Fantasy Flight of the Phoenix Main

[Emixlin]

Emaliah was stunned as Lan (Mr. Clementine? She didn't feel quite right calling him that, even though he was older) immediately reamed out her father - it was pretty hard to imagine anyone lecturing Duke William, but there it was, loud and clear. There were so many swear words in his speech Emaliah felt as if she were the one getting scolded. Then Harlow went and knocked out the duke, which elicited a small squeak of surprise and a step back from Em. It was well-deserved, to be fair, but Emaliah had never really seen violence up close and personal before. She had a newfound fear of Harlow.

Miss Juniper voiced her concern about the guards still patrolling the docks around them, and as if right on cue, the guards began calling for her from above deck. Then Emaliah watched, alarmed, as the strange dragon child on the ceiling proceeded to drop directly into Dr. Kadoshi's arms. The doctor didn't seem too concerned, thankfully, so the tranquilizer probably wouldn't hurt them. They wrapped themselves around him and purred sleepily. Emaliah's head spun slightly from all of the activity.

Finally, Mr. Gray finished explaining his plan of action for the guards. Emaliah didn't take the permit, knowing it would look strange for a girl to turn in her own noble father for trying to stow away on a ship that she clearly didn't belong on. (No offense to the ship.) At this point, all she could do was hope that the others could successfully drive the guards away and they could be released from the docks.

She wondered then, for the first time that day, who exactly had started the fire in the Diamond Plaza. Who exactly had ruined her 18th birthday and put her life at risk? She frowned at the thought and glanced at her unconscious father, his face beginning to swell from the beating. No... it couldn't be him. He knew I was going to the Plaza. He may have wanted to use me as a phoenix, but he would never try to kill me.

 

[Tapfic]

Lan hardly had time to catch his breath before Harlow’s shoe made contact with the duke’s face. The audible *crunch* was enough to make Lan wince, even if it was still pretty fucking satisfying seeing the bastard get a taste of what he deserved. The specific flavor; Boneripper Boot.

Despite whatever satisfaction seeing Duke Dick-Head getting his face knocked in might have wrought; it couldn't have been great for their chances of getting out of here unnoticed.
Speaking of unnoticed, it seems like dragon kid had gotten hit with one of the tranquilizer darts in all the commotion. Lan may have been worried, but it looked like their Dad had it handled.

"Juniper! Where are you? We are back, are you down there?"

Lan’s head jerked up, towards the source of the call. Great, those asses were back.
With a groan he glanced down to the unconscious Duke. The guy sure was great at causing problems, even when he was K.Oed. Maybe they could just, throw him at the guards or something?

Gray started speaking, and Lan shifted slightly to listen. Hands on his hips, the boy tapped his foot ever so slightly in a feeble attempt to quell whatever sense of anxiety threatened to bubble up again. His face retained its usual annoyed expression.

Well. At least the law was on their side, for now. Obviously that wouldn't last if they ended up getting discovered, but it was a momentary comfort.

“ I’ll do it,” The words were kurt. Lan took the offered permit from Gray, his body language exuding exasperation, from his clipped movements to his ruffled feathers.

Though he didn’t like to admit it; he wasnt dumb enough not to notice most guards seemed to go easier on him when it came to getting in fights ( until he cursed them out for thinking he was a kid). Obviously mistaken age wouldn't cut it if they found out he was a phoenix, but maybe it would help with the assault charges.
Lan glared down at the Duke again. While he was defiantly strong enough to carry the Dick the short ways up to the dock under normal circumstances- currently his energy reserves were pretty fucking exhausted from his sprint across the Plaza, and flight to the docks. Not that he would admit it, of course.

“ You-” he pointed to Harlow, the gesture seemed accusatory “ You knocked him out, so you can help carry this comatose prick up- and next time maybe think for a fraction of a second before you send someone to la-la land, alright “Boneripper”?”
That's right, be an asshole and hopefully no one will realize how tiered you are. Perfect plan.

 

[spiralingheretic]

Harlow flipped him off, but regardless, hoisted the Duke up by his armpits as Lan took his legs. "Yeah yeah. Would be a bit weird if you went up there without adult supervision anyway,” she muttered.

To be truthful, she was glad to be going back up above deck. She was still riding the high of kicking stupid duke man in his stupid face, and she was pretty sure she would be for the rest of the week. The others might not have approved, but Harlow was confident that going with her gut was the right move. Sure, it looked a little incriminating to be dragging the limp body of a noble around, but this way, he couldn’t talk and they could spin the narrative however they wanted. If he was still awake, Harlow didn’t care if the guards were friends with Juniper, they would be far more likely to take the word of the Duke. Speaking of the bee-eater--

“Hey, Juniper right? You think you could come too? Might make sense since they’re your buddies. Not that me and Glen don’t look super credible, but uh, might help.”

Not waiting for an answer, Harlow heaved the duke (none to gently) down the hallway and back up into the open air. She spotted the guards almost immediately, and schooled her face away from the relief she felt and into something more distressed, like she wasn’t used to dragging bodies from place to place. (She regretted she didn’t have the chance to loot this one, but she had a feeling that wouldn’t go over too well.)

“Oh, thank goodness you’re here,” she cried. “This man came out of nowhere and tried to attack us!” Harlow sniffled a bit for effect.

 

[AncientBird]

Mr. Gray had come up with a plan that the group should hand the unconscious noble man to the guard, telling that he had invaded on their ship and threatened to harm someone that they had to knock him out. Juniper found it to be pretty nice, they wouldn’t a lie since he did invaded the ship unwelcomed.

