Name(s) Subject to Change

Captain Lucierin Kaela Featherblood had… well she had several vices, but she had one rather large one that would have caused tragedy long ago had she not set up some very simple rules for herself. One. Never bet the Kiss. Two. Most crewmembers are off-bets too. And Three. Know when to walk away from the table. One and Two were easy to follow. She liked the ship and most of her crew way too much. Number three… “All expenses paid…” she frowned, then crossed her arms, “Explain yourself.” The goblin winced, then winked at her, “Ah! Thought you’d be that shrewd. I mean, the room, the spa, the hot springs, food, though you’ve gotta pay for the drinking you do.” “And it’s a reputable resort?” Lucierin paused, then glanced behind her, “Rubes, get me the dirt… all of it.” It was a pretty sizable pile of loot in front of her, she had been on a winning streak tonight, and between her and her salespriestess/cannoneer, the cartel might just be broke. So it was fair to let the house try and get it’s money back. Rubiaura twirled her halo as a form of salute and slipped away, and Lucierin turned to the man she was playing the dice game with and leaned back in her chair, “Say I want in, how much would I be betting?” His eyes glanced over the pile of gold in front of her and she raised an eyebrow, “A minimum bet for such an extravagant…” “All of it, right? I lose the next roll, me and mine are kicked out until we go pilfer some poor sap’s trove?” “It’s a promotion! We just acquired this place and we need business there!” Rubes had come back by then and whispered to Luce, who blinked in surprise, “You sure?” The priestess crossed her heart, and the Captain shrugged, “Alright! All-inclusive romantic vacation coming right up,” she pushed the gold forward and picked up the dice.

There were tiny springs and gears laid carefully out in front of her as she lowered a magnifier on her goggles and set to work on the tiny details of the music box and main communicator of the device in front of her. This was to be something special, a present for when someone returned to the ship. Unlike the nightingales she made for others, she had chosen a little fox for the design on this one, something she figured V would appreciate after spending as much time with Kit as he would have on the mission Cero had given them. Lucierin paused for a moment, glancing at another part of her desk at the plans she had sketched out for the Dragonfox II. A large yawn interrupted whatever thought she was about to have, and she panicked. When was the last time she had taken the medicine that let her sleep without dreaming? Nothing to do but get the other sort of medicine, the one that would let her stay awake, and she got up, taking her goggles off and leaving them with the rest of the tools at her desk as she went across her cabin to her poisons and antidotes, falling on the way there from sheer exhaustion. Sleep was something she feared… for good reason. The Nightmare… sensing her alone and unguarded… struck quickly. Are these memories or are Kit and I still cursed? Did it matter? Once more she was a child, her hatchling self, once more she attacked Alandrine before Kit could be harmed…once more she failed. And then she was an elf-child, near identical to Kit and both were falling into darkness that twisted and warped on itself. They managed to grab each other’s hand, at least they would do this… whatever this was… together. The landing was soft, almost as if they had floated down to this planet. Demons were everywhere, and the two of them were alone. Alandrine had sent them through the nether to offer their souls to her masters, Kit’s body to be… Lucierin didn’t want to think on it as the two ran through one barricade, hiding and trying to find a way to survive, to get back. How many years had they spent in there? She never could tell, the Nightmare changed so quickly, throwing all of the memories at her at once, even when they had been in it, they didn’t keep track, and it seemed like they both were grown within fifteen minutes of their landfall. They never stopped fighting, they couldn’t afford to. If they paused for even a second… “CAPTAIN!” The dream changed, to a softer hue, to a forest instead of a wasteland, and Lucierin slowly came back to consciousness, her eyes fluttering awake, then glancing to see her Quartermaster looking at her with large concerned eyes. “Teerles…?”

The troll smiled in relief at her and she sat up, frowning as she noticed that her entire cabin was covered in her purple flames. Quietly, she called them back to herself, and slowly she stood.“I’m going to go and ask Xaval for some soup… do you need anything?” she frowned, then shook her head, “Thanks for getting me out of there…” The flames were hotter than usual, she wondered how close she came to burning the ship down, and she reached to her hair to pull another nearly black feather from herself, quietly going to add it to the bottle on her desk. “Teerles… It’s important that I don’t fall asleep on accident any longer. Can you ask Rubes if she made anymore of that stimulant? I’ll need all I can get.” She paused, then chewed the inside of her cheek, “And get a message out to General Cero Sunsoul and to Theravir. Tell them I need to speak with them… as soon as he can make time for me.” Did they even know that the Nightmare was still happening? Were she and Kit still cursed? Or were these really just memories?

