Fantasy Vampire Corps of Eldergaard

[Reynarda]

Astrid reached over and tweaked the tip of Leo's ear. She supposed she shouldn't be too upset that Leo knew her threats were toothless, but she did not appreciate his smugness. But she was glad that Leo was acting more like his old self. She had been worried that the day had been too much for him. But no, he was resilient. She just hoped nothing irreparable had occurred. Still, sitting here, joking with them gave her hope. She felt like they could take on the entire military even though she was looking at a very broken ship.

Astrid arched an eyebrow. "Eccentric" tended to be a nice word for--well, Leo said it. "I find a lot of the smart types are like that," Astrid said with a grin. She shot Cyn a wink. "I did have to threaten our resident smart type to get him to eat, after all."

Astrid chuckled at Rose. "Wards can be used for pretty much anything. The magic is based on the meaning of the runes, after all. Though, you can't, y'know, break the laws of nature or anything. There's still equal and opposite reactions and rules of energy and such. Like..." she thought for a moment. "You can't bring someone back from the dead or create something from nothing. It has to come from somewhere. Really, the hard part about ward magic is not remembering the runes, but making sure you haven't made something that goes against the laws of nature. Luckily, ward magic just won't work. If you try to do that with soul magic, you'll end up dead. So one has to be cautious and not do magic out of hubris."

Astrid frowned. "Wow, I sound like my father. How did I even get on that?"




Alyx felt a little bad about leaving Georgiana high and dry, but she wasn't really sure what to do. If Petra had not caught her in the cargo bay with Lanea, she would have been right there with the princess, helping her be "cheeky". But as she had been caught, she worried about the consequences should Petra realize where she had seen her before.

However, Alyx slowly grew more and more alarmed as Petra continued. She was going to torture Georgiana? She didn't have the authority to do that. Surely Jorgenson hadn't given such a valuable prisoner over to someone as volatile as Petra Mothgrove. Yes, maybe he gave her way too much freedom, but he wasn't stupid. Was he?

Alyx shifted slightly, her fingers running along one of the alarm wards in the ship's hull. If Petra tried anything, Alyx figured she could set off the alarm ward and then try to hold Petra back from murdering Georgiana until someone--hopefully Lanea as he seemed to be able to reason with Petra--came to their rescue. She wasn’t entirely comforted by Georgiana’s choice of conversation direction, but at least the brig wasn’t on fire. Yet.

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Cyn's face coloured, the tips of his ears turning red.

"I ain't smart," he mumbled as he dove into his soup. "I know machines 'n' stuff, but that's it."

Leo gave him an unimpressed look, but he sighed and didn't push it. Cyn got embarrassed easily, and he didn't want to try to pump him up and have the opposite effect. Still.

"You know a lot about machines," he said, and Rose nodded, but he also knew better than to push that particular hornet's nest.

Rose was quite interested in the explanation on magic, and Cyn looked like he was itching to grab his notebook and start taking notes.

"That sounds... a bit weird," Rose said with a shrug. "But I suppose it's similar to science, in a way. You can only make something happen if it's possible for it to happen."

Cyn gave him a shrewd look.

"'ere's a bit more to it than that," he said, but he already looked ready to ask Astrid a million questions. "So, with wards, do ya needa know how stuff works to make it work? Like, with machinery, usually you gotta know how 'n' why somethin'll work to make it do somethin'."

Leo groaned as he rested his chin in his hand, giving Cyn a look.

"That is a super non-specific question," he pointed out.



Petra hummed, pressing one perfectly manicured finger to her chin.

"I have a lot of problems with you being here," she said, her eyes flashing, though nothing burst into flames quite yet. "I think you're annoying, and you're a lot smarter than you let on, and also that you have a lot of plans that could be very, very troublesome to us in the future. It might be worth it to get information from you to completely foil those, but..."

She tilted her head to the side, and for a second there was a flash of actual anger and hurt on her face before she covered it under an indifferent mask.

"You're going to get my commander killed. As long as you're alive, he's not going to give up on his stupid plans of rescuing you and reuniting with that Allarian girlfriend of his. It would be easier to just kill you now and deal with the fallout later."

She finally glanced at Alyx, her eyebrows drawing together in a calculating look. She seemed to be considering her options, and none of them looked particularly good.

"Hmm, you too. I was curious when I saw you escaped earlier, but you really just waltzed right back into your cell instead of trying to make a break for it? Stupid. You're probably relying on Lanea's stupid plan too, aren't you? Hm." The corners of her mouth twitched downwards, and the air around her began to heat up a bit. The bars between the two cells began to glow hot, and then the metal melted and warped until there was a decent sized hole large enough for Alyx to fit through.

"You know, I've always wondered. If I hurt you badly enough, will you attack anything for blood? Do you keep your reason when you're pushed beyond your limits? It's all very curious. Why don't we find out how badly you need to be burnt before you eat your friend?"

 

[jones573]

Well. That was... Unexpected.

Gigi was a princess, so she didn't physically hang her mouth open in shock, but she was doing the mental equivalent.

Shit. How was she supposed to respond to this? She resisted the (very strong) urge to look over to Alyx for her reaction- And perhaps some direction.

"... This sounds like something you should talk to your commander about," she said eventually. "Your issue seems to be with him, and whatever it is you think he's up to."

She paused for a moment and continued.

"I'm guessing you're smarter than you let on as well," she ventured. "So I think you know- Killing me doesn't really address the issue. He'll find some other 'stupid plan' that will allow him to reunite with this supposed Allarian girlfriend," she pointed out. "If he wants to leave- Hurting us won't change that."

If anything, it could just highlight how the dangerous the situation was, and motivate him further.

 

[Reynarda]

Astrid arched her eyebrow at Cyn's continual insistence that he didn't know that much. They were relying on him to get the ship up and running so that they could rescue their friends. But he seemed embarrassed about it, so Astrid left it alone.

Astrid chuckled at Rose's explanation. "Yeah, well, we're always pushing what's possible."

She turned her attention back to Cyn. Maybe she shouldn't be explaining this sort of thing to Allarians, but she didn't see how it could hurt. Especially since she was on their side, now. "Mm, yes and no. It's like... cooking. So you can give someone a recipe, and anyone can make it, right? But it only makes that one thing. Someone who's really good at cooking and understands the ingredients and why they work well together and such, they can make new dishes." Astrid frowned. "Does that make sense? And sometimes, two things taste good together, but you don't really know why. They just do. Same for ward magic."





Alyx's eyebrows shot up. She knew Petra Mothgrove wasn't as air-headed as she seemed, but she knew about Lanea's plan? Allarian girlfriend? Lanea had a Alarian girlfriend? She hadn't entirely pegged him as being the type to have a girlfriend. Unless... she thought Rose was his girlfriend? Oh, that was funny. Not surprising that Petra would think that--another commander had once asked if Alyx were sleeping with Astrid. Still, she was a little surprised that Petra knew and, to be honest, a little surprised that she felt hurt over it. Alyx hadn't ever thought Petra cared about Lanea.

But she didn't have time to contemplate Petra Mothgrove's psyche as the woman turned her attention on her. Oh, so she had recognized her. There was no reason to try to fade into the background then.

She glared at Petra, not sure if setting off the alarm ward would do much good. Petra was favored by Jorgenson for whatever reason, and considering Petra's reasons for wanting them dead, she wasn't sure Lanea could get her to stop, either.

At the captain's threat, Alyx shifted to a crouch. Blast it. She was weak enough as it was--the blood Maksim had brought had done a little, but not much. She had never been to the point of needing blood so badly she lost her reason, but she had heard of it happening and she had seen bloodlust in her new fledglings. Though she didn't like the thought, Alyx was not sure if she would be able to keep herself from sinking her teeth in Georgiana.

Though, to say they were "friends" was a bit of a stretch.

"Captain, you don't want to do this," she said, knowing full well Petra did want to do this. "Admiral Jorgenson can only do so much to save you from repercussions, and that warped metal is telling."

Alyx thought through her options. Fire was a step above pure energy, so she might be able to absorb the energy from it to reduce the damage. But then she would have to get rid of it since she didn't have her scarf. Zapping Petra seemed like the best option, even if it would doubtlessly just make her angrier.