The short owl phoenix with questionable temper whose Juniper remembered his name to be Lan and the woman with gull wings and equally questionable name, Boneripper volunteered to bring the invader up to the guards. Boneripper then asked her to come with them as well.

“Of course, I will go with you.” Juniper replied. “Those two would probably want to see me more than anything.”

Scaling back to the deck. Juniper saw the teo guards waiting. “Oh hey! Dale, Chazz! You boys are back!” Called Juniper.

“We were wondering where you have been... Why were you below the deck? And what happened with that man?” Asked one of the guard.

Boneripper explained it to the guard, putting up a frightened act. The guards came to inspect. They didn’t seem to care much about the two phoenixes and rather focused it on Juniper. “What did he do?!! Did you get hurt?” One of them came to Juniper. “Of course not. But he was very furious down there, he tried to attack these honest merchants I just befriended with! They had no choice but to knock him out...” Said Juniper, nodding toward Lan and Boneripper.

One of the guard went to inspected the unconscious man and he gasped. “This is one of the noble duke from the far away land!!! What is he doing here? And why would he cause scene on a ship so unrelevant to him?” Asked a guard.

“I... I think his daughter wanted to hang out with the merchants and he didn’t approve or something.” Juniper said, trying her best to created a believable tale.

“This must be about the earlier ruckus with all the bodyguards pulling knife on a girl we heard!” One of the guard spoke to his partner. “Yes, Chazz! It was the this very same man! I guess after his men failed and got arrested, he tried to confront these merchants himself! Could you two take him away? He clearly was a bad guy!” Spoke Juniper.

“Ehhh... I don’t know, Jun... We didn’t see it happen ourselves... And we don’t really know these ‘merchants’ well...” One of the guard said, clearly showing grudge on the phoenixes, likely more on Lan. “Not to mention he is a duke!” Another one spoke, seemingly intimidated by the noble man’s status.

“Oh, come on you guys! You don’t believe me?!!” Said Juniper making a pleading eyes. “... Or are you just scared??? He has done wrong thing! Where is the justice you swore to uphold?!! Papa Duncan always praise soldiers who know right and wrong and does their job regardless of discrimination... Anddd as his daughter, I have absorbed a lot of ideal from him.” Said Juniper, crossing her arms and turned away from the two guards. “I thought you guys are cool, turn out you are just a disappointment.”

The guards were clearly shaken by Juniper’s act of disdain. “Oh come on, Jun... We are sorry!” Said one of the guard. “Yes, we didn’t mean to... Of course, we are men of justice!” Said another. The guards then turned to the two phoenixes waiting around. “Ahem... Err, we will handle this... Criminal ourselves. May we see the ship’s permit as well?” Said the guards, acting clearly more professional.

Juniper smirked secretly. She had been knowing these guards for years and it's always a piece of cake to manipulate them.

Featuring: Tapfic spiralingheretic

 

[BittyBobcat]

Gray watched the three avians leave with narrowed eyes. His fingers tapped nervously against his crossed arms, itching to do something. Well, something besides waiting (not that he had many options beyond that).

He took an abrupt few steps away from the wall he was leaning on (though an ounce of vertigo leftover from his concussion forced him to slide his hand against it for support in what he hoped was an inconspicuous manner) and -without so much as a glance toward the other occupants of the room- grumbled, "I'm heading to the engine room." Might as well be prepped for takeoff in case the lockdown got lifted sooner than expected. "Don't do anything stupid."

Peter half expected him to tack a ‘while I’m gone’ onto the end of the statement, but the man stalked (rather unsteadily, judging by the hand he brushed across the wall) through the doorway without another word (though, for a short moment, he could’ve sworn he caught Gray’s eyes flickering toward Flame, wrinkling with what could've been concern). What a ray of sunshine.

Absentmindedly, he reached to readjust the strap of his messenger bag -which had slipped slightly out of place in all the duke’s commotion- before giving a slight pained hiss the second his fingertips touched the leather. Right, that. He should probably deal with that.

“Hey- um, Mr- No wait, Doctor Kadoshi.” Peter’s wings twitched uncertainly. It was rare to meet a doctor that would provide his services for free and, even if he'd just run into a bit of money (courtesy of Em), the thought of owing a debt to anyone made him nervous. “I got a- uh, a little burnt in the fire and... stuff.” He held his hands -red-ish pink and still buzzing with pain- in front of him, as if to prove he wasn’t lying.

His eyes flickered away from Dr. Kadoshi's face and down to the stained floor at his feet. “I could take care of it myself if that’s easier," He blurted, feathers bristling beneath his jacket. "I just thought -’cause you offered earlier and all… if you're not too busy with Flame, that I could use some help. With dressing the wound, or whatever you call it."

 

[ScatheAriiasqDrayceon]

Jet turned back to the obviously-unsteady dragonfly, opening his mouth to tell him to sit down in a dark room for a few hours before being interrupted by said man. He stifled the urge to fluff his feathers. Gray, the doctor believed the name was, didn't look too good, and earlier, he—

"Hey- um, Mr- No wait, Doctor Kadoshi—”

Jet jolted, looking down.

And down.

He's so short.

Jet hadn't actually really taken a moment to look at his current acquaintances, and, sure, he's used to some fairly short people (white hair and a feral grin sprang to mind), but he also quite easily forgot what "short" actually consisted of, being that he lived among large migratory seabird bird-type people for quite a while.

And now, he realized that there were quite a few (two, you dingus, there are only really two) very short people around. He'd have to double-check that he watch his wings. No matter how good he was at keeping them tucked, they were still very long and very easy to knock things (or people) over with.

Oh, wait, the small child (Peter. His name is Peter, you idiot) was talking.

Flame grumbled against his shoulder, small, prickling claws digging into his back. Their wing-claws were sharp.

