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Wingless: From the Cracked-Open Sky (Flying Whales and Magical Mecha Kiddies)

Actually, I think Rodey wants new blood.

Wingless: From the Cracked-Open Sky (Flying Whales and Magical Mecha Kiddies)

Knowing Rodey, "polite" is take everything you know and love and crush it under his foot.

Wingless: From the Cracked-Open Sky (Flying Whales and Magical Mecha Kiddies)

Apply post to face.

Wingless: From the Cracked-Open Sky (Flying Whales and Magical Mecha Kiddies)

Replying to make Rodey feel better.

Edged Horizon

Chad’s eye visibly twitched as he eyed the Lorchais butler. The vampire’s insult was not overt but his tone and look of disdain was obvious enough that it was a direct insult to his person. A drunkard? Mundane? He had only 50 milliliters of alcohol in the past three days, his glass included. For a man of connections, a captain and merchant, Chad always dressed the part. He wore clean, crisp clothes and he carried himself with a military straight posture. He always gave a firm handshake when introduced to another individual and did his best to accommodate a person to a reasonable extent. He was probably better composed and better dressed than Rilolia, even aboard this godforsaken airship, and he wore an unmistakable clasp that indicated he was a commissioned captain of Illiserev. A butler that could not judge his position or standing was not a very good one, but Chad decided to humor the man with introduction.

“Well then, Mr. Lenz Blanc, I am pleased to make your acquaintance and I would like to welcome aboard the airship Frelia Star. I am captain Chad Howard of the Illiserev frigate Laurentine Castle. If you have any pertinent questions, please address them to me or acting Captain Moko Windclaw.” Chad extended his hand to give the man a handshake. “Oh, I would like to mention Rilolia is not the only nobility aboard this vessel, so I must ask you to refrain from making crass generalizations about my acquaintances.” Chad didn’t give a damn about Lyra’s noble blood and nor did she, but he certainly wanted to kick the incompetent and arrogant butler down a notch.

--

Down in the mess hall, Lyra stopped her reading mid-turn. She had a felt an unfamiliar charge in the air. She initially thought it was Yazu casting some manner of spell, but the power of the charge was rather large, and she suddenly felt the presence of another entity aboard the airship. As it was with Yazu and Rilolia, any person that boards themselves onto a vessel in the middle of the ocean has some manner of purpose in mind that would warrant Lyra’s attention, especially when she had nothing particularly good to do. And with that in mind, Lyra found herself on deck after grabbing a warmer cloak along the way.

Draping the linen fabric around her neck, she scanned the deck for the presence she had felt below. She didn't have to look long to see where he was as she found Chad and the others engaged with him. The new arrival on deck was an older man that Lyra surmised to be a butler. He was not familiar to her nor was the manner of magic used in the style of the Mauritania family, so Lyra concluded that the butler must be related to Rilolia in some way. Nobody else aboard was wealthy or influential enough besides the two of them. She could see Chad was displeased to some degree with the butler, but he was displeased with a great many things as of late. It wasn’t of paramount importance, so she paid him no mind. Getting within earshot distance of the group huddled near the newcomer, she found that he was indeed related to Rilolia in some way. Now this was of paramount importance; if her family was getting involved, there would be an order of magnitude more information that Lyra could glean about Talze Utera and the vampires, or perhaps even gain some manner of favor. But for the meantime, perhaps she could get a competent butler like him to fix the holed walls preventing her from reading properly…

Edged Horizon

Chad took another sip of the golden drink. He focused intently on the horizon and on the distinct sweet taste of the alcoholic beverage, doing his best to ignore a certain individual above traipsing about the airship’s old wooden mast. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wished the mast would come down; then he would have one less problem to deal with.

The sounds of footsteps on the creaking wooden deck alerted Chad that somebody else had come on deck. Without turning around, he hazarded a guess that it was Lyra, but he was wrong. Turning around and leaning back onto the railing, he faced Rilolia, who seemed to be ill in some manner. He presumed it was airsickness. He offered her a mint in his pocket as he reciprocated her greeting, giving a shrug at her comment.

