Futuristic Starpath: Burning Sails [IC] [CLOSED]

[Breadman]

Yolandi checked and double checked the crates. They were clean and the content looked to be exactly as it was described. "Damn. That's nesepian spice." The upiriy woman spoke up "You can mix them with alcohol and it creates a high like no other." She realized what she just said and the amount of enthusiasm she said it with and instantly shut up. She looked at Yolandi "Sorry, old habit of mine."
---
Vincent hurried to the meeting, but stopped when he noticed Lauren walk outside. Looks like he was already late. And she was approached by Vance. Good Maybe he could smooth it out from there.
"Howdy captain."

 

[Frankafurter]

Yolandi cuts a look at the Upyri recruit, "Yeah, well, old habits tend to die hard so if I see you poking around in these crates I'll put you on a detox regimen you won't forget for the rest of your natural life." She slams the crates shut and waves Zou at them. He nods and starts hauling each crate one by one to load onto the trolley. Once he's done she has him open up so she can hop in and use his commo system to send a message to Petar, it's a short speech-to-text message: Cargo Loaded - Nesepian Spice - Returning to Mordred - No Trouble - Recruits Annoying. With that she hops out of him and lets him start pushing the trolley to get it back to the Mordred's bay. She waves the recruits to lead the trolley while she keeps an eye from behind. Last thing she needs is to get pinched while moving a boatload of spice across the docking levels to the ship.

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Shelby smiled, though it looked somewhat sad. "T-thanks. I'm sure there are plenty of not very nice people out there looking for me right now. But hopefully they won't find me. I used a program on my datapad to make my hair go back to blonde for my starpop streams. I'm sure they're looking for usual me when pirate me is out here being... a pirate. Yeah, something like that." It was nice that Jericho was so friendly and would help her watch her back. He reminded her a bit of Gilles, one of her bodyguards. Nice guy. Couldn't speak well from when he got stabbed in the throat and he had a nasty scar from it, but he made it through it okay and could slam most people into the ground one-handed if he wanted to. Kept the weirdos away.

 

[Breadman]

A few seconds later, she got a message back from Petar. 'Need to make excuse for Lauren why we're not at meeting. Meet me with recruits. Pay extra so you will play along. Take some of the spice.'

 

[Frankafurter]

Yolandi has Zou send a message back to him, "Tell him to tell her that we're just handling some logistics stuff and that we will meet her at the Chalice when we're back. Drugs aren't my thing, give me extra cash to spend. Zou needs new guns and drugs don't make those materialize." She looks ahead to the two recruits and calls out to them, "If anyone asks either of you what we were doing, tell them you were helping me shop for some supplies. I'll compensate you for it. Don't cross me or the first mate if you value your time on this crew." The trip goes uneventfully and she arrives back at the Mordred and has Zou start hauling crates off to load into the cargo bay. She hands a credit chit to each recruit valued at a thousand, "Consider this your first sidegig. And keep your mouths shut, especially you, weenieboy." She directs at the human recruit in a sharp tone, "Now go to the Chalice." With that she waits for Zou to finish offloading the stuff and notices Robocreep wheeling a large cart of what looks like half a scrapyard's worth of waste, she says nothing though and just waits for her own robot friend to come over so they can get on the way to the Chalice.

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Lucy quietly arrived in the landing bay with her overflowing cart, filled with all manner of parts, surplus, and equipment - with a few stranger additions stashed away. It certainly looked not far off from a junkyard on wheels. She moved past the departing recruits, looking them over with her blank veil as they left. Up ahead Yolandi appeared to be overseeing the loading of some crates with Zou, and she wheels her cart towards them.

"Hello. W-w-what have we procured?" She asked, watching Zou work for a moment, before extending a claw back towards the departed recruits. "New staff m-m-members? I can conduct o-o-orientation if required."