Jet took a moment for his brain to catch up with the outside world before shaking his head slightly, offering a small smile to Peter. "It's no problem, I can wrap them... granted this ship has something on it to use as a bandage... I've had experience enough dealing with burns that it shouldn't be hard." Flame's wing twitched and whapped him lightly across the back of the head, an offended grumble the only thing intelligible out of what were probably supposed to be words.

It seemed even half asleep, Arii could recognize Jet's implication.

Chuckling lightly and smoothing the fine wind-sensitive scales along the settling child's wing, he turned back to Peter. "And just Jet's alright, if you like." He gestured for the med-bay, readjusting his wings to lay as compactly as possible hanging just above his back. The curve of the limbs loomed over his head and somehow made him look taller, as if he needed to be any more so.

 

[Tapfic]

Lan responded to Harlow’s gesture by flipping the bird ( HA! BIRD! If Lan had a sense of humor he’d definitely find that funny, ) right back. He scowled and yanked the Duke’s legs up like one might hoist sacks of flour, given there was some sort of grudge between the lifter and the bags. Perhaps a gluten intolerance?

"Yeah yeah. Would be a bit weird if you went up there without adult supervision anyway,” Lan caught the muttered insult.

“ Hey, I heard that; and fuck you,” a wonderfully creative response on his part, honestly.

Harlow ended up bringing Juniper along, and though he didn’t like to admit it; Lan was impressed with the foresight. The factors playing into the judgment being he wasn’t previously all that sure she had any at all, and the fact he himself hadn’t thought of bringing the Bee-Eater along, despite the fact the guards had come back to check on her.

When the group reached the deck of the ship once more, Lan tossed the Duke’s legs down as roughly as he could manage. It hardly made up for the fact he hadn’t gotten to beat the shit outta the guy, but he'd have to make due.

The boy bit back a gag at Harlow’s act as she sniffed, but whether or not it was actually poorly done was debatable. A debate that no one should ever have with Lan. That would be tortuous.

Ultimately whether Boneripper would be receiving any nominations didn’t matter much anyways; with Juniper’s word on their side the two dumbass guards were soon won over.

"May we see the ship’s permit as well?” One requested, and Lan obliged.

“ Yeah- yeah, here ya go. Knock yourselves out,” he had tucked it neatly away in his jacket pocket before making the walk up, and procured it as soon as it had been sought.
The guards must have come prepared to check paperwork, as one ( Chez? Chess? It couldn't have been Cheese right? ) unhooked a small wicker cage from their belt, and held the permit to it. A lizard inside sniffed exactly twice; it seemed satisfied with the authenticity of the blood-seal, as the Cheese guard handed the document back with no trouble.
“ Everything looks good here,” Cheese fucker said calmly “ We’ll bring the Duke in for now-”
As one guard spoke the other stepped forward to handcuff the aforementioned Dick.
“ You lot sit tight until we have this whole mess sorted out; we’ll come let you know when your ship is cleared to leave.”

Aw fuck ( Lan mentally cursed, because vocally cursing might have been suspicious ) that's right. The dock was still on lock down.

 

[spiralingheretic]

As soon as the guards turned to leave, one carrying the steaming pile of hot garbage person over his shoulder, Harlow straightened and grinned. Aw hell yeah. All according to plan. Of course she fully attributed the success to her superior acting ability. Though she did have to admit she was impressed with Juniper’s manipulation tactics. Damn the girl really had them eating right out of the palm of her hand.

However it seemed Harlow was a little quick to celebrate, as the limp body of the duke suddenly went rigid, his eyes flying open. Immediately he started struggling against the guard, who was taken by surprise by the sudden movement and let the man drop to the deck. The duke got to his feet and took stock of his situation, his expression changing to one Harlow knew as pure desperation. It would be comforting if it didn’t make him that much more dangerous.

“Easy--” began one of the guards who had lost whatever respect Harlow had for him to begin with, but the duke interrupted them.

“You imbeciles! Can’t you see what’s happening here? These miscreants have abducted my daughter! The one with the bad haircut tried to kill me!" ("Rude," said Harlow, but everyone ignored her. She kept herself from adding that if she wanted to kill him, he would definitely be dead, as she felt that probably wouldn't help their case.) "They’re terrorists, don’t you see? I heard them talking. They’re the ones that started the fire in Diamond Plaza! Are you going to let them get away with it? Isn’t it your duty--”

In the duke’s little tantrum, a piece of parchment had fallen out of his pocket. One of the guards picked it up. “Hey I think you dropped…” the guard’s face went blank as they scanned the document. “Wait, what is this?”

 

[Emixlin]

Soon enough, Harlow, Lan, and Juniper had all gone above deck to deal with the guards. Emaliah chose not to comment as Gray stumbled his way out toward the engine room; she was concerned, but it seemed quite clear that he wasn't going to be stopped at any cost.

Instead, she stood awkwardly in the corner of the room, watching the exchange between Dr. Kadoshi and Peter. She felt strangely out of place on that ship, surrounded by strangers with entirely different backgrounds and upbringings, with entirely different customs and expectations. She was the privileged one here... right? She was a noble with higher status, higher wealth. And yet somehow, she felt inferior to these people. Her topaz-encrusted purse and high-fashion dress meant nothing to them.

On the contrary, she didn't know a thing about sailing ships, or running from law enforcement, or the world outside of Gildaneth, which seemed to be what was considered valuable here. Knowledge. She was book-smart, not street-smart. It was frustrating, to not know anything substantial.

