- Local time
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- Messages
- 146
- Age
- 36
- Pronouns
- he/him
The Broken Delight creaked as it rocked with the gentle waves, the sun was shining brightly with large fluffy white clouds lazily floating through the sky. Aedan Mercurius stood at the helm, confidence exuding from him as he steered his vessel while his crew worked on getting the loot they had just gotten below decks. The ship they had overtaken had been fairly small but Atropos Mickelson seemed overjoyed at the things they had found, she had a nose for the arcane and magical items. Considering how easily they had stolen the ship's goods it was likely they had caught a group of mages off guard. The more Aedan thought about it the more uneasy he got about the whole thing. They had escaped with minor injuries, Oliver Barker had been the most wounded out of the lot. Avery Rosario and Nora Wolf had gotten to work treating his injuries once they were on their way.
He glanced down and saw that Ragna Wartooth had settled in to watch the others do the heavy lifting. It was pretty normal for her to avoid any kind of hard work when the time came and he had grown tired of trying to get her to do more than she was willing to do. Considering they were on a fairly safe course Aedan locked the helm to keep them on course for now while he went down to further inspect their treasures.
"Anything of interest so far?" Aedan asked Atropos as he descended the stairs and looked at the crates of booty.
Her violet eyes set on him, a small glow to them, delight perhaps?
"I'd have to take a better look at things, but I did find this strange orb." She held up the sphere, it was heavy looking and made of metal. The thing was it was divided into rings that looked like they could be twisted around, each of the rings was broken down into sections with different markings on it. It was gold and onyx in color, something exuded from it that made Aedan want to twist the rings.
He hadn't even realized that he had been reaching for it before Atropos pulled it closer to herself. "Don't."
Aedan gave her a wide grin and held up his hands, "I wasn't going to do anything. What kind of fool do you take me for?"
Atropos looked at him flatly, "I don't think you want me to answer that."
"I'm wounded! Fatally even!" He laughed as he searched through some of the other crates. "Looks like there's more books in here for you. How have you not run out of room to store them?"
"I have my secrets." She said, "I'm going to hold onto this, I want to get a better look at it to understand what it is. I'm sure you tough men can handle the rest of this." Atropos gave them a wink, "Ragna, come help me organize my books."
The blond haired woman perked up at the idea of being alone with her and eagerly followed downstairs. Atropos knew how to motivate Ragna, usually in the form of her body. Brenhin Hawking and Wyatt Knight emerged from below decks, sweat dripping from their brows as they leaned against the remaining crates.
"You know, it wouldn't hurt you to crack down on the ladies more to get them to do some lifting." Wyatt said as he took a sip from his water pouch. "I mean at least Atropos and Nora are handy in taking the stuff, but maybe cracking the whip at Ragna wouldn't hurt."
"You know her, she'll only really listen to Nora or Atropos, besides she does something." Aedan said, "She chronicles our victories and polishes over our not so successful adventures."
"Besides, how else will you stay so rugged and handsome for all the women at the ports." Nora teased as she came up from below decks as well, she then picked up a smaller box.
"I can think of better, more fun ways to do that." Wyatt gave her a small wink, and laughed when she punched his arm.
"Please, I know you shave your palms." Nora snapped back as she went back below the decks with her prize.
"I know that you do Brenhin. OW!" Wyatt felt that solid punch from him, Brenhin never really partook in their shore leave activities. The first mate often thought that if Brenhin got laid he might be less of a sour puss, but the man never took that opportunity.
"How's Oliver holding up?" Aedan asked.
"Avery has him resting for right now, Avery's also hiding behind getting the extra food stored away and what he called a special dish ready for us." Brenhin answered, he then lifted another crate and moved it below deck.
With a little more work they got everything stowed away, Atropos was taking great delight in looking through everything. Her violet eyes were practically glowing with delight as she found something new that she liked.
Dinner had passed with little incident, Avery had managed to make a stew for them from the ingredients they had gotten from the ship they raided. The sun was beginning to set on the horizon, stars were beginning to sparkle in the encroaching darkness. The edge of the sky was red and that brought a smile to Aedan's face.
Red skies at night, sailors delight. Red skies at morning, sailors take warning.
Aedan remained at the helm, until Brenhin came up to relieve him. The captain returned to his cabin and opened his favorite bottle of rum, drinking deeply of it. They were going to have a smooth night of sailing, within a few days they'd be in port and should be able to sell some of the wares they had stolen. He removed his boots to start, then went about taking off his gear, hanging it on its usual hooks until he was down to just his pants. Aedan crawled into his bed, the gentle rocking of the ship always lulled him to sleep rather quickly.