She shifted to a crouch that was more grounded. "The princess is right. Hurting us won't change that. And why do this? Do you care about Lanea or just yourself? Because if it's Lanea you care about, you should consider his wants and desires. He's miserable here--wouldn't he be happier with this 'Allarian girlfriend' of his?" Alyx made a scoffing sound. "But I think it's yourself you care about. You don't want him to leave you, do you?"

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Cyn seemed absolutely fascinated, and he nodded his head vigorously.

"'at makes a ton 'a sense," he said. "S'kinda like that with machinery too. I mean, you can fly a ship without knowin' how to build one, but you can't build one without knowin' how it flies."

He smiled, pleased that he had figured out something new today.

"I guess science 'n' magic ain't really that different," he mused, and Leo shrugged.

"They're a little similar," he agreed. "At least on that level."

Cyn turned curious eyes to him, tilting his head to the side.

"Oh yeah, you can use magic now too, huh? What's it like?"

Leo grimaced, because he had been hoping to avoid that topic. Rose was giving him a look, though, so he stretched out and leaned his head back against the wall.

"It's more trouble than it's worth, honestly," he said, and Cyn didn't look particularly satisfied, but he did drop it. He was almost done his soup, and almost ready to get back to work anyways. Maybe he'd pester him about it later.



Petra sneered at Georgiana, fighting the urge to snort at her in disdain.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," she said, the corner of her mouth curling up. She wanted to gloat, honestly, though she doubted it was a good idea to do so. If things went wrong in here, which she highly doubted that they would, it could come back to bite her. But still. She wanted to see the looks on their faces. "You're meeting up with her in Ludenberg, right?"

Lanea had kept what he did on his days off very secretive, but a bit of digging and bribing had helped her to figure it out. There was an apartment in a fake name rented out above a brothel that one of her midshipmen had frequented before he ran out of cash. They were apparently very discreet, and even she had been unable to intimidate the woman who owned it about her patrons. It was the kind of place that was seedy and run-down, and it wouldn't be odd for a soldier to frequent it for a quick fuck.

"Once I take care of the rest of your party and bring him Captain Leon, I'm sure the admiral will lose interest in whatever I've done," she said while examining her nails. "And once that bitch is dead, he'll have no reason to leave. Leaving you alive would just be postponing the inevitable, and also really annoying."

She sighed, though Alyx's next words were clearly very unwelcome. Her mouth twisted, and the hand that was by her side curled into a fist.

"Why would he be miserable? It's not like you lot are being tortured or anything. He's well fed and has a place to sleep, and the crew likes him. He has no reason to want to leave," she said, her voice a little short. She did not want this vampire upstart thinking that she understood her and Lanea's relationship when she knew /nothing/. Maybe she didn't like being in the military, but Lanea was fine. He would be fine. "He doesn't need to be consorting with Allarians and planning these stupid escapades that will just get the whole military on his back. I let him have a bit of fun because it made him happy, but it's gone too far. He doesn't need any of this anymore."

There were a few sparks in the air, and she clicked her tongue in displeasure as she quashed them.

"Of course I care about him. He's my best friend, and I won't let him do something he'll regret. Whatever he thinks he wants right now is just-- he's wrong. He's fine right where he is."

Maybe she was just trying to convince herself, but-- no. She was right. He wouldn't have befriended her if he wasn't happy. He wouldn't have opened up to her enough to let her see the little slivers of who he really was if he didn't care about her. He was just mistaken right now, and he would come to his senses later.

"Anyways, you're just trying to stall. It's not going to work. But you are right, burning you would be too obvious..." Her eyes traveled to where Lanea's torture kit sat in the corner. She smiled as she walked over and opened it up, fishing out a long and wicked-looking knife. "Here we go. This will work much better."

 

[jones573]

Rust it all, this woman was crazy.

"I'm sorry- You think killing this girlfriend you think he has will make him stay," Gigi clarified in shock. Petra seemed to have all the social understanding of Gigi's next oldest sister- Which was to say, almost none. "Do you even hear yourself?"

"Even if you manage to hide your involvement in murdering her- and me," Gigi added, assessing her situation in the background of her mind. Against fire, Gigi had nothing. But if she could get Petra into the cell with her- There was enough give to Gigi's chain that she could defend herself somewhat. Enough length between her wrists that the links could wrap around a throat. Petra certainly had more training in combat than Gigi did, but at least she didn't have the bulk and muscle of Maskim's fledgling.

"He's going to be miserable. Death of a loved one usually does that," she said, trying to use the same straight forward logic she would with Lucille.

Her eyes widened when Petra went for Lanea's knives. "Wait," she said, not really caring if her stalling was obvious or not. "Instead of making yourself the first suspect, you'll just shift the suspicion to Lanea," she pointed out.

 

[Reynarda]

"True," Astrid agreed, more pleased that Cyn seemed excited than anything else. She tilted his head, thinking about his statement that science and magic weren't that different. She supposed he was right at the basics level. Still, she thought of telling everyone at the academy that and watching them splutter in indignation. All the academic magi liked to claim that Allarians used science to compensate for their lack of magic. Astrid wasn't so sure about that, anymore.

When the conversation turned to Leo's magical abilities, Astrid gave him a small smile. Stroking his hair, she said, "Soul magic is inherited, so he got some of Alyx's."

Astrid winced slightly. She remembered how distraught Alyx had been. She had been absolutely convinced she had messed Leo up for life. Astrid suspected her commander had grown so attached to Leo because she had spent a lot of time hovering and therefore getting to know him. But Leo had turned out fine.

"It's a lot of work to learn, and, anyway, Leo's talents lie in his hand-to-hand fighting."





Alyx bristled. Oh, she had not just threatened Astrid and Leo.

But her angry expression shifted to a mocking smirk as Petra responded in irritation. This was a sore she could poke at. She wasn't sure who Petra intended to go after with that knife, but she decided it would be better if it were her. She could heal faster than Georgiana, and she worried Lanea might panic if he saw Rose's charge bloodied.

"Oh, really?" Alyx asked, a mocking gleam in her eyes. "He's happy? He likes pretending to be something he's not all the time? He likes hurting people for a cause he was forced into? I'm sure he confides in you, tells you everything--you, his captain whom he takes care of like a child." Alyx knew she was being mean, and Lanea would not appreciate this at all, but she was good at getting at people. "Because you've talked to him about this. He won't hate you forever for hurting his chance at happiness."

Alyx paused, listening to Georgiana. Slowly, her smirk slipped, and she said three words she thought she would never utter, "Georgiana is right." Yeah, that left a bad taste in her mouth. "Even if he wasn't unhappy before, killing off this girlfriend--which we don't know for sure exists--will make him unhappy." Alyx paused, wondering if Petra might respond to honesty. "Look, take it from me, if you do something that you think is the best for someone else without talking to them first, you can hurt your relationship forever. Even if it's from a place of love. Don't make the same mistake I did."

She eyed the knife and then the hole now between their cells. Regardless of which cell Petra opened, Alyx could jump into Georgiana's. That would force her to take on both of them, and Alyx could still activate the alarm ward. It might not stop her from going after them, but surely any of the airman that came running in would think that a captain from another ship should not be murdering two prisoners with a knife.

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Cyn nodded. It was interesting that magic could be inherited like that. So it could be passed down from parent to child, and...

"I knew it," he said, and Leo blinked dumbly. Cyn grinned at him, and it was his turn to ruffle his hair. "You got yourself a mom."

Leo flushed red, and he groaned as he shoved Cyn's hand away.

"She's a commanding officer, it's not the same," he grumbled, though he was secretly pretty pleased by the comparison.

Rose chuckled, then took Cyn's empty bowl from him.

"I'll take this back to the kitchens," he said, and Cyn nodded. "You should go make an inventory of everything we'll need, what we have, and what repairs we'll need to do."

Happy to be giiven an objective, Cyn nodded vigorously.



Petra scowled at Gigi and Alyx, clearly very annoyed.

"Don't talk to me like I'm a child," she growled. "He might be upset, but it's better for him in the long run to stay here. It's just an Allarian. He'll get over it."

The words were detached, as though the idea of killing somebody didn't even bother her in the slightest. It was like she didn't even see the Allarians as people. Just an annoyance that needed to be dealt with. It was a frightening look at her worldview.

And her view on vampires was not particularly good either, clearly, as she looked at Alyx with undisguised disdain.

