn you, let me in!’ Yet, because there weren’t any windows— not even a tiny round porthole to peer through, strangely enough— all that could be felt of the crashing waves outside was the subtle shifts in the air, cloying and damp like wet tissue paper.
Her steps echoed, trickling down the sleek metal steps until the sound finally rejoined the pool of dark liquid silence at the bottom. With her eyes all narrow-eyed and squinty, her shoulders hunched like a wolf stalking through a sheer tree-line, Jade shuffled doggedly forward. Her feet only moved forward a few inches at a time, lest she slip and fall to her death. It wasn’t dying that bothered her, but the idea of falling. She imagined it would be a long way to the bottom. She imagined that she wouldn’t even be able to choke out enough breath for a good, long scream on the way down. It wasn’t a pleasant thought, for sure, and so Jade monitored her steps closely and did her best not to make any such fatal mistakes.
She glared at the shadows, the icy metal railing that felt smoother than water whenever she grasped it, the stink of rust and grime marinating in the air— daring any and all of it to test her, to try and stop her from reaching her inevitable goal. The goal, as it so happened, was a sort of docking bay at the lowest point of the ship, settling in like a pile of entrails in the cruise-liner’s big metal belly. Kelvin had told her how to get there. Not only was this boat a passenger vessel, Kelvin had said, his eyes shining with an uncannily cheerful kind of delight, but it was also privy to a collection of military-type subs. When Jade had asked why the hell a simple dandy cruise-liner would have such things, it had been explained to her that pirates and rogue Pokémon were just everywhere in the Vasty Deep, and really it was all for the best that she didn’t question things like this too much.
She had, of course, expressed certain doubts about her ability to pilot any underwater vehicles the liner might or might not have been in possession of. Like any reasonable person, she’d been especially adamant about this point. They were surely temperamental things, Jade argued, as most great big hunks of machinery are, and while Jade would be delighted at having the opportunity to steer one down into the murky black, spotlights illuminating the deepest, darkest secrets of the verse that the roiling surface-waters usually hid, she wasn’t all that crazy about dying horribly and in pain.
Kelvin had laughed, his big shoulders heaving and his hair flopping like the ears of a human-sized labrador retriever, and informed her that scuba gear designed for a multitude of temperatures and underwater environments could be found in the docking bay, and that she was certainly welcome to them. So, with all her worries thus exhausted, Jade had relented and quit the sundeck after saying her last goodbyes to Rebecca and Bec.
A loud sneeze wracked her, the sound exploding like a dropped firecracker in the deserted stairwell. Sniffling, Jade grumbled to herself that the ocean air was definitely not doing her any favors. Come to think of it, it was pretty stupid how the frigid, snow-covered landscape of the Frozen Fields hadn’t given her a lick of trouble, but add some salt to the mix and suddenly she looked like Father Christmas judging by the vermilion red of her nose!
But, Jade thought brightly as she hopped over one step covered in a silvery, light-catching smear of condensation, she would soon return to the festivities up above when this was all over, and then the warm, albeit small cot in her cabin. It was this cheery thought that bolstered her waning spirits, the girl’s lips curving into a grin despite her dreary surroundings.
Yes-sir-ee! Just thinking of being in her room, finally alone with just Bec and Rebecca for company, improved her mood substantially. While being surrounded by so many new people was exciting, free to observe all the little quirks and oddities particular to them, it was also super exhausting. A couple moments of quiet in the company of good friends would do a body good, her Grandpa would say, and that was a token of wisdom which Jade gladly took to heart.
The dog-eared girl also wondered how Rebecca would act towards her upon her return. Surely, she wouldn’t still be very mad, or at least have realized by the time Jade got back that maybe what Jade had decided to do was for the best! The mere thought of not being forgiven at once pained Jade, especially since she was doing this only with Rebecca’s best interests in mind. It bothered her. It bothered her a lot. Still, maybe one day she would—!
There was a deafening note of finality as her feet hit the bottom of the stairwell; Jade’s toes unconsciously curled inside her slippers, a shiver tickling along the nape of her neck. The air felt cold and clean as country air, less steamy than it had been just a few staircases ago. An unseen draft whistled high over her head, likely through an open vent. She had descended at least five separate series of stairs, and now all that lay between her and the docking bay was a single door.