And on top of all the not-knowing, her own father was the enemy here. It wouldn't be surprising if the others decided to act hostile toward her because of it. In fact, maybe they were planning to kick her off the ship along with the duke. Maybe they were just too polite to tell her outright. (Well, Harlow and Lan seemed pretty blunt. Maybe she was overthinking this.) The point was, she didn't feel very welcome there all of a sudden.

"Dr. Kadoshi," she called out anxiously, before they could go to the med bay and leave her all alone there. "I, err..." She twirled a strand of hair between her fingers, struggling to find a reason to go with them. "Would you... Can I help you? With the injuries? I've never done it before, but I read a book on medicine once," she said hesitantly. "I know the basics."

 

[AncientBird]

All seemed to go well for Juniper and her newly met companions. With the approval of the ship's permit, the two guard, Chazz and Jose were ready to take the duke away... Just in the moment the unconscious man sprung back to life.

It was a ruckus as the noble man thrashed to get out of the guards' hold. He seemed furious, desperate and ready to do everything to turn the guard back to his side.

“You imbeciles! Can’t you see what’s happening here? These miscreants have abducted my daughter! The one with the bad haircut tried to kill me!" Screamed the noble man. "They’re terrorists, don’t you see? I heard them talking. They’re the ones that started the fire in Diamond Plaza! Are you going to let them get away with it? Isn’t it your duty--”

A piece of paper fell down from the duke's pocket as he was letting out his rage on everyone. One of the guard was quick to notice it and picked it up to read.

"Agreement for... rumble, rumble, rumble... Explosive!... Phoenix flushing?!!..." Said Chazz the starling just as he looked at the duke with widened eyes. His companion, Jose the locust gasped in shock. "You... You are the one behind the flame!" Said Jose.

Juniper knew that this noble man was a monster for all he did to his daughter, but she never realize he would also be the one behind the explosion in the Diamond Plaza. "What?!! It was you?! How could you?! You blew up the entire plaza! A lot of people lost their fortune and life!... One of my lovely staff almost died in there!" Juniper shouted at the noble man, whose face had paled down. People in the street began to notice the ruckus and started to circle in to hear about what happened, of course once they saw the man who was behind the destruction, they started to curse and hurl objects at the duke.

"One of the staff... Wait Jun, who was it?! Was it Milly?!!" Jose asked, his face showed obvious fright. "Yes, Jose! I found Mi... I mean Charlie earlier, he said Milly just narrowly escaped the flame from her shopping trip!" Said Juniper, tried to not let her story contradicting with her being at the arcade she told the guards earlier.

Jose turned to the duke with fury in his eyes. "You scumbag! You nearly killed my favorite cousin!!! I will have you thrown in the cell for this! Come on, Chazz, put him in chain!"

The duke couldn't do anything but pled for the guard's mercy while Juniper and her companions watched.

Featuring: Tapfic spiralingheretic

 

[ScatheAriiasqDrayceon]

Jet was just about to shoo Peter toward the med-bay before a little voice drew his attention. He looked down.

The young butterfly girl was peering up at him, twisting her hair around her hand. "Would you... Can I help you? With the injuries?"

Jet offered a small smile, stepping to the side slightly to gesture for her to follow. "If Peter doesn't mind, I'd be happy to teach you." His wings, even folded to where the wrist hung above his head, nearly drug on the ground.

He shooed the two young phoenixes toward the med-bay, ducking through the door and—

"What."

It wasn't a question; it was a statement of pure and utter disgust.

The med-bay—no, the biohazard—was filthy. Bloodstains littered the walls and floor and dust hovered in the air. There was a cat in the corner as well, looking all-too pleased with itself. The shelves were bare to the extent of concern.

Jet's eyebrow twitched and his crest raised, unsettled. "Yeah. no. No. No, thank you, I'm fine not infecting my patients with whatever's being cultured in here, thank you very much." He turned to Emiliah and Peter, clicking his tongue. "Sorry, but I'm gonna have to do this with you standing up, because..." A wide gesture toward the room was honestly all he could muster.

Even so, he took the first-aid kit and shook the dust off of it, shouldering Flame over to hang off his wing, which they promptly buried their face in on the basis of "soft".

 

[Tapfic]

Lan watched the situation unfold with quickly mounting disgust; he would probably be yelling too- but it seemed the gaurds themselves had that covered for him. Not to mention, for the first time in years he didnt really have the energy to start shit anymore.

Lan stood, processing what had just happened for a moment. Staring off into the distance like a confused deer for a few moments before slowly fading back into reality.

" Sick mother fucker," He muttered, and turned his attention towards the direction the original lockdown announcement had come from.
" How long do ya think It'll take till they lift the-"

He was inturrupted by the projected voice of a woman, ringing through the docks.

"Thank you for your patience, the culprite has been obtained. Ships will be cleared for departure soon. Please wait until reciveing clearance from an official before taking off."

Like the first message, this one played on loop for a few moments before sputtering out.

Lan frowned, again. Well; that was better than indefinant grounding, but not ideal.
He tucked the permit back into his pocket until he could give it back to Gray, and inspected his wings.
The soot was past the point of starting to thin, though not yet glowing- the gold hues could be seen clearly through the ash.
The boy groaned.

" Well. Guess we get to wait somemore," his voice was exasperated, bordering on whiney.
" Love doing that. Sitting around doing jack shit is my favorite fucking pass time-" his eyes widened with some sort of realization and he whipped around, pointing a finger at Harlow.
" Hey wait a god-damn-fuckin-second," he started
" You think my name is Glen? Really? What the shit?"
His reaction time was astounding.