 

[Frankafurter]

Yolandi tenses up, she was hoping the robot would keep walking. She turns her head to look over at Lucy, "Just some extra cargo, don't worry about it. Also no, don't bother the recruits, they gotta learn things on their own, plus I don't want you scaring them away from the Reavers, last thing I need is Cap brassing me up for letting you creep out the new blood." Zou finishes the cargo loading and comes down the ramp to stand in front of Lucy and Yolandi gestures at Zou, "And especially do not touch this guy, only I can work on him. Period." She waves Zou to follow, "When you're done unpacking your trash heap haul come to the Chalice, Cap wants us there for a meeting." With that, she and Zou go over to the Chalice and let themselves in. She's thankful she's debulked Zou's layout a bit so now he can fit in more places, it's been a godsend now that she doesn't have to get a parking spot for him.

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

The Brute pops his head from behind the truck. "YES. ADEQUATE SUPPLIES FOR TYPHON."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The little device in Typhon's pocket rings out loudly and obnoxiously, making him answer it as fast as he can so he won't annoy those he's walking past.

"*COUGH* ... Hello?"

"Typhon." It's his boss. The fatherly tone gives it away.

"[Yes, yes. I'm- here. Is there something you need help with?]"

"[I had a team talk to your first mate. We've come to a big arrangement of sorts. One I hope you'll understand had to be done.]"

"[What- *COUGH*... What kind?]"

"[The kind we do that earns us more money. We'll be supplying the Reavers some of our stimulants. We're delivering a few crates right now.]"

"[I'm sorry... what? Are you- you sure this is a good idea?]"

"[It is, and it's necessary. We'll be generating extra income this way. You already know some of us are still behind on... 'internal maintenance' payments.]"

"[Amon... you- you understand they might abuse them? You understand I'll likely be nearby when they begin- *COUGH* begin turning?]"

"[Of course. I know they'll probably demand you treat them, but you and I know that's not possible at all once they've reached that point. I fully expect and order you to retreat when they begin manifesting.]"

"[You're putting me at a massive *COUGH* risk, you know... I'll probably be dead by then.]"

"[You won't be. Just leave when the serum has become widespread among them. Then the first stages will begin. The others will handle everything from there.]"

And then, it finally clicks into Typhon's head as to what's really going on.

"[... I see. I-I *COUGH* g-get it now. So this is your plan B?]"

"[It indeed is.]"

"[... Fuck. This is going to be brutal.]"

"[I know. Just try and come back in one piece. We lost three from the lower echelons last night to degeneration. I'd hate to lose you too. Good luck, Typhon.]"

*BEEP*

So because Typhon didn't betray the crew initially, Amon's now working his magic to try and kill them all off in a much, much more horrible fashion. At first, he doesn't make much of it. The serum would work it's magic, he'd escape, they'd all die horribly and he and the Lions get paid big money by Anora. But as he puts his phone away, he starts thinking about something. He thinks about Yolandi, about Vincent, about Nara, even about Lauren too. He starts thinking about the only people he remotely even respects on the crew, if his brief moments of kindness could even be called that. Now he's starting to panic. Sweat drips down from his forehead as the pressure to warn them grows and grows. Yet deep down he also doesn't want to disappoint his boss, his leader, his friend. The friend who's saved his life on many occasions, his teammate who supported him during numerous wars and battles, and now practically his caretaker. He hated the rest of the crew, and loved his friend enough to sit back and let this all unfold, but would he really let the very few he cares about get caught in this mess too? Carrying a burdened visage, he slowly lumbers over to the only bar he knows about on Shadespear: Morgan's Chalice.

He really needs a drink after hearing this.

 

[Emperor Sagan]

There were those words again. Scare. Scaring. Scary. Creep. Creeping. Creepy. They kept being applied to her so casually when she wasn't performing any tasks that could remotely be defined as frightening. She was pushing her cart, and she offered an orientation. These were not prospects that she considered to be... scary. Yet even in these circumstances, others had applied the words directly to her. Her veil was down. She was walking. She made sure to occasionally clatter her claws together to announce her presence so people wouldn't be alarmed. Why were so many intent on being like this towards her? The manuals of work studies she had internalized within her mind indicated that this was possibly workplace abuse, or camaraderie. It was difficult to determine which.