Thin slants of light emanated from around the door-frame, the rectangular sheet of metal fitted just a liiiiittle too small for its frame. The well-lit area seemed no more welcoming than the dankest, darkest cavern beneath the crusted ground of the Frozen Fields— in fact, it felt to Jade almost as if she was underground again, scared and groping around blindly in the dark as her body quavered in fear. But, Jade reminded herself, she wasn’t trapped inside those caverns anymore. She was on a boat sailing over the ocean, there certainly weren’t any eldritch entities out for her blood, and besides all that, it’d been her own damn fault that she’d gone down there in the first place, so suck it up, buttercup.
Squaring her shoulders and with a deep breath, Jade gently nudged the door open, a soft, drawn-out whine following the undue stressing of the hinges. Trembling, Jade laughed a little under her breath and smoothed her palms over her dress to rid them of sweat, loose twinkles of stars glittering in the folds her skirt.
“Goddamn sea air,” she muttered, frowning at the orangish rust covering the door and every scrap of metal in this place. Blinking hard a few times to become accustomed to the light, the dog-eared girl leaned her head inside to take a quick look around.
The ceiling was low, the walls curving faintly inward in perfect symmetry with the ship’s hull. Tall stacks of crates and barrels were everywhere, the warehouse-like setup casting large shadows over the room, but the lights overhead were utterly dull and dead. Instead, the main source of light in the room was a wide rectangular pool at the center of the spacious chamber, a thin pane of glass placed over it and tiny bulbs lining the edges, each one emitting a singularly powerful, bluish-white glow. Additionally, the black hulk of a submarine could be seen behind it, its substantial girth propped up on several loading mechanisms that Jade couldn’t have named. The entire place was silent as a tomb, not another living soul in sight.
“They must all be at the party,” said Jade, and then immediately clamped her mouth shut. She had been startled by the tinny, shrill sound of her voice attempting to fill up the wide expanse of the room. Even though she’d hardly been trying to keep her voice down the words still sounded like a whisper. It was creepy as all get-out. Gradually and with no small amount of foot-dragging hesitance, Jade crept into the room.
No lights activated to acknowledge her entry, no sirens began to blare. Her red-slippered feet papped silently over the floor as she made her way toward a rack of diving equipment she’d spotted shortly after entering. Diving suits and miscellaneous things like harpoons, spears, and nets littered the area, though Jade wasn’t sure why so many weapon-like instruments were included in the mix. Her eyes roved over everything, not missing that one suit looked bulky, made of metal, and altogether too much like a suit of armor from the Middle Ages. Surely the water wasn’t that dangerous?
She poked around at the gear for a few minutes, one ear cocked towards the door to listen for anyone entering through the squeaky door. It wasn’t that Jade was afraid of getting caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing, she just wasn’t a huge fan of people sneaking up on her. Eventually in her rummaging she stumbled across a dive light, the device sending out a wide beam of light when she clicked it on. She turned it over in her hands, shining the beam over the still forms of shipping containers and the dauntingly large dimensions of the sub.
Deciding in an instant that it would suit her purposes, Jade clicked off the light, once again finding herself swamped in near-total blackness save for the sheer, silvery-pale light cast from the glass-covered pool.
Still, there was no way of telling which of the many hanging suits would match her measurements, not to mention which one would keep her warm in the chilly water, compensate for her body’s natural buoyancy, have a nice range of movement, and just a bucket load of other things that Jade had no way of knowing how to account for. She could probably spend all freaking night and much of the next day trying on different suits to see which one fit best, but there just wasn’t enough time for her to do that. She needed to find one immediately, and Kelvin hadn’t been very helpful about the equipment she would undoubtedly need!
That thought alone niggled at her. Why hadn’t he been more helpful? The man wasn’t a dunce; surely it might have occurred to him that she wouldn’t know what to do once she got down here? She couldn’t do all the work, here!
Pouting and tucking the dive light into her pockets, Jade again scowled at the rack of clothing, hoping that something she could put on before slipping into the frigid water might magically spring from the stand. No way was she standing here and trying all this junk on. That would just be stupid. So stupid even Karkat likely couldn’t find the precise words to voice just how freaking stupid it was—
Jade was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost didn’t notice the funky little octagonal device implanted into the wall. It was about the size of a dinnerplate, the material it was made from being reflective, dark, and almost certainly some type of glass, art deco patterns flaring around it like a black sun. The octagon’s center was shaped vaguely like a palm-print, the hand-sized impression gleaming and just itching to be pressed.