 

[BittyBobcat]

"Yeah, that's fine," Peter blurted, almost before Dr. Kadoshi —Jet, he said something about calling him Jet— had finished answering the question. "I don't mind." His wings, previously held tensely to his back (still beneath the jacket, he remembered as his feathers brushed fabric), relaxed every so slightly. He hadn't found any real reason to mistrust the doctor (not yet, anyway), but the thought of being shut in a room alone with any stranger made his wings ruffle.

Not that he was scared. Peter didn't get scared (that is, if the amount of times he told himself that was anything to go by).

Still, he shot Em a grin that he hoped came off as grateful while Jet began shooing them both toward the med-bay... or, at least the room that Gray called a med-bay. It looked to Peter more like a poorly cleaned murder scene.

Jet took it in with an expression that distantly reminded Peter of the guards' faces whenever they caught him in a tier too prissy to have kids like him begging on streetcorners (not that there was ever much use in it —they had more gold on them than Peter had owned in his life and yet they didn't even pause to consider tossing a coin over).

"Sorry, but I'm gonna have to do this with you standing up,"

"Yeah," If it kept him out of the 'med-bay', then he'd agree to anything. There was enough dust floating through the air to make his nose itch. "That's probably —ACHOO!— for the best," Peter sniffed, wiping his nose with his hand (which, once again, tingled painfully at being touched).