Below decks Avery had settled in with a book by candlelight when a small brush of wind flickered the flame, something almost whispered to him as he looked up. It was barely audible and he couldn't quite make out what it was. He marked his place in his book and climbed out of bed. He was quiet as his bare feet padded along the wooden floor, following the whispering as it grew a little louder. It was then he realized he had found himself close to Atropos' quarters, he quietly approached and that's when he spotted the orb sitting on the desk that Atroopos would read at. Quietly he approached and picked it up, when he did the incessant whispering stopped.
Avery took the time to slip quietly out of the room and returned to his quarters. He climbed back into his hammock bed and looked at the strange sphere and all the strange markings on it. His fingers turned one of the rings, it released the sounds of chimes, small blue orbs released out of it. They floated for a bit before they disappeared completely, Avery smiled as he turned another ring. Another there was the small tinkle of chimes as it then released yellow orbs this time. As he turned each ring it brought different lights and more of that lovely sound that really gave him an immense amount of joy.
Upon the final turn the sphere zapped his hands, Avery dropped it and it rolled on the floor before sticking to the floorboards. Little arcs of lightning seemed to arc off of it, then there was the crack of lightning outside before the ship jerked, followed by another hard jerk. A storm!
Avery heard the bell ringing from the deck and that was when the crew leapt out of their beds and quickly went to work. They had to take down the sails to keep them from being damaged, when they came up the rain was pouring hard. Aedan came out of his cabin confused, "Brenhin! What happened? It was fine when I went to bed, we should've had a smooth night."
Brenhin gripped to the helm, "It appeared out of nowhere! I could see the stars and suddenly there were storm clouds, I don't know!"
The ship was tossed around the stormy sea as the crew scrambled to batten down the hatches, and that's when Aedan saw a bright crackling ball of lightning appear in the distance. "What is that!" It wasn't long before he realized the ship was being pulled towards it. "Hard to starboard Brenhin!"
"The helm is locked, Captain!" Brenhin, despite his strength, was struggling to turn the helm. Aedan grabbed a hold of the wheel to try and turn it, while it moved a little with their combined strength, it wasn't enough to deter them from their fate.
"Hang on!" It wasn't long before the ship was sucked into the crackling ball of lightning and everything went dark.
Aedan didn't know how long had passed before he woke up on the deck of his ship, his body and head aching. It was also inexplicably hot as the bright sun beat down on him, also it was really dry and he couldn't explain it. The ocean was a wet humid place when it was hot, he couldn't understand. It was then he realized how still the ship was, which was another indicator that something was wrong.
He climbed to his feet and rubbed at his eyes, adjusting to the glaring bright sunlight. He looked around and rather than seeing a vast ocean of blue, it was bright gold. It didn't take long for him to realize that they were smack in the middle of a desert. "Never in all my days…" Aedan grumbled to himself as he looked around. He took out his spyglass and tried to see if there was anything close, but it looked like there was nothing in any direction.
Aedan quietly cursed, confused what that sudden storm was, more importantly what was the reason they had ended up here in the first place. A groan grabbed his attention, in his confusion he hadn't noticed that Brenhin was close to him, collapsed on the deck.
The quiet man climbed to his feet, rubbing his eyes as he adjusted to the blinding light. "What happened?"
"Your guess is as good as mine. Our ship is in the middle of a desert." Aedan explained.
Brenhin rubbed his eyes as he looked around their surroundings.
It was then the both heard arguing below deck, the pair of them ran downstairs and saw the fight that was going on. Atropos looked like she was about to change into her dragon form, her teeth sharp and her eyes were glowing bright violet. She had Avery held against the wall by his throat, he was feebly trying to pull her hand off his throat to no avail.
"Drop him! What's going on?" Aedan commanded, the dragon looked at him then let Avery drop to the ground. The cook coughed as he fought to catch his breath.
"It's his fault!" She growled, her eyes narrowed dangerously, her temper flaring brightly.
"How? Avery doesn't know any magic at all, how would he get us into a desert?"
"Remember the item I told you not to mess with, he went into MY room and TOOK IT!" She growled, Avery winced at the accusation but made no effort to deny it.
Aedan gave him a disappointed look, "What do we do then?"
She pulled her rage in, considering their options. "I can work with Oliver and we can try and figure out the item and hopefully get us pulled back to water. I can't guarantee where we'll end up, but anywhere is likely better than here."
