If she had to guess, Ivy thought Jötz might kill her, or lecture her later at the [i]very[/i] least. But had it been worth it to see the expression of muted bewilderment cross his face? Most definitely. 

And [i]would[/i] it be worth it to maybe shut up this rotting pirate king? 

Well. That was much harder to say. But that was also future-Ivy's problem. Right-now-Ivy hadn't blown up a missing barge just to be stopped by a pile of bolts, screws, bones, and fancy silks.

Besides, Jötz had been keeping up well enough so far. This would just be another in a long and frustrating line of fun challenges for both of them. 

Of course, as Ivy strode forward, the flush on her face quickly fading under a set jaw and green eyes cold and hard as ice, she was thinking about none of that. The only thought in her head was that this dead guy was [i]in her way[/i], and being extraordinarily rude to boot. 

"That's [i]enough[/i]."

Baffled Jaeger, growling monster dogs, evil undead pirate. In an instant, all shifted from 'threat' to 'mere annoyance', and then Ivy was pushing right past Jötz, pushing the pistol, [i]her[/i] pistol, aside, and glaring up the almost two feet into that putrid glow of green. 

"Listen here, you molding pile of twigs," she growled, jabbing one finger into an area she roughly assumed to be Ludd's sternum, for once not unnerved by the continued sloughing of decaying flesh from his body, "I don't care [i]who[/i] you were in life, you've [i]never[/i] been a Heterodyne. I could be a fly on the wall of the outhouse belonging to the lowliest Heterodyne servant, and my life, my [i]name[/i] would still be thrice the legend you could sum up in yours. And if you want to leave this dusty excuse for a library any more than another layer of silt, you'll show some respect. 

"For starters, [i]you[/i] don't make the deals. [i]I[/i] do. If you really think a handful of clanks -- " Ivy waved a hand in the general direction of Ludd's dogs; at once, Petris sprang from its most recent hiding space crouched beneath the nearest of the small pack, extending one spindly leg to wrap around the joint between shoulder and forearm. There was a whirring sound, and then the clatter of metal as the foreleg fell away. The hound began to tip forward, growling its displeasure as Petris scuttled away again, now tucking itself away into the crevice of a bookshelf where the hounds would be forced to hack away at their master's 'treasure' to reach their new prey. 

" -- and a gun [i]I[/i] made," Ivy went on, no small amount of smugness in her voice, "a gun with no rounds left are going to scare me into doing anything for you, your brain is more rotted than you think, old man. How long have you been gone, to believe anyone even knows who you are? You are a story to frighten children, at best, and even those children are the dull-witted sort in backwater towns. In the city, you'll be nothing, less than nothing, and that [i]only[/i] with the word of a Heterodyne at your back." Ivy smirked and turned away, very deliberately putting her back to the former pirate.

"Now. The matter of this body -- assuming I decide to help you at all -- Don't you think your dogs would have turned up anything down here? We'll have to go into the next town one way or another." There would be problems of their own sort there, of that she had no doubt. But that was a bridge to be crossed -- or burned -- when it came.