He perked up as an announcement echoed dimly through the ship. Though it was muffled by the walls, he got the gist; The lockdown was over.

~~~

Within a maze of metal and vapor, Gray heard it too.

He squinted at the previously-leaky pipe before him. His reflection, stretched awkwardly across the bronze surface and —he now noticed— a still-darkening bruise on its forehead, stared back. Skies, he looked like shit... But the pipe —thankfully— did not. Satisfied with the lack of steam shooting out of it, Gray reluctantly flipped a few switches and dials before turning back to the ladder he'd entered on.

The familiar clicks and rumbles of the engine faded behind him as he headed down the hall —more steadily now that the wave of vertigo had, for the time being, subsided— and to the control room.

 

[spiralingheretic]

Oh shit, that was fast.

She snorted at the woman’s voice. Patience, yeah right. That was one word for it.

Harlow frowned at the flurry of activity that the announcement had incited on the docks. They had to wait for an official? That was dumb. Would they even know if she had been given permission? Couldn’t they just leave right now? In all the commotion it seemed plausible, at least.

All of a sudden, the smaller phoenix whipped around and wagged a finger accusingly at her. Oh, had he been talking? Was he upset that she hadn’t been paying attention? But no: “Hey wait a god-damn-fuckin-second. You think my name is Glen? Really? What the shit?”

Harlow examined her fingernails as she struggled to keep herself from smirking. “Is that not it? My mistake.” (It wasn’t a mistake.) “Sorry Glen,” she said purposefully and with ill-concealed gleeful malice.

“Great job, by the way,” she said absently to Juniper.

Now that all of that was over, though, Harlow no longer had to worry about piece of shit nobles or arsonists, or people who ended up being both, somehow? With the danger gone, a more pressing need became apparent as her stomach tightened. “Fuck, I’m hungry. I’m gonna go see if guy has anything edible on the ship. Though based on the fact he looks close to death I’m gonna go with no.”

 

[AncientBird]

Juniper watched as the duke was taken away, she seemed pleased that justice had finally be done for those that suffered in the fire... However, there was still one justice that she still wish to see it come true. The girl took a glance back at the ship... She couldn't believe how much she had done today just to get this far on her plan. She did feel worried however... What if Mr. Gray couldn't help her with this quest? All she risked earlier would be for nothing... Juniper didn't know if Joseph and Duncan had read her letter she gave Charlie yet. If they had and she was to go home now, imagined how disappointed and furious they would have been? No... One way or another, she needed to at least get some clue.

Juniper overheard her two phoenixes companions speaking, mostly mocking one another... Then she heard Boneripper talking about food. Juniper totally forgot about her meal. She had been running around, fighting hunters, dodging suspicion and tricking guards that she hadn't had any time to get some thing in her stomach. Her belly even suddenly roared as a reminder to herself.

“Fuck, I’m hungry. I’m gonna go see if guy has anything edible on the ship. Though based on the fact he looks close to death I’m gonna go with no.” Said Boneripper.

Juniper approached the two with a smile on her face. "Hey, err... What about we get something to eat first? I mean we don't necessarily need to eat whatever Mr. Gray has up there, right? There are plenty sandwich shops around this dock, we could quickly grab some before returning to the ship... At least that sounds more palatable than some dusty biscuit or salted jerky as thick as boots, or nothingness... Those are what ship people eat, right?" Said Juniper, trying to sounds as friendly as possible as she wasn't sure how both of them would view her, seeing that all they had ever done so far were creating tension among each other.

Featuring: Tapfic spiralingheretic

 

[Tapfic]

Oooooh she wanted to play that game? Fine. He would play.
Lan took a pice of hard candy out of his pocket and chucked it at Harlow. You know, like a mature adult does. Unfortnatly, he missed- and it simply bounced on the ship deck a few times b3fore settling by her feet.

" Fine then, fuck you Harold," He mocked her stance, turning his back to her and jokingly inspecting his own nails- it stopped being a joke when he realised they were actually dirty however, and he became destracted cleaning the soot off of his hands.

"Anyways, Im pretty sure dying people eat too-" but...wait, do pheonixes need to eat? Harlow said she was hungry- so probably? Yeah, Lan was gonna go with the they still needed to eat option.

" And no we are not going to a sandwich shop, are you insane? Just because Dickhead and his goons are behind bars doesnt mean there arent more-" Lan glanced around the busy dock and had a moment of foresight that told him not to mention hunters or pheonixes right now.
" Crazy fuckers around here. We need to go tell the others what happened and leave as soon as possible,"

 

[Emixlin]

Emaliah was beyond grateful when Dr. Kadoshi agreed to let her come along to the med-bay. She hated the idea of being left all alone in that room with no one to keep her company—at least this way, she could make herself useful. Peter smiled at her, and she smiled back at his wordless approval.

She was cheerful as she walked down the hall with the others, right up until they opened the door to reveal the absolute disaster that was the med-bay. It looked more like the aftermath of a war than a place to keep ill or injured patients. This was a room where you became an ill or injured patient. A bit of the dust was kicked up as they stepped inside, and Emaliah sneezed unexpectedly. "Sorry, but I'm gonna have to do this with you standing up, because..." said Dr. Kadoshi, gesturing at it all, and Emaliah giggled slightly. No, there was no way they were going to touch any of that filth.

Faintly, through the walls of the ship, came the announcement that the lockdown was over. Relief washed over Emaliah—that was one less problem for them to deal with. Now they just needed to tend to Peter's injuries, get cleared for departure, and be on their way. Fantastic.

She was just about to turn her attention to Peter's burns when her eyes locked on the precious, one-eyed cat in the corner. Her whole body froze. "Oh my skies, is that a cat?" Emaliah breathed. The cat stared at her for a moment before turning to lick its paw. "That's a cat."

She approached it slowly, and it stood and hopped onto one of the medical beds. "Hello," she said to it. "My name is Emaliah." The cat ignored her and sat calmly on its haunches, eyes closed. Emaliah reached out and tried to pet it, and lo and behold, it gave her permission. She stroked its soft fur cautiously, eyes wide with reverence. "It likes me," she said wondrously. "It likes me. That means I'm going to have good luck for the rest of the day. We're going to be just fine," she told the others, smiling brightly.

 

[ScatheAriiasqDrayceon]

Jet watched as Emiliah approached the brown-furred creature sitting on one of the beds. She was acting a little strange. She reached out to touch it.

Jet blinked.

Then blinked again.

Idly, he wondered if his brain stopped working, because something about the situation was just very wrong and it wasn't clicking.

"That's not a cat, that's a biohazard," Ariiasq grumbled, kneading at Jet's wing, because apparently, it'd shifted since they'd settled down.

It clicked. "Oh, you're part of the religion that worships cats, huh?" he mused. In a surprisingly (especially for someone whose entire career depends on exact sciences) nonjudgmental voice. "But in any case—" he popped open the medkit with a hum—"Disinfectants, all of you."

His statement was punctuated by Peter sneezing and wiping his nose with his burned hand.

Jet felt a tiny sliver of his soul wither and die.

One undignified—and probably unnatural—squawk, Arii hissing because he jerked backward, and a scramble to not drop anything later, he tapped Peter's hands away from his face with a light scolding noise that honestly had no business coming out of a human's mouth. "No, no, no, no—No wiping anything on your burns; they'll get infected."

"Emiliah, would you mind helping me disinfect these?" He plucked the bottle of rubbing alcohol out of the box, a few cloths, and used a few drops to disinfect his hands, the sharp, familiar tang sending a shudder down his spine. Familiar, yet strange doing this in a tiny hallway.

 

[BittyBobcat]

Peter blinked. "Cats?" He blurted. Sure, he'd heard of religions worshipping animals—even met a few people who believed them—but they were usually animals like dragons, or whales, or griffons—something big and powerful—not cats.

Just as he opened his mouth to ask more, Jet's hands pushed his own down with an abrupt squawk. Peter leaned back a few inches on instinct.

"No, no, no, no—No wiping anything on your burns; they'll get infected."

"Oh- uh, right." He nodded. "I knew that. Just- uh, forgot for a sec. Sorry." Peter shrugged in an attempt at nonchalance that perhaps could've been believed if it wasn't for the fact that his eyes locked on the doctor's fingers, following carefully as he popped open a bottle of what he could only assume was rubbing alcohol based on the sharp smell that wafted through the air (if he could read the label, he'd be able to confirm his suspicions, but the letters were nothing more than random shapes to him).

A slight frowning wince tugged at the corner of his mouth—he could practically feel the stinging disinfectant already—but Peter still held his hands out in front of himself with a resigned sigh. This is what he got for getting stuck in a fire, anyway (of course he didn't get to be a fireproof phoenix, he would never get that lucky... unless, maybe it developed later?).

"You're a doctor; you know wing stuff, right?" His head tilted slightly to peer through the open doorway at Jet's turned back. "Aren't phoenixes supposed to be fireproof or something?"

~~~

The control room was more disorganized than it was probably meant to be on any self-respecting ship—with various chords and ropes, all poorly connected with one another in a knotted mess, hanging from the ceiling and a sun-damaged dashboard dotted with labels that had perhaps been repainted at some point, but had long since faded—however, it got the job done. It would allow for their takeoff.

To Gray, the process of takeoff was as comforting and familiar as the wings on his back, and his mind flipped through the steps with an automatic—if a bit rushed—rhythm to it.

Step one. Signal.

He snatched a short, triangular flag from a box that sat at the top of the dash with one hand and began to pull the wire holding the ship's current flag down. Click. Click. Yellow flag on, blue flag off, and it was back to tugging the wire again. A dock official should spot it and make their way over soon.

Step two. Situate.

He could see the fins from where he stood. They were one of the most well-kept components of the ship, and—even through the age-yellowed windows of the control room—they shone bright white in the sunlight. Technically speaking, they weren't meant to be controlled from the cockpit. He had (shoddily) rigged a few ropes to make it more-or-less possible anyway (at the cost of some maneuverability and the worry that it'd break with too much strain, of course, but some sacrifices had to be made to run a ship like this by himself).