"Good, get Oliver and get to work, I'll deal with Avery." Aedan said firmly. With that the two magically inclined people went down to Atropos' quarters and started to dig through her books to figure out what they would be doing.
Aedan grabbed Avery by his collar and dragged him to the guest room and closed the door. "What were you thinking! I thought we were past you stealing things from crewmates, let alone Atropos of everyone. She would've killed you had I not stepped in."
Avery looked at his feet, "I… I couldn't stop myself. I felt compelled, it was like I was in a dream when I did it. After the storm I thought I had been dreaming until Atropos slammed me against the wall."
"What do you mean compelled?" Aedan tilted his head at the response, trying to figure out what he meant.
"I wasn't in control of my body when I took it, I wasn't in control when I turned the different rings. I couldn't stop myself. Please… You have to believe me… Aedan… Please…" Avery's eyes refused to look up at his captain, his shoulders shook with silent sobs.
That soft spot for his crew made it hard to punish them for things out of their control. "It is a magic item, it's possible it's true. Until Oliver and Atropos better understand the item we'll keep you locked in here so Atropos doesn't feel compelled to kill you again."
It became a waiting game as the two mages worked tirelessly to go through the books, attempting to understand the item that had fallen into their hands. Aedan would check in with them to see how it was going but the day went on with no answers. The crew did what they could to preserve their water, but that was becoming harder to do as the day turned into several days. They had moved their water stores downstairs to keep it cooler but even there it was evaporating.
It was a week into them being stranded and they finally had some answers. The item was a cursed object that was to send the user to a place where they didn't belong. It took a bit of finagling but the pair of them managed to suppress the curse for one use, long enough to get them back to the ocean and to chuck it to the bottom of the sea. The next problem came with deciphering the symbols on it in order to figure out the order that they would need to twist the orb to get them back to the ocean.
The week dragged on to two weeks, supplies were beginning to run low as the crew could do nothing but wait. Atropos finally announced victory over the object. She used it in the same spot of the ship, the crew anxiously watching her twist the rings. Each one tinkled brightly as orbs emerged from the sphere. The orb fell out of her hand and stuck to the floorboards of the deck like it had before. The crew watched as clouds emerged overhead, in front of them a dark orb appeared, crackling with lightning and that is when the ship lurched forward through the sand.
The crew held onto ropes on the deck and everything went black as they went through the portal.
They slowly awoke on the deck and cheered once they realized they were in water once more. There wasn't any land in sight but they could manage a few more days at sea while they figured out their bearings and got to the nearest port. The crew cheered on the deck, hugging one another, while Avery guiltily hung back. It had been his fault they had ended up there in the first place. He disappeared below deck as Atropos threw the object into the ocean, never to darken another doorway again.
He glanced down and saw that Ragna Wartooth had settled in to watch the others do the heavy lifting. It was pretty normal for her to avoid any kind of hard work when the time came and he had grown tired of trying to get her to do more than she was willing to do. Considering they were on a fairly safe course Aedan locked the helm to keep them on course for now while he went down to further inspect their treasures.
"Anything of interest so far?" Aedan asked Atropos as he descended the stairs and looked at the crates of booty.
Her violet eyes set on him, a small glow to them, delight perhaps?
"I'd have to take a better look at things, but I did find this strange orb." She held up the sphere, it was heavy looking and made of metal. The thing was it was divided into rings that looked like they could be twisted around, each of the rings was broken down into sections with different markings on it. It was gold and onyx in color, something exuded from it that made Aedan want to twist the rings.
He hadn't even realized that he had been reaching for it before Atropos pulled it closer to herself. "Don't."
Aedan gave her a wide grin and held up his hands, "I wasn't going to do anything. What kind of fool do you take me for?"
Atropos looked at him flatly, "I don't think you want me to answer that."
"I'm wounded! Fatally even!" He laughed as he searched through some of the other crates. "Looks like there's more books in here for you. How have you not run out of room to store them?"
"I have my secrets." She said, "I'm going to hold onto this, I want to get a better look at it to understand what it is. I'm sure you tough men can handle the rest of this." Atropos gave them a wink, "Ragna, come help me organize my books."
The blond haired woman perked up at the idea of being alone with her and eagerly followed downstairs. Atropos knew how to motivate Ragna, usually in the form of her body. Brenhin Hawking and Wyatt Knight emerged from below decks, sweat dripping from their brows as they leaned against the remaining crates.
"You know, it wouldn't hurt you to crack down on the ladies more to get them to do some lifting." Wyatt said as he took a sip from his water pouch. "I mean at least Atropos and Nora are handy in taking the stuff, but maybe cracking the whip at Ragna wouldn't hurt."