"T-t-this isn't refuse," Lucy pointed out. "These are supplies and m-m-materials." There was another permission condition made, telling her to stay away from the large machine named Zou. No one seemed to treat it the same as her, and it was far larger and capable of utilizing heavy armor and weapons.

"...y-y-yes," is all she said, pushing her cart aboard the ship and leaving it in her room before exiting and making her way back to the designated meeting place.

 

[EdwardDewey98]

Jericho looked at Shelby for a moment. "The scariest pirate out here!" Jericho teased his friend while finishing up his ice cream. "Really, I'll do my best to make sure you're okay." He let out a chuckle. "Anything to stab someone! I am bored of sitting on my cute ass." Suddenly, Jericho heard his personal datapad make a sound. He quickly checked it. "Huh...My prayers have been answered, I think! Come on, cutie, finish your ice cream. The captain needs us back at Morgan's Chalice. That bar she likes a lot."

 

[Breadman]

Petar waited for Yolandi to show up with the recruits. He looked at his watch. Already running late. Where is she?
---
The two walked towards the Chalice. Johny was such a nuisance with his constant whining. Yolandi should have done more than just scold the idiot. What kinda sorry excuse or a pirate he would make...She had to stop herself. What was she doing exactly? Taking this kid down on his first day of actual work. Did she really become that uptight? Whatever, she just needed to get to the place she was ordered to go to. Not think about it.

On the way there, she lid a cigarette to feed the habit. Seeing all that spice in one place just triggered something in her. She thought she was clean of the stuff, but no. Still there. Still itching and clawing every chance it got. Fucking diamond powder and all it's shitty properties. Rounding the corner she saw him standing there. Of all the places? Now? In their way. He didn't look too happy either. Like he was waiting for somebody. Oh no, he's waiting for Yolandi, isn't he? Couldn't this reunion wait for another few hours? 'Oh fuck, he saw me.'
---
Petar looked around impatiently and noticed someone. It was an upiry woman with dark marks around her eyes. Something that he'd seen before on a lot of them, diamond powder addiction, she was wearing Reaver markings so she was probably one of the recruits, he's have to ask who her dealer was. Then he saw her face.

"Da te eba, kuchka takava!" he yelled to get her attention. "Serra Linva, nice to finally see you again!" He faked the joy in his voice as he realized that he was drawing attention. A friendly meeting is less interesting than a fight in the open. He walked closer to her.

"Hey Petar." She took the cigarette out of her mouth "Long time no see. How's the family?"

"Dead or are trying to kill me. Yours?"

"Just dead." She threw away her cigarette. This meeting already left a awful taste in her mouth. " Person who did it is on your captain's shitlist. I want payback so I joined your crew." She just came out with it. No sense in waiting for him to say anything.

"Well. Don't let me stop you from meeting the captain then." He crossed his arms "Follow me, we'll catch up later."

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Shelby quickly shoveled the remains of the ice cream into her mouth, fast enough that it gave her brainfreeze and she held her head. "Ouchie ouch... c'mon lets go," she said with a slight groan, following after Jericho on their way to the next bar for the meeting.

 

[Dmaster]

The cybernetic Ayr took note of Typhon among the various people in the crowd who may as well have been faceless, taking note of his somewhat defeated disposition yet not caring too deeply about that situation. Shun was well aware that whatever was ailing the man would more than likely be kept private no matter how much pressing he did. However seeing him move into Morgan's Chalice was fortuitous, as it reminded him of Lauren's penchant for choosing that place for their meetings when they were here. Going off of pure assumption, he slowly made his way through the various bodies shifting about and entered the bar.

 

[Frankafurter]

Yolandi arrives with Zou, she notices the recruits following Petar into the Chalice. She thought she heard yelling but she wasn't around the corner to see what was going on. She enters the Chalice behind them and sits down at the bar. Zou hunches his way into the bar and sits in the corner by the jukebox. She waves over at Petar, "Jobs done, the bill better be paid in full or I'm gonna start charging penalties for late payment. I got a robot to fix and arm." She looks over at the Upyri and the kid with Petar, she points at the Upyri, "Keep her away from the hard stuff, I don't like working with junkies." She then points at the kid, "He's a pain in the ass, whines too much, doesn't pay attention enough, give him some mentoring of the pirate kind." With that out of the way, she orders herself a proper drink, she can still taste that shit awful liquor she had at the other bar. She tells the barkeep the leave the bottle of rum after he pours her a double of it. She takes a few swigs then just knocks the rest of it back in one gulp, slapping the glass down and pouring herself another before knocking it back with the same gusto. Rinse and repeat, but at a slower pace than the first two drinks.