So, without thinking much of it, Jade smacked her palm against the smooth crystal, wondering vaguely at how inordinately warm it felt under her skin, like someone else had only recently come along and done the exact same thing.
The response was immediate— the device hummed softly, starting at a low, rumbling purr before building into a steady drone. Just as Jade was about the draw her hand away, sensing that Bad Things ™ were about to happen, the octagon spewed out a torrent of dark material, the stuff spilling like liquid over her hand and webbing between her fingers, fleshy and soft and weird as it crawled up towards her elbow. It ate up over her skin, settling into the crook of her elbow and over her shoulders even as she shrieked and tried to claw it off, the ample wetware becoming like a new layer of skin under her clothes.
In a little under two minutes Jade was once again in possession of her hand. She yanked it towards her heaving chest and stared with wide, moonstruck eyes at her brand-spankin’-new wetsuit.
Gently glowing dorsal stripes curved down her sides and reached all the way down to her calves, shining a brilliant blue through the fabric of her dress; a scoop neckline and neoprene cowl was now fitted under her hood, keeping her hair cropped close to her scalp around her white-furred ears. There were even some extra-thick pads layered over her knees to protect her from scrapes! While the process had been awkward, invasive, and definitely weird as shit, the suit was fitted perfectly to her body and comfortably warm.
After a moment of not being brutally strangled by her clothes, Jade allowed herself to relax and looked at the rack of diving gear with a newfound appreciation, wondering what other surprising gadgets might be hidden in plain sight. Wriggling her toes a bit inside her shoes, she discovered that the helpful octagon had even reached far enough to cover her feet in a spongy, rubber-like material. Cool!
Giving her head a rough shake, Jade could have smacked herself in the forehead with how goofy she was being. This was all wasting time— she REALLY needed to get going! She turned, now fully prepared to enter the water, and nearly leapt out of her skin when she came face-to-face with a dark humanoid shape looming just a foot away.
RE: Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old - Jade Harley - 01-27-2018
“Espera!” Jade breathed, sounding every bit as bowled-over by surprise as she felt.
Because the shadowy figure was Espera. It just was, who else could it possibly be? The shadows had parted just a little bit, revealing the dusty brown feathers flecked with bluish-silver speckles and the pale, mask-like face of the owl woman, her black scarab-shaped eyes staring flatly back into Jade’s own. Darkness crept in to fill the fine spaces between each sprawling curve of lace and fluffy plumes, and yet despite the black lines crawling over her (like worms writhing inside a bloated corpse), Espera stood completely and utterly still.
Still, the young girl’s relief was almost palpable, her concern rushing from her like a swiftly receding tide. She smiled widely, buckteeth and all. “Wow Espera, you really gave me a scare! What on earth are you doing down here? I thought you’d be at the part— whoa!”
Shliiiink! A barrage of glistening-sharp blades whistled out from Espera’s robes, each of them whistling straight for Jade. The dog-eared girl barely managed to fling herself to the side, the sharpened steel piercing through the metal floor as easily as if it was butter. Staring at the still-reverberating metal with wide eyes, Jade could only imagine how deeply they might have cut into her body.
A wave of unease washed over her as she looked up, chest heaving in terror, mouth agape. “Espera,” she said, but Jade already knew deep within her belly that this was no longer her affably sedate owl pal. Brine and other salty, brackish offing stung at her nose, as if carried straight to her by the ocean’s current.
Her brand new gun was in her hands with a second’s thought, fizzling with electric lime energy.
“Who are you?” she asked, shivering. “What do you want?”
As Jade anticipated, Espera’s beak parted. Yet, instead of the customary greeting she had come to expect from the owlish person, another voice spoke instead. A dark, ugly voice, one filled with creepy crawlies and sinister whispering that sent frigid goosebumps prickling up over Jade’s skin.
“We have searched ceaselessly for you, Tearen Wover, formerly the singularity known as Nealaphh,” the thing wearing Espera’s body croaked. “You were a difficult mark to trace, this is true, but at last we have found you.”
Jade boggled at this admission. “What,” she said.