"You think you know him better than I do?" she asked, anger clear in her tone. "Because you talked to him, what, once or twice? You clans treated him like shit, and you want to take the moral high ground? At least here his talents are respected."

She paused for a second when Georgiana suggested that Lanea might be implicated. She did not actually want that to happen. The dirt she had on the Admiral might not be enough to save him, and she hesitated. But Alyx was talking down to her again, and she clenched her fists. Everybody spoke to her like that, like she was a stupid child who didn't know anything and had to be taken care of. Like she needed to have the consequences of actions explained to her.

She was trying to avoid the consequences. If she took care of it here, then it wouldn't get worse later on. It didn't matter if he was angry to start, he would get over it. She was doing it for him, and they were friends.

"I know she exists," she says, taking the one route that Alyx left to her so she didn't have to face the tough stuff. "I even know her name. Rosa, or something? She's probably ugly anyways. He deserves better."

 

[jones573]

It was a bit disconcerting to hear Alyx agree with her- Though their logic didn't seem to do much good. Apparently, Mothgrove was confident that he wouldn't mind the death of a loved one. And that either she or Lanea himself were valuable enough to escape the consequences of implicating him in her death.

And she supposed it wouldn't even be that hard to claim he wasn't involved- The tools had just been sitting there, and the ship was full of Eldergaardians who might enjoy the chance to kill an Allarian royal.

"His 'talents' aren't respected, it's obvious he's detested by human crew-," Gigi began to protest. Just because Mothgrove liked him didn't mean that the Admiral saw him as anymore than a disgusting if useful tool- Maybe she could convince the Captain that the Admiral would be unwilling to take the fall for a dead bargaining chip when he had such a convenient, disliked scapegoat at hand.

But then Mothgrove said that Lanea deserved better than 'Rosa', and Gigi decided to do something.... Stupid.

There seemed to be less and less of a chance that she could persuade Mothgrove not to try and kill her. The next best thing, would be to get Mothgrove angry enough that her attempts to kill her would be sloppy. Hopefully, sloppy enough for Gigi to defend against, long enough for Alyx to either help or raise the alarm or something.

"... You're jealous," Gigi said, cocking her head and looking at Petra in that irritating way that Lucille always did, when she'd thought she'd figured something out- It rarely mattered if Lucille was correct in her assumptions or not. The expression always made Gigi want to punch that smug smile off her face. "You're in love with Commander Lanea," she continued evenly, "And you can't stand it that he's interested in a life that doesn't involve you, can you?"

 

[Reynarda]

Astrid laughed. Alyx would hate being called Leo's mom so much. Mostly because it was true. Astrid had once fussed at her commander about her "unruly children" and Alyx had been so offended and had gone off about how they weren't actually her children--okay, maybe they sort of were according to vampire culture but not like the human meaning of children and anyway some of them were older than her.

She snorted at Leo's grumbling and didn't miss his expression. He always acted like he couldn't believe his commander was fussing over him, but he secretly enjoyed the attention. Astrid wasn't fooled for a second. Partly because she also secretly enjoyed Alyx's fussing. It meant Alyx cared and was vastly different from the callous indifference the commander had treated Astrid to when they had first met.

"What should we do?" Astrid asked Leo as Cyn rushed off to take inventory and Rose strode off with the empty bowl. "I'm all for sitting here and looking pretty, but I think you have that covered and I'm antsy. Where'd Crane go? He'd probably be delighted to boss me around and I'd welcome it just out of boredom."

She needed to be doing something. If she sat still for too long, she'd start thinking. And if she started thinking, her thoughts would just spiral. Astrid was honestly surprised by how much she missed Alyx when Alyx had only left earlier that day. She supposed it was due to the small part of her that whispered they would be too late. She hoped her commander wasn't antagonizing anyone.





Alyx wanted to antagonize Petra by telling her she was a child and children got treated thusly. But, like a child, Petra was unscrupulous and unpredictable. She might decide to turn them both into crispy prisoners or cut them up or who knew what.

But then the captain turned her attention on her cell, and Alyx couldn't stop from rolling her eyes. Insisting she knew Lanea best--such a common line. Alyx didn't know what this woman's deal was, but she was extremely selfish. To be fair, it was in a way that Alyx understood, but there was something bordering on possessive in Petra's thinking.

"And yet you presume to know me," Alyx muttered. She wasn't about to reveal that she had interacted with Lanea long before Mothgrove had or that lumping someone from Clan Draya with the other clans was laughable. That would get her nowhere and wasn't even the point. The point was Lanea, not which of them knew him better.

She was ready to deny any knowledge of some "Rosa"--honestly, Alyx was a little concerned that Mothgrove was almost right--but then Georgiana did something that Alyx was more concerned about. Frowning, she looked between Petra and Georgiana. Yes, of course the captain was jealous, but calling attention to that was an excellent way to get turned into a fried Allarian. And Georgiana looked extremely smug--even for her.

"Princess," Alyx hissed in a sing-song, "what are you doing?"

But then Georgiana went and accused Petra of being in love with her commander--which, that was a logical accusation, Alyx supposed--but she didn't even need to look at Petra to know that Georigana was dead where she stood. Alyx just didn't know what the captain intended to do. She yanked on the alarm ward, praying the ward wouldn't malfunction but would start shrieking in the bridge and the watch's station. Then she gathered what little magic her brief rest had returned to her and jumped through the hole Petra had kindly made and into Georgiana's cell. She could either try to distribute any fire that got launched at the princess or she could zap Petra if the captain decided she wanted to do it with the nasty knife she had.

If haAlyxd had more time, she might have hunted down the ship-wide alarm wards or even sent a zap out to Maksim--he would know what it meant. But she didn't, so preparing to keep them alive as best she could was all she could think to do. Here was hoping whatever Georgiana was playing at would work.

 

[Mikotsuhime]

"You just admitted I'm pretty," Leo said smugly, but then his smirk fell. He also wanted something to do, really. He could probably help Cyn take an inventory, but he wasn't really as techy as him. He didn't know all the parts of a ship or what they did, he just knew how to work them. Beating people up was more his style, and without that he felt a little useless. Cyn looked between the two of them, then back down the corridor they'd come from.

"I'm sure he'll be back soon," he said, feeling bad that he didn't really have a job for either of them. He didn't want to give them busywork because it was a bit insulting, but without a specific knowledge it was difficult to actually do most of the things he needed done. Leo glanced at Astrid, then back at Cyn before he held out his hand.

"Can I have your notebook?" he asked, and Cyn blinked. He flushed, remembering the letter he had tried writing earlier, and hesitated.

"Why?" He asked, and Leo shrugged.

"You keep all your specs in there. If we can't actually do anything, I want to at least learn something. The nighthawk was barely built when I left home, I wanna know what kinds of bells and whistles it has."

Cyn blinked, relieved that Leo wasn't asking to see his more embarrassing scribbles, and quickly flipped through his notes. It wasn't /all/ of his notes, because he kept books and books and books of them, all on a shelf back home. Tearing out the last few pages, he shoved them into his pocket to hide the evidence and then turned to the front few pages.

"I don't really have the design specs or anything, that's back home, but, uh... If you wanna look through and see if anything makes sense to you, here," he said, tearing out a few pages for inventory before handing the rest to Leo. He scurried off to the Nighthawk, and Leo leaned back against the wall.

"Wanna look? I'm not an engineer, but I can explain some of this stuff... I think." He squinted at Cyn's handwriting. At least there were diagrams.



Petra glared at Georgiana, about to say that it didn't matter if the /regular/ crew disliked him, he was appreciated by the higher ups, but then she went and stepped on a landmine.

Or, rather, she hopped right onto that landmine with direct intention. She was baiting her, trying to get her riled up. It was working very, very well.

"What-- What are you talking about!" She snapped, her face turning red as she clenched her fists tightly. She felt nauseous, her stomach flip flopping. It wasn't-- That wasn't /it/. They were friends! It was obvious that she would care about her friend, and want what was best for him, and he only deserved the /best/ spouse, so of course she was going to disagree with him getting together with some random Allarian trash. She was not-- she did have harbor /romantic feelings/. And she definitely was not jealous.

No way.