 

[Doomevil]

Grommy headed over to the counter, raising an index finger up. "I'll have a water please. Thanks." He asked, while he glanced to the nearby Reaver members.

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

Shuren also finds his way to Morgan’s Chalice, still proud of his handiwork in fixing the neon sign. He appears to have bought a news tablet of sorts with headlines of the current events glowing against his face as he reads them, the news and happenings of this outside world having captured his interest earlier. He waves at Shun as he walks past him.

“Hello, dear friend.” he says.

 

[Dmaster]

The cyborg gives Shuren a nod of his head in greeting, appreciating the outward friendliness. "Hello. Hope the day is finding you well." he replies, looking about the interior of the bar before he started to step toward where the others were gathering. It was obvious he would not order anything to drink, and he loomed behind the group proper as they waited for their captain to make an appearance.

 

[Infab]

Zadra watched Lucy as well as Yolandi and the others from where she was standing on the cargo ramp, as she had been watching Drav talk to the Lions in their truck before. Loudmouth waddled up next to her as she folded her arms. "Lucy's the creepiest fucking robot I've ever seen. Creepier than fucking Jester." Zadra glanced down to him and shook her head. "Jester was in a league of her own. Lucy's just...odd. Really odd. Weird." It was true, Lucy hadn't done anything to harm the crew. She just did strange shit with body parts. Zadra wasn't skiddish around body parts and limbs. She had seen enough of those crawling through ship engines and serving as a combat engineer back home.

Maybe she'd talk to her later. Try and figure her out a bit. Better to have her stay friendly than be ostracized and go psycho bitch on the crew.

---
​

Drav glanced back to the larger Lion, whom seemed to automatically yell everything he spoke. "Right." she said simply, before waving them by so they can be unloaded and put onto the Mordred.

---
​

Karina loomed over her defeated opponent, blood dripping from the cuts across her upper body. The kanad had been right. Hoshi did fight rabid. Karina fought angry, though. Angry and focused. She systematically wore Hoshi down, then beat the living fuck out of her once she was tuckered out. Some of Hoshi's teeth had been knocked out, and she now had a broken orbital socket where her good eye was. She was out cold, though. No more rapid movements and grazing strikes. No more hissing or bared fangs. Karina spat some blood that had ran into her mouth onto the steel plating next to her, before turning about to walk back to her side of the cage. The referee declared her the final winner of the small series of bouts. She won thirty thousand credits, and she was quite sure that the Reavers recruits that had been watching won some bets too.

"Nice job!" exclaimed the kanad from before, raising his hand in victory towards her. A high five. She gently patted it with her own, before grabbing her clothes from the corner of the small cell. "Time to go. I'm sure Lauren's looking for us." she stated, as she wiped blood off with a nearby towel before putting her BDU shirt back on. She'd get a bath back on the ship, and let Typhon or Daniel tend to the wounds. "Right. I'll gather up the others. Morgan's Chalice, right?" said the Kanad, as he moved towards the cage door nearby leading outside. Karina nodded. "Yeah. The Chalice."

As they stepped outside, a member of the other crew decided that it was a good idea to attempt to take Karina on. A human, whom had been yelling about losing money to 'some dumb neck biter'. He wouldn't stay upright for very long, as Karina cleaned his clock with a shot to the teeth. She looked down at his unconscious form for a few moments, before simply stepping over him and continuing on. The Kanad looked between her and the man on the floor, before shrugging and moving to collect the other recruits.

Karina would arrive at the Chalice not long afterwards, waving to Lauren and the others outside as she walked by. Scratches on her face still bleeding and staining the collar of her BDU jacket.