Forging onward into a no doubt totally disheartening monologue, not-Espera began to drift forward, inch by inch, an inevitable and very real threat. “Yesss, it is clearly surprising to you that we have managed to see past this… effeminate, weak, teenaged disguise of yours. Did you really believe pretending to be so utterly stupid would help you to blend in? It was so obvious.”
“That’s not even--” Jade sputtered.
The thing across from her sniffed haughtily. It was a weird nasally whistle, especially when performed through an owl’s beak. “Of course you are Tearen Wover. You have the same eye color, wear the same cloth… changing your skin cannot hide who you truly are, even if it IS a particularly ugly one.”
Okay, that was SO uncalled for. “Uhm, first off, I am NOT Tearen, you fuckass! He’s long gone, to-- to wherever he went! And second of all, fuck you!” Jade snapped, red cheeks puffing out furiously. The gun in her hands crackled with green static, almost as if it was responding intelligently to her ire.
“We tire of your worthless gibbering. Perhaps a familiar face will make you more willing to comply.”
Jade watched as the creature morphed into a gray, dripping mass right before her eyes, humanoid in shape and utterly destroyed. Bones snapped with sickening wetness, jutting out through tattered clothing, and silvery white hair matted with debris and ice grew out from the top of the figure’s head. As the thing’s face split into a yellow-toothed grin, Jade’s eyes widened, a strangled, wounded sound leaving her mouth.
Standing across from her was Solomon Grundy, obviously after the mountain had collapsed and sealed him inside a soundless tomb. The gun wavered in Jade’s hands, the barrel slanting toward the ground.
“Aw, that’s just not fair,” she whimpered, backing up with a few hurried steps. She could feel the air growing steadily colder despite the cozy diving suit clinging to her skin, her breath fogging in white clouds in front of her nose as the temperature dropped.
“We should have gutted you in your cabin and taken the child when we had the chance,” the creature sneered, teeth stained with gore dripping down from the caved-in dome of Grundy’s skull, half of his face saturated with squishy brain matter. “Regrettably, now we must serve as pest control. It is very degrading.”
Jade’s hands shook despite her best efforts, her palms sweating from fear. “What the hell does that mean? Wh- What are you talking about?” she demanded angrily, hoping to wipe that disturbingly smug grin off this thing’s face through sheer bluster alone.
If anything, the smile on her dead friend’s face widened, Grundy’s decayed and sawdusty teeth glinting dully. The creature made a sound halfway between a chuckle and a distorted, wet gurgle, coolly regarding the glow from the lighted glass gateway to the bottom of the ocean. “Don’t pretend to be daft. It is all about the child, always has been, to tell you the truth. He was adamant that the child must not be harmed during this… transaction period, and— naturally— you had to be removed from the equation. As payment for disposing of you, the bounty is ours. Nothing personal.”
“Oh, I’m taking it pretty personally, bucko,” Jade said, a hysterical whine in her voice. Abruptly, she blanched, eyes widening from sudden dread. “Wait… that’s what this is about? You and… whoever else… you’re trying to take Rebecca away from me! Why?”
Not-Grundy snorted in reply.
“Child Protective Services, what else,” the thing responded drily. “Please. We could care less about what happens to that broken little girl. Damaged goods, in our opinion, but Dr. Kelvin wasn’t picky about which subjects he would return to Rapture with.”
The young Witch of Space stared. She didn’t know Kelvin was a doctor! Or that he was secretly a totally bad dude— priorities, Jade!
Still, she couldn’t quite believe it. Trusting the word of a bounty hunter just seemed stupid. Hands scrabbling hurriedly at her dress pockets, Jade finally managed to extract the heavily-stuffed envelope Kelvin had given her, the one meant for his sister; the creature across from her merely looked on, mildly curious. Without pause, she ripped the darn thing open with her teeth, blinking as a dozen or so items flapped to the ground. She squinted down at these supposed letters, eyes shifting frantically from one to the next as the betrayal sank in.
“Son of a bitch!”
They were all brochures— the kind one could easily find in any old gift shop or tourist center on the island of Costa del Sol. Through her haze of steadily-rising, volcanic red anger, Jade could make out these cheery words: Island Treasures Flea Market — Where ‘x’ marks the spot!
“Son of a bitch!” she repeated, fists clenched so hard her knuckles had turned a searing white. “That fucker!”