"You know her, she'll only really listen to Nora or Atropos, besides she does something." Aedan said, "She chronicles our victories and polishes over our not so successful adventures."
"Besides, how else will you stay so rugged and handsome for all the women at the ports." Nora teased as she came up from below decks as well, she then picked up a smaller box.
"I can think of better, more fun ways to do that." Wyatt gave her a small wink, and laughed when she punched his arm.
"Please, I know you shave your palms." Nora snapped back as she went back below the decks with her prize.
"I know that you do Brenhin. OW!" Wyatt felt that solid punch from him, Brenhin never really partook in their shore leave activities. The first mate often thought that if Brenhin got laid he might be less of a sour puss, but the man never took that opportunity.
"How's Oliver holding up?" Aedan asked.
"Avery has him resting for right now, Avery's also hiding behind getting the extra food stored away and what he called a special dish ready for us." Brenhin answered, he then lifted another crate and moved it below deck.
With a little more work they got everything stowed away, Atropos was taking great delight in looking through everything. Her violet eyes were practically glowing with delight as she found something new that she liked.
Dinner had passed with little incident, Avery had managed to make a stew for them from the ingredients they had gotten from the ship they raided. The sun was beginning to set on the horizon, stars were beginning to sparkle in the encroaching darkness. The edge of the sky was red and that brought a smile to Aedan's face.
Red skies at night, sailors delight. Red skies at morning, sailors take warning.
Aedan remained at the helm, until Brenhin came up to relieve him. The captain returned to his cabin and opened his favorite bottle of rum, drinking deeply of it. They were going to have a smooth night of sailing, within a few days they'd be in port and should be able to sell some of the wares they had stolen. He removed his boots to start, then went about taking off his gear, hanging it on its usual hooks until he was down to just his pants. Aedan crawled into his bed, the gentle rocking of the ship always lulled him to sleep rather quickly.
Below decks Avery had settled in with a book by candlelight when a small brush of wind flickered the flame, something almost whispered to him as he looked up. It was barely audible and he couldn't quite make out what it was. He marked his place in his book and climbed out of bed. He was quiet as his bare feet padded along the wooden floor, following the whispering as it grew a little louder. It was then he realized he had found himself close to Atropos' quarters, he quietly approached and that's when he spotted the orb sitting on the desk that Atroopos would read at. Quietly he approached and picked it up, when he did the incessant whispering stopped.
Avery took the time to slip quietly out of the room and returned to his quarters. He climbed back into his hammock bed and looked at the strange sphere and all the strange markings on it. His fingers turned one of the rings, it released the sounds of chimes, small blue orbs released out of it. They floated for a bit before they disappeared completely, Avery smiled as he turned another ring. Another there was the small tinkle of chimes as it then released yellow orbs this time. As he turned each ring it brought different lights and more of that lovely sound that really gave him an immense amount of joy.
Upon the final turn the sphere zapped his hands, Avery dropped it and it rolled on the floor before sticking to the floorboards. Little arcs of lightning seemed to arc off of it, then there was the crack of lightning outside before the ship jerked, followed by another hard jerk. A storm!
Avery heard the bell ringing from the deck and that was when the crew leapt out of their beds and quickly went to work. They had to take down the sails to keep them from being damaged, when they came up the rain was pouring hard. Aedan came out of his cabin confused, "Brenhin! What happened? It was fine when I went to bed, we should've had a smooth night."
Brenhin gripped to the helm, "It appeared out of nowhere! I could see the stars and suddenly there were storm clouds, I don't know!"
The ship was tossed around the stormy sea as the crew scrambled to batten down the hatches, and that's when Aedan saw a bright crackling ball of lightning appear in the distance. "What is that!" It wasn't long before he realized the ship was being pulled towards it. "Hard to starboard Brenhin!"
"The helm is locked, Captain!" Brenhin, despite his strength, was struggling to turn the helm. Aedan grabbed a hold of the wheel to try and turn it, while it moved a little with their combined strength, it wasn't enough to deter them from their fate.
"Hang on!" It wasn't long before the ship was sucked into the crackling ball of lightning and everything went dark.
Aedan didn't know how long had passed before he woke up on the deck of his ship, his body and head aching. It was also inexplicably hot as the bright sun beat down on him, also it was really dry and he couldn't explain it. The ocean was a wet humid place when it was hot, he couldn't understand. It was then he realized how still the ship was, which was another indicator that something was wrong.