"He's /not/," she snapped, because it wasn't like Lanea /wanted/ to leave, he was just-- "This is your fault! None of this would have happened if you hadn't shown up! You stupid brat."

She was flustered and angry and embarrassed. And the fact that Georgiana looked so proud of herself, like she'd solved some grand puzzle pissed her off. She had half a mind to set her on fire. The heat was rolling off of her in visible waves, and she grit her teeth as she yanked open Georgiana's cell. Burning her would be too easy. And she was supposed to make the vampire kill her. Killing her herself was too risky, but--

But she /really/ wanted to hurt her.

She bit down hard on her lip and reached for the princess' bound hands, digging her perfect fingernails tight into her wrist.

"You have /no idea/ what you're talking about! No idea!"

 

[jones573]

Crane would have hated Gigi's decision to try and bait Petra. But at least he would have known that was what she was trying to do.

She and Alyx didn't have that history, and Gigi felt a momentary regret that she didn't have any way to communicate her intention to the vampire. But Petra was in her cell now, so she didn't really have time to get distracted.

"Keep telling yourself that," she told the Captain with a smirk. "But you're in love," she said, drawing out the last syllable into two. Petra's sharp nails dug into Gigi's skin, but the princess didn't flinch away. Instead she grabbed back, so that they were both holding each other's wrist. "And he doesn't love you back," she spat, and yanked Petra towards her at the same moment she drove her knee up towards the Captain's stomach.

Over Petra's shoulder, she was relieved to see Alyx had entered the cell- Two against one was preferable, especially considering that Gigi had no magic she could use in this fight.

 

[Reynarda]

"Did I?" Astrid asked with a smirk. "Or was I just being nice? I can't very well insult my nephew, now can I? I might be biased, anyway. Like how every new mom thinks their kid is the cutest, but the real truth is that all babies look the same."

She probably could have continued in this vein for at least another minute, but Leo rescued her by borrowing Cyn's notebook.

"Yes," Astrid said, drawing the word out. She squinted at the writing. "Is that... what language is that? Does Cyn write in code?"

The writing wasn't telling her much, so she flicked her eyes to the pictures and schematics. "Ok, some of this looks familiar. I know what some of this stuff does--or, have a general idea like that it keeps the ship up or whatever. Dang, that's intense. That's a lot of effort to keep the ship in the air. Does it take a lot of upkeep like the wards? How did they solve problems with their ships? We cheated and looked at griffins and dragons and stuff."



Well, this wasn't good. Life was so much less confusing even yesterday, when she wasn't on the same side as Georgiana. Alyx would have preferred to agree with Petra that Georgiana was, indeed, a brat. But that was also a bit of the pot and the kettle considering this was Petra, after all.

The second Petra turned bright red, Alyx knew they were in trouble. This woman was a human bomb. Setting her off would result in an inferno. What the bloody silver was Georgiana thinking? Granted, Georgiana probably had never witnessed Petra's habits on the battlefield, but couldn't she read the room?

Alyx shifted from foot to foot, uncertain what her play should be. She hadn't ever really seen Georgiana fight. She had threatened them in the Nighthawk, but that had been mostly Crane and Rose doing the actual fighting. She had been otherwise occupied when the princess had taken on Maksim's fledgling. She didn't know much other than Petra was practically glowing with heat and Georgiana wasn't a mage.

Petra grabbed Georgiana and Georgiana grabbed her back, and Alyx hissed in frustration. With the captain otherwise occupied, Alyx borrowed the energy wafting off her in the form of heat. It was one of her least favorite forms of energy, but it was far more malleable than something like kinetic energy. And she really was borrowing it since she couldn't retain it in heat form without the reservoir that was her scarf. She returned it in the form of an electric shock into Petra's side. It hurt because borrowed magic from another mage who wasn't giving it on purpose was difficult to transform into her magic. She was really only able to "borrow" it thanks to Georgiana's distraction. Alyx doubted that nasty little trick would work more than once. She hoped that someone was running there at that very moment.

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Leo snorted, but he was at least grinning. Having something to focus on was good, and while he wasn't exactly a technical genius, it was nice to feel like an authority for once.

"He might as well," Leo said with a snort. "He tried explaining his graduation project to me, once. Designing a small scale stealth vessel with a solar battery at the core as opposed to a large scale steam engine. I understood maybe, like, a quarter of what he was talking about. But he loves to explain that stuff, so he'll probably talk your ear off if you let him, once he's not busy."

He eyed the schemantics on the page and hummed.

"Well, original airship design was based on birds, I think. Although if I recall correctly, Eldergaard designed large scale airships before Allaria did. It makes sense, because they're your primary form of travel, and the landscape of Eldergaard makes them necessary. But back in Allaria, we actually developed rail travel first. The steam engines that power large scale airships were originally made for trains. The railway system mostly spans the major cities, and took a long time to lay down, but a lot of people still prefer it over air travel."

He realized he was getting off topic, and cleared his throat.

"There is a lot of upkeep involved. I don't really know all the specifics of it, but the engine itself needs regular maintenance. There's a lot of calculations involved, taking into account how much the ship weighs and how much fuel is needed precisely to keep that in the air. Overworking the engines is bad, too. But, well, Allaria has had a golden generation over the past ten years or so when it comes to engineering. There have been a ton of super brilliant genius types that have really pushed innovation. Kind of like those one in a million prodigies, but a bunch of them at once. Cyn doesn't like to admit it, but he's part of that too. He graduated university around two years earlier than expected, and has had a hand in a lot of major tech for the Bicksley family."

His expression soured then, and he flipped to another page of the notebook, with a diagram of the solar battery and some scribbled notes on possible improvments in performance.

"'Course, that's all because the Bicksley family is super loaded and has the money and position to fund him. As smart as he is, he's not from a noble family, and his marriage isn't really well known. Some folks were super angry when he was accepted into university without taking the Bicksley name, but the truth is he wouldn't have even gotten in if that devious bastard husband of his hadn't bribed the faculty. As it is, he doesn't even put his name on his own work, really."

He sounded bitter and annoyed, but he seemed to realize that he had gotten distracted from his main purpose, and quickly pointed to part of the display.

"That there's a solar battery. It usually powers small scale things. I think Rose's arm has one in it? The panels absorb light from the sun and then convert it into electricity. I don't really know how it works beyond that, but the battery itself then is used to power the electronic. So, the prosthesis, for example, gets information from the brain, but can't move without power. The battery is what makes it move according to the information provided by the neurological inputs, or something. Claude was still working on this sort of thing before I left. I don't know when he managed to make a working prototype."


Petra had made a mistake. She had gotten angry and allowed herself to be manipulated, and she yelped as Georgiana pulled her forward. The knee in her stomach hurt a lot, and she wretched just as Alyx zapped her. Terrible. Terrible terrible terrible, she had gone right along with their stupid taunting. She growled and concentrated heat in her hands, her palms scorching as though they were on fire themselves around Georgiana's wrists. The air was hot and sparking, the paint peeling from the wall. It felt like a dry sauna only ten times hotter, and she was only getting angrier and angrier.

"How /dare/ you!" She snapped as she yanked Georgiana close and, bashed their heads together. Gigi had probably thought that a one on one physical battle was a good idea, but she had assumed that Petra was only a mage.

She was a mage, of course, first and foremost. When people spoke about how she required the height of strength in her squad, they usually assumed she meant magic. But it was a little more than that. She paid for the highest tailoring of her uniform, designed to make her look as slim as possible, because she didn't actually advertise her hobbies outside of her own ship (unless she found somebody she thought would make a good opponent). Even with the tailoring, though, her uniform always pulled around her chest and arms.

She did specialize in grappling after all, so it only made sense.

She grit her teeth and glared at Georgiana as she pulled back, far stronger than she looked as she swung her around and tried to pin her against the wall.

"You think you're stronger than me, Princess?" She snarled, a look of smug satisfaction on her face. "There's only one person who has matched me in wrestling in the Eldergaardian army, and that's Lanea. I'm going to tear you apart."

 

[jones573]

Gigi's victory at getting a hit in was small. And very short lived.

She would have stumbled back with the force Petra used when bashing their heads together, if the older woman hadn't had an iron tight (and iron hot) grip on her. Blood burst forth from her nose when her face met the wall, but she was too distracted by the unbearable heat of the wall to even notice, trying to wrench herself- or at least her skin- from it.