They turned and rowed with the gentle grace of a whale flying by as he tugged and tied chords. Swish and swing. Pull rope three, slip one between four and five, and repeat on either side until—finally—the fins were in place.

Step three... well, it would've been sail, but—unfortunately—it seemed they'd have to play the waiting game for a bit. Gods, why couldn't the dock officials just hurry up.

 

[spiralingheretic]

Harlow scowled at Lan. Paranoid little fucker. “I don’t know, sandwiches sound pretty good to me. Doubt with all the commotion anyone will pay any attention to us.” Her mind turned Peter and Emaliah, though: Peter, with his burnt hands and Em, whose world had just been blown to pieces. “We probably should see if the others want anything, though. Wouldn’t make sense to do more than one trip.”

Without waiting to see whether the others would follow her, she headed back below deck, which didn’t seem quite as claustrophobic now that the maniac chasing after them had been apprehended. She followed the sound of voices to what she assumed was the med bay, which yikes. Even the pirate who had acted as the designated medic (and barber) maintained their workspace better than this. Grey, who she assumed was responsible for the state of the room, was nowhere to be seen, but the others were all here.

It was a relief that the frankly ludicrously tall doctor seemed to know what he was doing. The smell of rubbing alcohol made Harlow grimace. When she was a child she’d hated going to see the village doctor, whom she recalled biting on several occasions. However, once she was on her own she quickly learned that rejecting medical help was a very bad idea indeed. Still, that didn’t mean she had to like it.

Harlow cleared her throat: “A couple of us were thinking about hustling together some grub. Do any of you want anything?”

 

[AncientBird]

Denied of her idea by Lan, Juniper gave the little man a little frown pursing lips. "Oh come now, it's just a quick trip to buy meal... We will be done before they could even lift a sail!" Said Juniper.

Captain Boneripper (Juniper swore to her ears that she heard Lan called her Harold.) however seemed to agreed with her on buying sandwich and she suggested they went to ask the others if they want something as well.... And without waiting for Juniper and Lan's reaction, the short-haired woman headed back on to the ship.

"See? She gets it!" Said Juniper and trailed after the phoenix woman. Back on the ship, the other had been gathering in a room that was supposed to be a medical room of the ship... However, it did look more like an abandoned slaughter house more than anything, making Juniper cringed at the condition of this ship even more. As Boneripper/Harold asked around if anyone want something. Juniper looked around and realized that Mr. Gray, the captain of the ship was there with the others. "Wait, where is Mr. Gray? Should we get something for him too? He looks like he will be dropping dead by starvation at any minute now... Well, if not already is..." Asked Juniper.

Featuring: Tapfic spiralingheretic

 

[Emixlin]

"Oh, you're part of the religion that worships cats, huh?" commented Dr. Kadoshi as Emaliah proudly pet the little one-eyed creature.

She nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, cats are messengers from the gods," she declared. When the doctor offered the rubbing alcohol to her, she took it and reluctantly moved away from the cat. The feline stretched and wandered to another corner of the room as Emaliah dabbed the alcohol on her hands.

"Emaliah, would you mind helping me disinfect these?" Dr. Kadoshi requested. She nodded and went over to Peter, wiping an alcohol-soaked cloth over his burns as gently as she could manage. This was good. This was easy. She liked being helpful. Certainly, she'd never considered herself a medic before, but maybe it was time to consider a new—well, a career, in general. She'd always imagined herself growing up and getting married, spending her days as a hostess, dancer, and eventually a mother, but things were different now. There were so many new opportunities available to her now that she didn't have to carry the burden of being a noble's daughter. It was exciting, but also a bit shocking to remember that she was no longer a noble's daughter. She had disowned her father, essentially, and it was absolutely dizzying to think about either the advantages or the consequences.

Harlow entered the room all of a sudden, and Emaliah turned her head as she came in. “A couple of us were thinking about hustling together some grub. Do any of you want anything?” she asked.

Emaliah blinked. "Some... grub? What is that?"

 

[Tapfic]

Lan looked like he may have been trying to say something, but no words came from his mouth. Not even a simple "fuck you" or anything.
The silence was obviously too good to last, as Juniper followed Harlow down the hall of the ship he followed suite.

" They're brain dead- there's absolutely nothing alive up there. Holy shit," He muttered the words. Well, it was sort of muttering at least; carrying the intent without the lowered volume.

" Do either of you even know what dire means? It means extremely serious or urgent. Like this. This whole fucking situation is pretty god damn serious and urgent in case you haven't noticed, but nooooooo we just have to go vist Jimbly McBumblefuck's House of Ham for brunch! Maybe stay a bit and chat, give out free feather samples even! Why not?"
Of course he would have to follow them and make sure they didn't kill themselves anyways- though he'd gladly starve before eating the trash any of the shops around here might serve. A thought did cross his mind however; he could theoretically try a peanut butter sandwich without (permanently) dying now. Something he wasn't going to do any time soon because he was mature enough to not die whilst trying to escape death trap city.

Lan had still been talking to himself as he entered the room, a few moments behind the rest. Just as Juniper finished asking if they should get Gray- or maybe asking if Gray was dead, Lan only heard the second half of it.

Speaking of.
The. Med. Bay.
Was that all blood? All of it?

Lan grimaced and took a few steps back out of the room. The stale scent of dust filled air mingled with medical disinfectant was repulsive; even though medical disinfectant smelled a whole lot like cleaning disinfectant. Lan told his own brain to shut up, it was different. His disinfectants smelled like flowers. Wildly off, chemical flowers, but still absolutely not just straight alcohol.
He'd have to come back to rehabilitate this room later, right now his eyelids were too heavy for him to deal with- wait a fucking second.