And more importantly… was she making a huge mistake in trusting Cero…? Lucierin shook her head. She couldn’t ignore it, not anymore. Her flames were reacting to it. She nearly burnt down the cabin, and she knew that it was the fire-proofing that she and Serene had done to keep it from igniting or spreading past this area. What if Ellyri had been sleeping over? She was done with running and hiding. Done with taking medicine to either trick her into staying awake or knock her out with no chance of dreaming. Done with going back to the egg and avoiding nightmares that way. If she was still having them, then so was Kit. And they were only getting worse. No more. She couldn’t risk her ship or her crew.

a character gets a sick burn and doesn’t realize it immediately, at some point later there’s just “HEY WAIT A MINUTE”

the double take. this one’s an oldie but a goodie

the injured character makes the killing shot that saves everyone else in a dangerous situation

a character who isn’t speaking is doing something weird in the background, it’s subtle and never acknowledged it’s just there for those who notice it (pulling another character out of something they got stuck in, making a huge sandwich, etc)

the beleaguered assistant inches away from smacking their boss

“quick act natural”

in that vein, the leader character was just in a shouting match with someone and when they come back the rest of the team scrambles to look like they weren’t listening at the door

Multiple characters banding together to lie about something 

Characters being split up for questioning

Really stoic characters briefly becoming happy, freaking everyone out

- Character A is talking, saying something like “It’s not like anybody would ever be so stupid to do that, right”

It was soft, but gentle, and rather sad, and Leona wondered at who was playing this morning as she made her way around Sunspire’s docks, pausing in confusion at the Serpent’s Kiss and staring in confusion.

Well… it would make sense someone there played something, and she hopped aboard, waving at one of the guards that knew her as “Captain’s Friend.”

It sounded a little like an ocarina, which she knew Kit played at times, but never seriously, and she looked around the deck before tilting her head and climbing up the mast, following the song until she found the source… not an ocarina, but a pan flute.

She sat down next to Lucierin who shrugged at her, but kept playing for a moment more to finish the song before putting the pipes down.

“I didn’t know you played anything,” Leona said quietly.

“Normally I don’t. I build the birds to sing," Lucierin answered, "I come up here to think… which is hard when Ethi’s bunk is in the crow’s nest up there, but…”she shrugged again, “What are you doing up this early?”

“Morning calisthenics.”

The Captain rolled her eyes, almost regretting she asked.

Leona chewed the inside of her cheek, “Why do you hate the General so much?”

Lucierin started, not expecting a question such as this so early in the morning, her eyes widening as she shook her head, “I don’t,” she said quietly, “Not really. It’s just easy to say it, make people think I hate him. That way they won’t count on me.”

“But why?”

“I don’t want them to. I was lost for a long time kiddo," Lucierin frowned, "Your mother won’t tell you this, and it’s not in any notes, but the blood-phoenixes… we don’t get a lot of time to come to grips with who we are. That’s why the bonding," she shrugged, "Course in Luna’s case it backfired… why she’s not… exactly together," she shook her head, "I was looking for something to feel, and hate was the easiest one.”

“But you had Kit’s memories.” “I’m impressed, you did your homework.”

Leona shook her head, “I… just remember you mentioning it once or twice. You’re scared of rats like she is too. Remember the knife throwing lessons you gave me.”

“Hey, just cause you were blind doesn’t mean you can’t hear," she ruffled the girl’s hair, "Kit’s memories only gave me more reasons to hate. Really can’t figure how the hell she can forgive anyone so easily. And those monks at the Peak are not as jolly as everyone thinks Pandaren are, one was pretty damn vicious,” she snorted, “And I won’t talk about the orphanage or Azshara.”

“No, I can’t hate the General. Not when there’s a lot worse out there. I… just want to know why I was made sometimes, and then that gets me going into a downward spiral. I’m no hero, not by a long damn shot, I couldn’t even protect her, and… that was my job. Or I thought it was.”

Leona didn’t say anything, just hugged her knees and listened.

“Guess all I really am good for is leading the crew here," Lucierin looked down at her ship, "So if I can’t protect Kit, then I’ll protect them. I don’t mind taking care of the kids here, Teera and Rubes especially.”