This had maybe been.... Not a good plan. She hooked her ankle back and tried to yank Petra's own leg out from under her, but the woman's stance was solid against Gigi's meager leverage.

"Wow," she said, as cooly as she could with blood muddying her words. "No wonder Lanea isn't interested in you- I bet this Rosie lady actually acts lady like, not like some brute," she sneered through pained breaths.




Fredrick hadn't been given any explicit orders to check up on the prisoners. But he hadn't been given any explicit orders not to check up on them, either. And someone ought to keep an eye on them, right? Eldergaardians seemed to trust their magic to do any guarding -which was stupid, he thought- but these particular prisoners had already escaped once, so perhaps an additional level of security might be warranted. And if they didn't make it back to the capitol, then the Admiral didn't get the reward for the capture and he would be unhappy, which would make Maskim unhappy, which would make his own life miserable.... It sounded justifiable enough, he thought.

And if he was bringing them more water to make up for what he had spilled earlier, well- Perhaps Commander Lanea wanted them well hydrated so they could piss themselves in fear tomorrow morning?

But as he made his way down the hall towards the cell, he heard noises- And then he smelled it.

Blood.

Gigi's blood.

He broke into a run.

"Get off the prisoner," he roared from beneath his helm as he neared the cell. He didn't even put the pitcher down as he yanked the cell door nearly off its hinges. Why was it unlocked?

It was blistering hot, and without thinking, he threw the pitcher of water on the source of the heat- The Princess's attacker. Tossing it aside, he reached for arm that was holding Gigi up against the wall, wrenching it backwards and trying to get the other wrist in his grasp as well.

"What is the meaning of this," he barked, twisting the figure around. Even with his face obscured, the way his head bobbed back made it clear he was surprised to see Captain Mothgrove, and not some under crew member who thought they might try to have a little fun or revenge.

 

[Reynarda]

Astrid raised her eyebrows. So the Nighthawk was Cyn's graduation project? Dang, her graduation had not been that intense. She had just had to pass a war simulation. It had been stressful, but she hadn't designed a stealth ship.

She nodded. She had heard of trains. There had been some rumblings about trying something similar, but there was just too much wild magic and magical beasts to make that feasible. The only people who traveled by land were vampires, and that's because they could deal with whatever the land threw at them. Still, Astrid would have liked to ride on a train.

Astrid raised her eyebrows at mention of the "golden generation". She wished her people had had something like that. But while there were plenty of powerful magi in her generation, she wouldn't call it a boom of magi. It was just average. Many of them trained to be in the military and were good at what they did, but she didn't really thing they had had many advances--well, other than with what the young vampire generation had brought to the table. That perhaps had advanced them.

"Two years earlier? I knew he was smart but damn." Astrid glanced up to catch a glimpse of Cyn as he catalogued everythign that would need to be done. "Wait, what? Why did Bicksley have to bribe the faculty? Clearly Cyn is a genius. Wouldn't they be eager to teach him?"

Astrid eyed the battery. "So... kinda like plants? No, wait. They make it into food, not electricity. Oh! Alyx does that. She can change energy from one form to another--don't ask her to explain it, because she will." Astrid grinned. "Remind me to point out that she is basically just one of Cyn's solar batteries when we see her next, okay? That'll set her off on a tirade about the importance of her clan's magic."

She tilted her head, thinking. "Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, the body has to use energy from food to fuel muscles, right? The brain doesn't provide that energy, so it makes sense a prosthesis would require energy. On our ward prostheses, it takes energy from the body to move, just like muscles."




Alyx didn't really know how she was supposed to deal with this new development. Petra had a tight grip on Georgiana and had decided a test of physical strength was in order. Alyx had strength granted to her by her very nature, but she honestly was not sure she would be able to hold her own against Petra even fully fed and rested. Clan Draya was not a physically strong clan, tending on the smaller and wiry side.

Which was why she needed to use her head to get them out of this.

Or, she would have, if Georgiana hadn't continued to taunt Petra. This was why Alyx should have taken the brunt of the attack. She could handle Petra's magic. She couldn't deal with her physical strength.

Alyx cursed. She didn't have a whole lot of energy left. She might have enough for one more jolt of pure energy. Maybe it would get Petra to at least let go, but then the fight would be totally up to Georgiana, and considering Georgiana was currently losing.

"There's no way you'll get away with this," Alyx hissed, frustrated that there wasn't a single useful thing she could do that wouldn't result in removing herself from the fight.

But then Maksim's fledgling--the one Alyx had decided he was secretly fond of--came running in and ripped the door open. Well, at least he didn't take after his sire. Maksim was stronger than her, but that wasn't exactly saying much.

Alyx got out of his way, which put her close to Georgiana. She joined int he attempt to get Petra off Georgiana.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Alyx hissed in lieu of asking if the princess were okay. But then she realized there was blood on her sleeve--it probably had come from Georgiana's bleeding face.

Silver.

Forcing herself not to hyperfocus on the blood, Alyx threw herself against Petra, growling and hoping the captain would give up her hold on her prey.

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Leo's expression turned sour, and he had to keep focus not to scrunch up the pages of the book he was holding.

"It's not quite the same in Allaria as it is in Eldergaard. Nobility, name and title are important. If you're not a noble, or at the very least from a wealthy family, it's extremely hard to get into university, or any other higher education. If you're a noble, you have opportunities and money and respect, but if you're not, you're expected to just do menial labour and serve your betters until you die, or something. It's stupid," he grumbled. It clearly was not something he liked, but there wasn't much he could have done to change it.

Especially not now that he was dead.

He couldn't help but laugh at the mention that Alyx was basically a battery, though it was a little forced. He had been trying not to think about her too much. It felt terrible, but thinking about her made him feel anxious and reminded him of the fact that, whether she meant to or not, he had been left behind. Right now he was trying to avoid all of his problems until he truly had to face them.

"Yeah, she is kind of like a battery," he said with a hum.

"Proestheses are not really my area of expertise, to be honest. I only really know how they work because Claude was always working on that sort of thing. Mobility aids, prostheses, ways to help people live easier lives. He was trying to make a solar powered wheelchair the last time I saw him." Talking about his old life was different, and a little difficult in some ways, but honestly it was easier than he thought it would be. It seemed that focusing on old wounds took the pain off of the fresher ones.



If there was one thing Georgiana was very, very good at, it was making Petra angry. She growled and looked ready to punch the princess, before she remembered the knife she had tossed aside earlier. Maybe it would be better to stab her and shut her up permanently. She glanced at it, discarded just outside the cell, but going for it would mean letting the princess go. And she was very happy with the position they were in now, her in control and ma,king the girl bleed.

She snarled, and then the door to the cell was wrenched open, and water was poured all over her. It surprised her, and she immediately spun around in horror. She let go of Georgiana, thinking Lanea had come into the room and saw her, before realizing that it was Maksim's fledgeling who now had a hold on her arm. Her shock and fear turned to anger and indignation, and she planted her feet as she tried to pull her arm back. It was difficult to fight in these shoes. She really should have taken them off earlier.

When Alyx downright tackled her, her lack of balance came back to bite her. One heel snapped and she fell back, hitting the ground hard. Her shoulder was wrenched, seeing as the fledgling was still holding her wrist, and she let out a cry of pain as it popped out of the socket. She growled, ready to rip Alyx to pieces and throw her through the hole between the cells, but then the door slammed open again.

Lanea stood in the doorway with a look of confusion on his face that quickly turned to surprise, and then horror.

"What the hell?!" He exclaimed, eyes wide as he saw Petra on the ground with an angry vampire on top of her and an angrier fledgling who seemed to have dislocated her shoulder. He had absolutely no idea what his captain was doing there, or what was going on, but he immediately stepped forward and pushed Frederick back. Not hard, because he didn't want to hurt him, but he needed to separate them.

"Lanea," Petra cried, tears rushing up to her eyes as Lanea pulled her away from the two vampires, her legs trembling as she clung to him tightly. "I was checking on the prisoners, just to check the security, and--!"

She sobbed, and Lanea looked down at her in shock as he drew her closer to his chest. He couldn't imagine Alyx just attacking a captain out of the blue, and he had an idea that there might have been something weird going on here, but...