" Wait-" Lan stepped back into the room with a sudden vigor, and made straight for where Dr.Kadoshi was tending to Peter. For the second time that day the boy was unpleasantly reminded that, oh yeah- Dr. means Doctor.

" Your hands are fucked. What happened? Did those cock juggling sons of a dick goons do this? obnoxious scrote bags-" He stumbled over his words, inspecting the damage that had been done to the younger phoenix. A pang of guilt stung him, he should have noticed this earlier.

" I think I left the other kit in the room- the room we were in earlier. I don't remember the name, do you need more medical stuff? It has burn cream. "
Lan's foot tapped nervously against the blood stained floor, and he tried his best not to look away from the scene. The very medical scene that made him want to leave, very quickly- but he didn't because he was an adult, and this little kid was hurt, and as an adult it was his job to help out when a kid was hurt.

" And you two- Harold and Peppy ," He pointed vaguely in the direction of Harlow and Juniper- he had been doing a lot of that- pointing- today.
Well. This was pretty normal amount actually, he liked the gesture.
" Are we already completely abandoning the idea that maybe mister withered corpse has to eat too? Why don't you go find him and just fucking ask where he keeps the food if you're hungry, and don't spend an hour explaining sandwich orders to some shop keep while we're supposed to me getting the fuck out of here? "

 

[ScatheAriiasqDrayceon]

Jet hummed quietly when Peter offered his hands, carefully wiping at the reddened skin and rapidly-forming blisters. "Don't dab," he advised Emiliah without looking up, "wipe it off. It's more effective that way." He worked fast, and though he had to put pressure on the wound to get the possible bacteria off when he cleaned it, the combination of the pain from the pressure and the alcohol basically killed the nerves.

Light, practiced motions had him reaching down for the burn cream, absently registering Harlow's speech as background noise that he may need to listen to. It didn't seem too, terribly important, though, as no one was screaming in pain or trying to murder him.

Though, his patient was saying something, which he responded to after a short, idle hum. "Flame never developed any really strong fireproofing," he said. "I think it depends, considering the range of abilities here." A slight pause. "Don't get distracted, Lady Emiliah, more often than not, wounds need your full attention." Jet was perfectly fine with using noble titles, now that everything had calmed down a bit and he was in a setting he was proficient in.

In any case, though, Arii lifted their head—face probably sprinkled with lose feathers—and answered for him. "Are you mad? Did you hit your head, too? We'd be idiots to go out for a little food."

"Spread the cream evenly over all of the burns and try not to get it too far outside the needed area. Wipe your hands off when you're done." Jet didn't glance at the first-aid box when he reached for the medium-length gauze. "Place the back end about an inch from the end of the wound and tug the bandage until you feel the fiber stop giving easy." Jet demonstrated, slowing his process for a moment before wrapping it with quick movements, fingers light and careful. "Is that tight at all?"

He tuned back into the conversations around him after a brief pause. "Mnn... what's going on, now?"

Arii mumbled a "they want food" in his ear.

"Ah—That is a concern, now, isn't it?"

 

[BittyBobcat]

Peter winced at the familiarly cold sting of rubbing alcohol, but he grit his teeth and kept silent—choosing instead to force is attention to Harlow and the rest of the returning members of their temporary crew.

"I could go for some grub," He said almost instantly, already perking up at the mention of food. "I'll eat anything." His shoulders rose into a slight shrug which was punctuated by a quietly hissed breath and a flinch that he stilled before he could pull his arm away from the doctor. "Dauber's place would be nice, though; I got banned a few months ago 'cause they were tired of me 'scamming the clients'—which I wasn't, by the way. I was just stealing, but they should'a kept better track of their stuff so that's more their fault than mine, honestly."

Before he could be further distracted by his own tangent, Juniper's question drew him back to the topic at hand. "He said something about heading to the engine room, which..." Peter stretched forward, keeping his hands still while still managing to get a glimpse of the hall behind the group. "I'm not sure where that is, but—judging by the fin placement—probably somewhere below us. Don't know ho-"

"Wait- your hands are fucked. What happened? Did those cock juggling sons of a dick goons do this? Obnoxious scrote bags-"

Peter blinked. "Well, they were obnoxious scrote bags," He began, unable to stop a hint of cautious tightness from entering his voice. "But this one's on me."

'This one'. As if most of Peter's injuries weren't fault of his own failures—be it pissing the wrong person and earning bruises as a result or picking up a few scrapes in an escape (sometimes both). Lan didn't need to know that now, though, so he didn't mention it.

"Got a bit burnt up in the fire and stuff, is all." Momentarily, Peter considered bringing up what happened in the guild hall. His first instinct leaned toward no—best to keep his cards close—but Harlow and Emaliah already knew. There was no guarantee that they'd keep the secret. Besides, some of the other phoenixes might be able to help him learn how his newfound abilities worked (assuming they were willing to put up with him long enough to do so). Maybe—

"Is that tight at all?"

"Uh-" He'd barely even noticed Het had finished wrapping his hand until he asked the question. His fingers flexed experimentally—stiff, but not particularly painful. It was practically numb, now, anyway. "No. It's fine, I think," Peter answered, about to go off on another one of his rambling tangents when the ship suddenly jerked forward.

It was small enough that he held his footing (though, he was forced to slide his foot a bit sideways to help stabilize himself). The hum of the engine—previously quiet enough to fade into the background—rose to a dully thrumming roar that shook through the walls and floor. Somewhere outside, Peter could hear the familiar click of airship-fins whirring into a different gear (it felt strange hearing it from the inside of the ship for once).

It seemed they were taking off.