He climbed to his feet and rubbed at his eyes, adjusting to the glaring bright sunlight. He looked around and rather than seeing a vast ocean of blue, it was bright gold. It didn't take long for him to realize that they were smack in the middle of a desert. "Never in all my days…" Aedan grumbled to himself as he looked around. He took out his spyglass and tried to see if there was anything close, but it looked like there was nothing in any direction.
Aedan quietly cursed, confused what that sudden storm was, more importantly what was the reason they had ended up here in the first place. A groan grabbed his attention, in his confusion he hadn't noticed that Brenhin was close to him, collapsed on the deck.
The quiet man climbed to his feet, rubbing his eyes as he adjusted to the blinding light. "What happened?"
"Your guess is as good as mine. Our ship is in the middle of a desert." Aedan explained.
Brenhin rubbed his eyes as he looked around their surroundings.
It was then the both heard arguing below deck, the pair of them ran downstairs and saw the fight that was going on. Atropos looked like she was about to change into her dragon form, her teeth sharp and her eyes were glowing bright violet. She had Avery held against the wall by his throat, he was feebly trying to pull her hand off his throat to no avail.
"Drop him! What's going on?" Aedan commanded, the dragon looked at him then let Avery drop to the ground. The cook coughed as he fought to catch his breath.
"It's his fault!" She growled, her eyes narrowed dangerously, her temper flaring brightly.
"How? Avery doesn't know any magic at all, how would he get us into a desert?"
"Remember the item I told you not to mess with, he went into MY room and TOOK IT!" She growled, Avery winced at the accusation but made no effort to deny it.
Aedan gave him a disappointed look, "What do we do then?"
She pulled her rage in, considering their options. "I can work with Oliver and we can try and figure out the item and hopefully get us pulled back to water. I can't guarantee where we'll end up, but anywhere is likely better than here."
"Good, get Oliver and get to work, I'll deal with Avery." Aedan said firmly. With that the two magically inclined people went down to Atropos' quarters and started to dig through her books to figure out what they would be doing.
Aedan grabbed Avery by his collar and dragged him to the guest room and closed the door. "What were you thinking! I thought we were past you stealing things from crewmates, let alone Atropos of everyone. She would've killed you had I not stepped in."
Avery looked at his feet, "I… I couldn't stop myself. I felt compelled, it was like I was in a dream when I did it. After the storm I thought I had been dreaming until Atropos slammed me against the wall."
"What do you mean compelled?" Aedan tilted his head at the response, trying to figure out what he meant.
"I wasn't in control of my body when I took it, I wasn't in control when I turned the different rings. I couldn't stop myself. Please… You have to believe me… Aedan… Please…" Avery's eyes refused to look up at his captain, his shoulders shook with silent sobs.
That soft spot for his crew made it hard to punish them for things out of their control. "It is a magic item, it's possible it's true. Until Oliver and Atropos better understand the item we'll keep you locked in here so Atropos doesn't feel compelled to kill you again."
It became a waiting game as the two mages worked tirelessly to go through the books, attempting to understand the item that had fallen into their hands. Aedan would check in with them to see how it was going but the day went on with no answers. The crew did what they could to preserve their water, but that was becoming harder to do as the day turned into several days. They had moved their water stores downstairs to keep it cooler but even there it was evaporating.
It was a week into them being stranded and they finally had some answers. The item was a cursed object that was to send the user to a place where they didn't belong. It took a bit of finagling but the pair of them managed to suppress the curse for one use, long enough to get them back to the ocean and to chuck it to the bottom of the sea. The next problem came with deciphering the symbols on it in order to figure out the order that they would need to twist the orb to get them back to the ocean.
The week dragged on to two weeks, supplies were beginning to run low as the crew could do nothing but wait. Atropos finally announced victory over the object. She used it in the same spot of the ship, the crew anxiously watching her twist the rings. Each one tinkled brightly as orbs emerged from the sphere. The orb fell out of her hand and stuck to the floorboards of the deck like it had before. The crew watched as clouds emerged overhead, in front of them a dark orb appeared, crackling with lightning and that is when the ship lurched forward through the sand.
The crew held onto ropes on the deck and everything went black as they went through the portal.
They slowly awoke on the deck and cheered once they realized they were in water once more. There wasn't any land in sight but they could manage a few more days at sea while they figured out their bearings and got to the nearest port. The crew cheered on the deck, hugging one another, while Avery guiltily hung back. It had been his fault they had ended up there in the first place. He disappeared below deck as Atropos threw the object into the ocean, never to darken another doorway again.