---
​

Aesha looked the dress over and smiled. Olivia didn't seem the type to wear a dress, really. Still, it suited her quite well. "Looks good! Probably would look great on you. I'm more of a suit girl, myself." she said, motioning to a pair of suits on the rack. Neither fit her, of course.

---
​

Lauren looked up after firing off a message to the rest of the crew from her holopad to see Vance and Vincent walk up. Roku would arrive not long afterwards, carrying a few things. "Head in there, we've got an odd job to take care of for a friend of mine." she said, motioning to the Chalice. "I was wondering where the hell you all had gone." she added, as she turned about.

 

[EdwardDewey98]

Jericho chuckled as Shelby held her head from the brain freeze. They were so unintentionally adorable. Eventually, the two of them reached Morgan's Chalice. Inside was most of the crew already, some having drinks. "Hey there, darkings! I see some of the generic goons are here as well!" He sat down, sitting next to Shelby as per usual. "So what's up, darlings!"

 

[Frankafurter]

Yolandi has gotten through most of the bottle of rum by now. She slows herself down to look over her shoulder at Jericho, "Nothing, and don't call them generic goons, it's bad for morale. They're just as much a part of the crew as the rest of us. Even if some of them annoy the shit out of me." She gives up on being civil about her rum drinking and just straight up grabs the bottle and starts taking draughts from it. She sits with her back leaning against the counter, looking to Karina as she comes from outside, "Heeey, if it isn't my partner in crime- wow, you look like shit. What dangerous things have you been up to since we got here, huh? Pull up a seat, here take this." She sets the few ounces shy of empty rum bottle on the counter in front of the empty stool next to her, "Come, sit, relax, this is some good fucking rum, but I seem to have already drank most of it. Sorry." She turns and snaps at the bartender, "Yo, 'nother bottle of rum here for my friend, she looks like she needs it more than I do."

 

[Infab]

Almost immediately after Jericho called them generic goons, one of them said loudly "This coming from the fucking gay stripper!" A few of the other new recruits chuckled. Meanwhile, Karina moved to where Yolandi was and sat down. "Pit fighting. I've been doing it for the past month and a half. Won thirty thousand credits a few minutes ago. I'm sure some of the other new guys won money too betting on me." she stated, soon taking the bottle of rum from Davidson and drinking from it. "A Namur cut me up, but she won't be waking up for a few days."

 

[EdwardDewey98]

Jericho let out a chuckle as one of them called him a gay stripper. "You must really enjoy the show if you recognize me, babe.~" He sent the man a flying kiss, before returning his attention to Yolandi. "Didn't know you were the diplomatic type, but I suppose you are right. Even though most of these guys and gals look like slightly different clones of Jackson." He turned to Davidson as Yolandi began to drink away, and waved at him. "Hey there, honey. A margarita please! One for Shelby as well."

 

[Frankafurter]

Yolandi laughs, "Good fun, sounds like a helluva good time. Wish I was there but I have been running errands for Petar. So, you happy with the paintjob on your suit? Hope you didn't mind the name I painted on the 'nose' of the thing." Yolandi had taken the liberty of adding 'The Blood Countess' to Karina's chassis artwork during the repaint. Yolandi doubts Karina would get the reference but it made Yolandi chuckle since she knows Karina has that certain primal fury in her.

 

[Doomevil]

"Sounds like good fighting. Glad you won the credits. Maybe I can try a few matches on my own sometime." Grommy remarked after hearing about Karina's wins over at the pit fighting place. He turned towards Jericho who he hasn't really talked to in a while. Now was the good time to do it. Grommy waved at Jericho and Shelby, "Looks like you two are becoming good friends. That's a good thing for the crew."

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

Shuren turns the tablet to face Shun. On it is an article from some science website.

“Have you read the news? It’s quite interesting! It says here scientists found a way to cure Ebola 9! I do not know what kind of disease is awful enough to have many movie sequels, but I’ve learned quite a lot!”

——————

Typhon doesn’t pay any attention at all to the new recruits. He takes a seat at a table still anxious about earlier, his worried thoughts appearing on his current expression.