“I think Teera’s older than you.”

“Everyone’s older than me," Lucierin snorted, "Unless you count the Nightmare, and I don’t want to.”

“How long were you and Kit there?”

It was a question no one ever really bothered to ask. They just assumed when finding out about Alandrine’s cursed realm that it was only a few years, at the most ten, that they had spent. Kit never talked about it.

Lucierin never did either, very few even guessed that she was in there too, all because she attacked Alandrine to attempt to stop the spell. She stood, looking down at Leona,“Long enough,”she said quietly, ruffling her hair.

“Come on, I’ll see if Xaval has breakfast ready.”

A damn good morning.

Lucierin (for once) didn’t have a hangover, and she snapped the goggles on her face as she danced around to her table of gadgets and then blinked at the note pinned there. “Luci. I need a full report on last night. -Vel.” She chuckled, picking it up and then sitting at the table, reaching to start building another songbird, debating on exactly how much to tell the nosy monk. “Captain!” the overly grumpy voice of Zelus came from the navigation room, “Time to get to work on finding us work!”

Zan lay in bed in a drug-dazed stupor, contemplating the photographs that Velerodra had shown him, and, more amusingly the conversation that came after between the two of them Ria Sunhammer. He let out a laugh before his loopy, drug-flooded mind returned to the thought at hand.

The truth is, Zan wasn’t terribly sure what the problem with the device, or devices, was. One problem seemed to be one or more of the devices was malfunctioning somehow. Zan would have to give it a good poke, of course he knew nothing of Nightfallen Telemancy. It probably wasn’t that different from Thalassian engineering, maybe. Then again Zan seemed to have a sort of talent for figuring out technology at a rapid pace, even foreign technology. He’d considered hijacking a Legion space ship when they had been bombarding Azeroth. 

He grabbed his notepad and scribbled a note that read, “Kem, get Telemancy book. -Z” he then set it down on the bedside table, he’d deal with it tomorrow.

Oh what he’d do with a space ship. Zan’s drugged mind drifted to a beautiful dream of stealing vials of water from various powerful sources around Azeroth, including the Sunwell, gathering those with good hearts, rich and poor, the weak, the powerless, those in need, those faithful to the Light, and traveling far far away and creating a new civilization on a new world in peace. Zan shook his head and focused on the problem at hand.

A second problem was unclear, was it that the devices were sending people to random locations unpredictably, or that the user simply didn’t know where they were going and had to guess? For the later problem, the obvious solution was to just stick a label on them. 

Of course, the request was to make them not too easy to discern. He would have to sleep on the problem. His focus faded away and his mind drifted in dozens of directions at a rapid pace, analyzing possibilities, recent events, things people said, problems needing to be solved, etc. 

First a fire at Zandrae’s, then the attack on Mira and eventual attack on Oliver and Serene when they came to help. And they all knew that she had done it, believed her declaration of going towards the Masters.

“Won’t be able to get close enough to kill him now,” she murmured, taking her communicator device off her ear and then crushing it in her hand, “Not so sure that I actually want to.”

She closed her eyes, “Now to find Vel, make sure that brat kept her end of the bargain." 

The dark phoenix that opened her eyes took to the sky, searching for a little bit of mist.

Just weeks ago, the Masters of Light didn’t seem that big of a threat, that much of a problem though Evos was wary, as he always had been. But that was before Varesh got converted, before people got hurt and before letters were even sent. 

Evos had heard of the fire at Zandrae’s home, he had expended energy to portal in to check on three specific people that seemed to have already been taken care of. He didn’t stick around long in the burning build before he portaled back to where Terry lived, too much energy but needed. 

Flames. 

Shudder. 

His thoughts drift to the letter, to the fact Vel may be injured. To what he heard over the communicators…to what he informed Judessa. He wasn’t sure what all else had happened through last night alone, having tuned it out after a bit on purpose. 

All he was doing was waiting for Kemnebi to come out of the shop, he didn’t expect to hear explosions and ticking bombs. The flames and heat and then suddenly being knocked out and unconscious on the ground. 

He just remembered an odd looking elf waking him up and checking to see if he was okay and he watched as several people he did not know, yet knew each other, battling the flames and smothering them. 

Trying to get the attention of one named Cero was difficult until he shoved a hastily scrawled on paper with Lucierin’s name upon it. It had been a good thing he had met her only a day prior and it was all that he could provide.