“I don’t think it takes a shrink to see how messed up Yazu is,” commented Chad. Rilolia’s question wasn’t particularly one for inducing calm, but he decided to humor her question. “I’m sure many people hold some sort of grudge against her. But she has no sense of economics or common sense. She appeared on my boat, broke my things, broke laws, and assumed I would accommodate her like a self-centered, spoiled brat. Worst of all, she had the gall to call me something along the lines of ‘a greedy imposter of a captain.’ There’s only so much a man’s dignity can take under fire from such insanity. Needless to say, we share a very intimate relationship.”

Another large sip of scotch went down his throat. Just thinking about Yazu made his blood boil, but his mildly pissed off state-of-mind soon changed to one of confusion as an ace of clubs fluttered onto deck, quickly transforming into a person-- A person that asked for one Rilolia Lorchais, who was standing next right next to him.

“Ah—Yes, I believe the person you are looking for is right in front of you.” Chad gestured towards Rilolia, standing beside him.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about this new development.

Edged Horizon

It was a bit unusual to be on a vessel and not be in charge, but for Chad, it was a bit liberating in a way. Without anything to have to look after and a vast blue sky and deep blue ocean beneath, the voyage was actually quite relaxing if he ignored Yazu’s antics aboard the ship.

Leaning on the side of a rusted bit of railing, the merchant captain sipped from a small glass of scotch. There were only a few clouds in the distance, breaking over the horizon where blue met blue. Puffs of uneven black steam rose over the jury-rigged airship. Moko no doubt was working the hired engineer to his limits in keeping the engine running. With the help of the obnoxiously loud man from the Harbor Company, Chad and Moko had put together a team to repair and crew the derelict ship in record time.

Surprisingly enough, the 150 meter long flying vessel was quite an accommodating ship, with a large mess hall, sightseeing module, and state rooms that in its heyday would have been quite luxurious. None of the fancy stately upholstery remained, but some decent furnishings were acquired that would tide them over for the trip. With the engine running to a respectable specification, it would be a less than a day until they reached Astopol… and hell. Chad wished the voyage would take a little bit longer.

As Chad sipped his beloved vintage scotch above deck, Lyra was in the mess hall, attempting to do what she did best. She was having a mighty hard time of reading, however, for several of the portholes in the room were missing their glass panes. The vortex of violent wind this created was unsuitable for reading, however comfortable the chairs and couches were in the room. Unfortunately for Lyra, there was no other place for her to be; anywhere aft of the mess hall, black soot and steam from the misfiring engines filled the rooms with smoke and cancer; the state rooms’ lighting had failed, so it was only really useful for sleep; and forward of the airship was even windier than this room with all the holes in the hull. For perhaps the first time in her life, Lyra was not a happy camper. Shielding her book from the wind with an awkwardly placed elbow, she turned a page with a frown. At least they would get to do something interesting enough soon enough...

Edged Horizon

Well fuck.

☄For Divine Entertainment☄

That really wasn’t much information to go by. Anybody could tell her that it was large and slow or fast and small; broad descriptions like that were useless. Charging in knowing nothing but generalities was tantamount to suicide. Did the reconnaissance teams have only that to say?

Lyna rolled Tobie forward on his wheels before plopping down on him with a small clank. The bot beeped in displeasure at being abused as a makeshift stool but otherwise did nothing else. She hadn’t initially wanted to speak up too much, but she and the others clearly needed a bit more to go on.

“So, how does this behemoth act? Does it pick a target and focus on it ‘til it’s dead, or is it easily distractible? There should be at least some information about how it attacks. I mean, I’m confident enough in defending myself, but I’d throw our success into doubt if we’re going in blind like this with all these vague statements.”

☄For Divine Entertainment☄

<_<