But Petra was his captain, and he had always been the one to take care of her. He looked back to the others with a mix of anger and confusion on his face, not quite trusting them not to attack her again.

"Hang on, everybody here needs to calm down," he said levelly. "What the hell happened?"

 

[jones573]

Gigi had never been more relieved to see a hulking brute of a vampire appear in her vision.

She twisted away from Petra and scrambled to the far corner of the cell, grateful that Alyx got between her and the Captain. With the fledgling, that was two people between her and crazy lady.

"I wasn't really," she admitted to Alyx, trying to wipe away some of the blood running into her eyes.

"I think she's down, you can let her go-," she told the fledgling- She was grateful that Petra was incapacitated, but she didn't really want to hear the sound of a second shoulder leaving it's socket.

And then Lanea was there. Which was great- Except she was supposed to be scared of him. Even if Petra seemed to know the plan, there was still the fledgling to consider.

"Stay away," she squawked at Lanea. "Hasn't your lackey hurt me enough for the night?," she spat.

"I just got here-," Fredrick said.

"She said it was best if I just died-," Gigi started.

"Mothgrove had the Princess up against the wall-"

"I was only trying to defend myself-"

"I smelled blood and burnt flesh, and I got orders to keep them secure, sir-"

Gigi raised one hand to her face, and found the skin that had been pressed up against the wall was brittle with burns.

"Didn't mean to hurt the Captain, sir, but I didn't know it was her and I can't think why she would have attacked the prisoners-"

The fledgling sounded confused and upset- How difficult it must be to a junior member of an army when your superiors constantly contradicted each other with their words and their actions, Gigi supposed.

"Something about how it would be easier if I was dead," Gigi said, looking directly at Petra. "...But I can't imagine her logic."

Gigi was willing to keep what she'd learned about Petra's affections to herself. For now.

 

[Reynarda]

"That's... stupid," Astrid said, because she couldn't really think of what else to say.

She knew she had gotten into the academy far more easily than, say, a kid from a small town with parents who weren't magi, but they weren't going to prohibit that kid from the small town from getting in altogether. They needed good magi. If nothing else, a person could join the military--the military took everyone--and then climb the ranks. It wasn't a perfect system, she knew--obviously vampires were being exploited and people not in the military often got treated like they were hiding from protecting their country, but damn. They really wouldn't have let in a genius like Cyn just because he wasn't noble?

Astrid sighed at Leo's forced laugh. Talking about Alyx like she was just in the next room helped Astrid, but it obviously wasn't helping Leo. She made a mental note of that. It might help him just not think about it if she didn't bring it up. Astrid sighed, hoping that Alyx was up to the task of earning back Leo's trust.

Astrid chuckled. "Y'know, for someone who doesn't know much, you seem to know a lot. Somehow, I doubt most other people know this sort of thing." She tilted her head. "You ever ridden on a train? I've always wanted to see what they were like, but obviously that's not possible now. Maybe we can get Georgiana to agree to let us since we're going to save her butt."

Astrid knew that was probably out of the question, but she liked the thought of making silly demands of the princess. They had a long road ahead of them, and she didn't really want to focus on all that just yet.




Alyx hissed in triumph as she and the captain went tumbling to the ground. She had honestly not expected that to work. But it was much easier to focus on the problem captain than the bleeding princess. She and the fledgling Maksim refused to give her the name of might actually be able to keep Petra away from Georgiana. That was good, so she focused on that.

All was well until she heard Linea's voice. Alyx wasn't really sure if she had wanted him to show up, to be honest. This was probably about to be hard for him. But she released her hold on Petra as the woman began crying.

Was she serious?

Alyx stared at her for a minute from her crouched position. "Really? Is that the best you've got? Checking the security? This isn't even your ship, stupid."

Alyx frowned. She had opened her mouth and something Astrid would have said had come out. She was tired and hungry and Georgiana was bleeding. She gathered her two working brain cells and listened to the other two try to tell the story. She felt bad for Maksim's fledgling. He must have been very surprised to learn that the person he had grabbed was a captain. Georgiana was leaving out the part about Rose, and Alyx figured it might be best to talk to Linea in private. She opened her mouth to confirm what the others had said, but someone cut her off.

"What in the blazes are you doing?" Maksim grumbled from the doorway, his tone groggy and annoyed. "I was getting some beauty sleep when someone set the alarms off. Alyxi, I swear, I will personally--wait."

He stared at Petra, realizing she was also there. "Captain Mothgrove? Why are you in the brig? Why is the prisoner bleeding?"

He wanted more than anything to make sure his stupid fiancee was okay, but he couldn't very well do that in front of Mothgrove.

"I am trying to explain, but you are, as usual, interrupting me, Grivvin," Alyx retorted.

"Speak, woman. I can't ever get you to shut-up so why are you being coy, now?"

Alyx wanted to drop kick Maksim into the sun sometimes. "Mothgrove came in here upset about something and then she burned a hole in my cell and attacked the princess. I assume that's why you were awakened from your nap."

Maksim gave her a look, having no doubt she had set off the alarms. He could also see that the smell of the princess' blood was problematic and so shifted his stance just a bit. He doubted Alyx would do anything, but it was best to be prepared. Then he swung his gaze on Petra. Truth be told, the woman terrified him, but this was his ship and therefore the admiral would back him up. Ha, who was he kidding. He would get yelled at about this later.

He squinted at everyone. Alyx was telling the truth--she wasn't bothering to hide anything. The princess was lying about something, but the basics seemed to be there. And poor Fredrick. He did feel a little bad for his frustrated fledgling. Linea had no idea what was going on. But Petra--damn it--was impossible to read. It was like holding a bunch of puzzle pieces from different puzzles with no idea what the picture was supposed to be--except that some of the puzzle pieces were actually cleverly-disguised rocks. Honestly, it was giving him a headache.

Maksim scowled, his entire body tensing. "Is this true, Captain?"

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Leo hummed. He did know a lot, he supposed.

"Well, I guess," he said with a shrug. "I'm not an expert in any of it, though. Being surrounded by guys like Cyn and Claude who dedicate their whole lives to this stuff, and talk the ear off of anyone who'd listen'd give anyone the gist of the basics."

He stretched out, then thought about trains.

"Yeah, I've been on one. I've been in an automobile too. It's kind of cool. When you're on an airship above the clouds, you don't really get to see much of the scenery, but when you're on the ground zooming past everything, it has a different sort of feeling." He glanced at Astrid and then grinned. "You would probably hate it. Or rather, it's always a bit rough going on one the first time. You're used to airships, but land travel is a bit different. Trains aren't too bad, but automobiles are super bumpy. I threw up the first time I rode in one."

His father had /not/ been pleased. The maid had taken him aside at the house and cleaned him up, her eyes narrowed as she warned him not to show weakness like that in front of the Vesper head. At eight years old, the experience was quite intimidating.

"If we ever got the chance--" he broke off, frowning. He stared down at his feet, because the truth was that they never /would/ have the chance. It was an impossible order, and fantasizing about it wasn't going to help anything. And yet...

"The railway that goes past the Northern residence is pretty nice," he said finally. "My brother lives there with his wife. It's surrounded by farmland, usually. I actually think it's a few miles away from the edge of the occupation, right now. Don't have any idea what it currently looks like, but there were always sunflowers in the summer, and you could see the fields from the train. Once this war is over with an everything we should just hijack it. Go on a ride."



Petra clung to Lanea, and he looked at her shoulder with concern. Injuring a captain was a big deal. Frederick could get into trouble for this.

"You're lucky you're just getting away with that," he snapped at Georgiana, although really the burns on her face looked terrible. Her and Frederick were struggling to put together a story, and Petra sobbed as she buried her face in Lanea's shoulder.

"She escaped before! And Commander Draya was there that time, as well!" Petra said, her voice all wibbly. "You're in charge of them, Lanea, and if she got away again, then the Admiral would blame it on you."

Lanea hesitated, and she turned her eyes up at him.

"After all, the princess is so important... If the admiral found out that she got away under your care, he might go after your mother!"

Lanea froze, and his back straightened up. He hadn't considered that. It was extremely difficult to get to Clan Grigori's ancestral home. Usually you needed a guide to even get there, but... He didn't bite his lip, but he desperately wanted to.

"You think I did that?" Petra asked, looking to the hole between the cells. "The last time she was here, she had a fire device. She blew a hole into the side of the ship. She was trying to convene with Draya, and they were planning an escape. I was trying to stop them, when the princess went after me. I used force to subdue her, of course, and Draya went after me in turn. Your fledgling dislocated my arm... I suppose if he thought he was doing the right thing, I can be merciful, but clearly the admiral needs to hear about this latest escape plan."

Lanea blinked, his eyes wide. What was Petra even talking about. There was no way that Georgiana and Alyx would try to get out, or do anything similar. He was supposed to be visiting them tonight to discuss their real plans, so why would they jeopardize that? She was lying, and he didn't know why. He knew that she had a difficult time sometimes when it came to empathizing with others, but he couldn't imagine that she would just attack without any reason. She wasn't a bad person, she just struggled a lot because of how she was brought up. His fingers tightened around her.

"You wrenched her shoulder," he growled, and his hostility was an act for the most part, but he was upset that she'd gotten hurt. "She needs to be seen by the doctor."

 

[jones573]

"I was pretty thoroughly searched this time," Georgiana spat back, regarding her 'fire device' and the fact that this time, she had no such inventions tucked anywhere. She'd been roughly patted down by two other members of the crew, and it had taken long enough that even Maskim's oversized fledgling had seemed tense, no doubt anxious to get her out of the open and into a secure cell.

She wiped the blood running down her face, and remembered as the fledgling stiffened that she was in a small space with several vampires.

"Would you stop your bleeding," the large man snapped angrily, reaching into his jacket and throwing a handkerchief at her. It was a really just a scrape of spare cloth, but the idea of vampires carrying around hankies was amusing nonetheless. Until she remembered their messy eating habits.

Georgiana pressed the fabric to her injury, trying to blot down the blood as much as possible as she thought quickly. He might be Maskim's fledgling, but that didn't mean he could be trusted- And the less people who knew about the plan, the better.

And there was Mothgrove to consider, as well. She already knew the plan, but Gigi didn't want to confirm it for her. Lanea seemed to have some sort of genuine affection for her, and it would be best if she didn't have to die. Or at least that when it was determined that she was too dangerous for them to leave alive (a foregone conclusion, in Gigi's opinion), Gigi didn't want to have been the one to have made it so by ruining their deniability.

But she also couldn't let Lanea leave without alerting him to the fact that Mothgrove was on to them, and taking her to the hospital- or anywhere where she'd be able to share her suspicions with others- was not in his best interest.

"I'm sorry, Captains, my deepest apologies, I will take her to the infirmary immediately, please let me try to make up for my folly," the fledgling said eagerly, and Georgiana scoffed.

"Have them check her head, too- She's delusional," Gigi said, slumping against the wall. "Seemed to think the Captain here," she said with a wave at Lanea. "Was planning to jump ship. And she could prevent it if she killed me, and then some.... Rosie person, too for good measure," she finished, hoping that would grab Lanea's attention.

She couldn't exactly looked pointedly at him to make sure he got the message, but she tried to think 'she knows-she knows-she knows' as loudly as she could in Maskim's general direction. Not for the first time, she wished she had a better understanding of how the hell vampires worked.

 

[Reynarda]

Astrid smiled at the scene that Leo painted. It did sound really nice. One of her old teachers had described trains as loud, noxious things, but Astrid preferred to make her own judgement. She sighed. "That sounds perfect. We'll bring Cyn. He can tell us how it works to keep us entertained."

She shot Leo a grin, guessing that listening to his friend explain the intricacies of a train's function was not on his list of entertaining things.

"Speaking of Cyn, should we make him sleep? It's getting late." Not that she felt like she could sleep. She was feeling restless. Astrid thought she might attempt to plan or something--anything. Anything other than lay awake and wonder if her best friend in the whole country was alive.



Alyx's eyes narrowed when Petra mentioned Linea's mother and a hiss escaped between her teeth. That was a threat--she didn't care two figs for Linea's mother. Petra was manipulating him. And Linea's mother was a nice lady. That was uncalled for.

But then Georgiana was wiping at her face and that made the smell very strong and--

Maksim grabbed her wrist and pulled her from the cell. She called him a prick automatically, but she knew why he'd done it. He pushed her up against the cell bars and rested his forearm over her neck. She was far too tired to do anything, but appearances and all that. So she hissed at him, and he rolled his eyes.

"She was thoroughly searched," Maksim confirmed with a frown. He wasn't making the same mistake twice.

When Petra insisted the admiral know, Maksim stiffened. "They didn't escape, thanks to your intervention," he said dryly. He'd given up on trying to talk sense. What was the word of a condemned vampire commander and an enemy princess against the admiral's favorite captain, anyway?

"There's no need to trouble the admiral. I;ll just have watches set." He glanced at Linea, remembering the princess was technically his prisoner. "If that suits you, of course."

He flicked his eyes to his overly apologetic fledgling. Oh, so he actually cared if the commanding officer was a scary crazy lady, but when it was his own sire, he was fine with ignoring the consequences of his actions. Maksim saw how it was. No love for the sire. "He was only doing his duty and misread the situation, Captain Mothgrove," Maksim said, shooting Fredrick a look. "I'll see that he is thoroughly punished."

Alyx was giving him a look, but she really should know him better. His form of punishment was making Fredrick sit quietly while he fussed at him.

Alyx's eyes flicked to Georgiana when she mentioned Petra knowing about Linea's plan. Damn. They were screwed. But he couldn't let on, of course. Maksim snorted. "The Torturer? Jump ship? Captain, we should get you to med bay. You may have suffered a concussion. And anyway, if there was some woman in Grigori's life, I think I would have been able to tell. I'm very good at sniffing out people's lovers, you know."

Alyx squinted at Maksim. His tone had turned to the cocky knowing tone that irritated her to no end and the way he glanced at Linea was the way he looked at people whose secrets he knew. Did... Maksim know Linea and Rose were friends? But the way he had glanced at Linea suggested he knew the other commander's lover, and that was silly. Linea didn't have a lover. Unless he did? But Linea hadn't really struck Alyx as being the sort of person who liked women. Hm. What did she know. Maybe he did have some secret vampire girlfriend she didn't know about.

Maksim let out a long sigh--partly because this day had been a nightmare and partly because he was being bombarded by Georgiana's mental chant. That was not good. If Linea were not so damn fond of Petra, he might attempt to off her right here and now and dump her body overboard. But Linea was there, and it would be a better idea to have Alyx try to off her, away, and Alyx was practically falling asleep where she stood. "Yes, she does need to be escorted. Grigori, if you have other tasks, my fledgling can escort her and then report back to me for his punishment."

Actually, Maksim thought he might make Fredrick sit in here on "watch" so Georgiana could ask him questions. That sounded like a good punishment.

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Leo rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure he would be delighted to explain all the functions of a steam engine to you, train ride or not," he said dryly. "I think the only thing keeping him from doing so back on the bridge when we first met was the threat of impending death."

He remembered the way that Cyn had scrunched up his face when Astrid had mentioned knowing how the Allarian ships worked, and knew that even when they were still enemies, he had probably wanted to launch into a detailed lecture. He really wasn't cut out for the military. Eldergaard wouldn't even have to torture him to get detailed information about their tech.

That thought was depressing, and he shoved it aside. Nobody was going to be getting caught by the military. They would sort things out with Alyx, and then they would go from there. Everything would be fine from here out. They could deal with it.

He looked up at the sky, noting that the sun was going down. Cyn would no doubt work late into the night without stopping if he could, so getting him to stop was probably a good idea.

Rose chose that moment to come up from within the fortress, his button down shirt open and the hint of his tattoos peeking from the neckline of his tanktop underneath. He was pulling a glove onto his left hand with his teeth, and Leo rolled his eyes.

"Yes, Astrid, you are definitely right. We need to get these two to bed or they won't sleep until we have everyone rescued," he said dryly. Rose blinked and looked up at him, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses, but Leo just patted him on the shoulder and turned him around.

"We have a lot of work left to do on the ship," Rose argued, and Leo rolled his eyes.

"Yes, yes, you can wake up at four am like I'm sure you always do and do it tomorrow. For now, we need to get everyone back inside and talk about the finer details of this strategy."

Rose frowned, because he thought that he had given more than enough information as it was, but he didn't look like he had the energy to argue. Leo looked smug, and Rose flicked him in the forehead just for good measure before he turned to the ship.

"Fine, I'll get Cyn. We can meet in Cyn and I's room. We should probably find Crane too."

He was very curious about the details of how he survived his fall, and hammering out exactly what they were going to do from here on out. Leo nodded, because he also had a few things he wanted to make clear. But he also couldn't help himself, so he cupped his hands over his mouth once Rose was suitably far away and called after him.

"Yeah! You can tell us all about your mystery boyfriend/girlfriend!"



Petra glared at Georgiana, because of /course/ she would go and put her in a hard spot. She shoudln't have expected this to be easy after all.

Lanea, however, grit his teeth, his thoughts going a mile a minute as he tried to figure out who was right and who was wrong. He knew Georgiana had been searched, and he knew she didn't have any weapons on her. Petra was perfectly capable of melting those bars, but would she? Would she really do that? He was starting to feel doubt creep up in his stomach, and he didn't like it.

He wanted to insist that he take Petra to sick bay himself, but he felt his insides go cold when Georgiana mentioned Rose's name, and Petra clicked her tongue.

"That's ridiculous," he said flatly as he gently handed Petra off to Freddy. She was unhappy about being manhandled, but she seemed to realize she wasn't going anywhere without an escort, at least. "You should get your head checked out, captain, if you think I'd do something like that."

She looked displeased with his answer, and maybe he was being a bit too mean, but he was desperately trying to keep himself in control and not panic.

"Oh yes, I'm sure. You do seem to have nothing better to do than gossip," Petra said derisively, and Lanea huffed. He didn't have to feign the annoyance on his face when he looked at Maksim, though he did have to try very hard not to flush. The last thing he wanted was everybody /knowing/ who he was sleeping with.

He did have one idea for how to play this, but he didn't like it. He knew that Frederick would like it even less, and he tried his best to broadcast an apology for what he was about to say. He had no intention of going through with it, but he needed to trick Petra into thinking he was on her side.

"See her to the med bay, fledgling," he instructed gruffly. "I'll do a cavity search and make sure our little prisoner isn't hiding anything dangerous after all. Maybe a pat down was a little too lax."

He didn't leer, because he couldn't bring himself to do that, even in jest, and he felt disgusted with himself even bringing it up. But he did seem to do a good job of looking threatening, because Peta tilted her head back in a subtle, smug look of victory.

 

[jones573]

Her face hurt, more than surpassing the point of distraction, but Gigi listened to the conversation, trying to follow what the others were saying and figure out how she might use it to her advantage. She wasn't finding much she could do at this point, and she distantly hoped that that was because there actually was little for her to do, and not because she'd lost her focus so entirely.

How had this gotten so complicated so quickly?

She stiffened at Lanea's suggestion. "You're not getting any closer until this blood dries," she snapped, and then added with a note of hesitation and fear, "And- And Alyx observes." She hoped she'd struck the right notes of arrogant princess and fearful girl, trapped behind enemy lines. But she supposed even her most convincing performance might not be enough to assuage Mothgrove of her suspicions, seeing as she pretty much already knew the whole rusted plan.

How had she found out?

The big vampire bowed his head in acknowledgement of his orders. He'd seemed upset at what had transpired, but resigned- Not looking forward to his punishment, Gigi imagined, but he had no recourse to get out of it.

"Apologies, Captain," he said, though he had already said he was sorry for attacking her- Ah. This was not an apology for what he had done, but was about to do. He scooped Mothgrove up into his arms and cradled her against his chest so that her injured shoulder faced outwards, and nodded again to the commanders as he left.



Mothgrove weighed more than he would have expected, Freddy thought. She must be more muscular than her uniform let on. It was a stupid thought, but at least it wasn't about Gigi- Should he really be leaving her with the Commanders?

Lanea wouldn't actually hurt her, would he? Freddy had thought he could trust them, but maybe that was just his naivety.... And even if he had been able to trust them, now that Mothgrove seemed aware of the plan, everything might be up in the air again. Just because they'd been willing to take risks, didn't mean they'd be willing to take the consequences. Maybe they would try to pin this all on him, and send Gigi to her death and he'd never-

"I am very sorry for hurting you," he told Mothgrove again. If the whole plan was screwed, there was nothing he could do about it now. If it wasn't- Well. Maybe he could use this opportunity to make himself useful. Gigi would be outraged if he didn't try to take advantage of a situation like this.

"I would never have- If I'd known," he said. "I've always thought you were... Well. I always thought your crew was lucky to have you," he said. A roundabout way of saying 'thank you for not treating your vampires quite so awfully as Jorgenson does', but he knew she would understand what he was saying and he hoped she would appreciate the flattery. And the sentiment that he saw them as being on 'the same side', that he looked up to her and saw her as an ally.... Even if it wasn't entirely true.

The words were true, though, and he focused on that to rid the anxious feeling in his gut. Lying and compromising and flexible morals were things that seem to come easy to his family, but none of it had ever sat right with Freddy's idealism- But he supposed that Gigi's safety was a worthy goal, even if it made him feel dirty.

 

[Reynarda]

Astrid snickered at Leo's eye roll. "Unfortunate. We might have not gone down if Cyn had been a little more vocal."

Things might have turned out much differently. She wasn't sure if she wanted it, though. Alyx would still be with them, probably. But would they have learned all they knew now? Would she still be stupidly following orders?

"Strategy, yes," Astrid agreed, shaking herself from her thoughts.

She chuckled at Rose. She was understanding why Alyx had gone from wanting to turn the man inside-out to being mildly protective of him. He might be some super-dangerous spy-assassin or whatever the heck he was, but he had a weird sort of sweetness she couldn't help but find endearing.

"Yes, where is Crane?" she asked. "Still chewing Salazar out? I'd volunteer to go find him, but." She shrugged. Not that she didn't trust Leo's abilities to assert his protection, she just had the feeling that Salazar might be a little less worried about him than they were of Alyx's threat of a diva fit that would result in a war.

"Oh, yes! The special friend!" she agreed. She had entirely forgotten about Rose's special friend. She needed more information on this person.




Maksim was apparently delighted to be at the wrong end of Petra's derision. "My dear captain, a man has to have a hobby. Not all of us can accidentally kill Grigori's fledglings in our free time, you know. Besides, you seem to be the one preoccupied with Grigori's lover, not me."

He gave Lanea a big smile when the other commander shot him an annoyed glance, and Alyx rolled her eyes.

"Oooo, a cavity search," Maksim said gleefully. Good grief, Lanea was practically yelling an apology. How had he ever thought the other guy was anything other than a big softy?

He flicked his eyes back to Alyx and winked at her before trailing his fingers down her back. "Maybe we should check you."

Maksim did not touch his fiancée's butt partly because he would never, but mostly because she had shifted from her usual nebulous thoughts and was showing him in graphic detail exactly what she would do to him if his hand went past the small of her back. It apparently involved her force-feeding him his own insides. Yeesh, she was no fun. He did pull her close, though, and she pinched his side. Hard.

"Yes, I will be observing to make sure neither of you do anything untoward," Alyx agreed.

Maksim looked offended as if "untoward" were not his middle name. But there was also something he absolutely could not pass up, so he shifted gears slightly and said, "Yes, well, we all know how Lanea is with the ladies. Very untoward." At Alyx's confused frown, Maksim added, "Oh, I have seen the inside of that man's mind, and it is naked ladies for days."

But then his fledgling was picking up Mothgrove like a freaking bride and sweeping out with her. Once they were out of ear shot, Maksim rolled his eyes and turned back to Alyx. "What the hell?"

"What the hell, yourself," she retorted.

"How many times do I have to put you back in this cell?" Maksim ducked under Alyx's arm and helped her into the cell. "And I assume you're okay considering you couldn't keep your hands off me."

"I hate you so much."

Maksim grinned as he set her down. "I know."

"You and Lanea sure are chummy," Alyx observed. She knew that, unfortunately for Lanea, the teasing and gloating was how Maksim acted around people he was comfortable with. "Did you kiss and make up?"

"I would never be unfaithful," Maksim said emphatically. Turning serious, he glanced at Lanea. "I assume you can clean the princess up? And should we be concerned for this 'Rosie' that Mothgrove knows about?"