Fantasy Cursed Island

[Deadwood Deer]

"I intend to," Jalin nodded, "Until then, I trust you can keep my belongings safe in our bag?" Every now and again, he took a sip from a cup, which wasn't actually filled with alcohol, but he was keeping up appearances and reducing suspicion.

As the night wore on, Nidia's music worked its magic. Even if she wasn't magically influencing the desire to drink, a few drinking songs in and everyone that wasn't trying to stay sober or didn't have a heavy tolerance for the creature was positively sozzled.

 

[Fangs9090]

Katsuo nodded. "Indeed."


Sal was wasted before too long, singing and carrying on with the rest of her crew. The ones who hadn't passed out already, anyway. Roy was more than a little buzzed by then, staring up at the sky mostly. If anyone came too close or got his attention, he'd look at them and raised his cup with a "Hoy!" before looking to the sky again. Emilia had drank more than intended, but she at least wasn't able to drink more. She hadn't quite realized she had climbed a short way up the mast and was sideways, so any attempt to drink more just resulted in her pouring rum on someone's head.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"I will go around and prepare the party, then," Jalin pressed some coins into Katsuo's gauntlet, "Find an inn, since they're all drunk." If he had eyes, he'd be rolling them. And then he turned and walked away, imitating drunkenness as he seemed to be having trouble navigating with his cane, bonking shins and stumbling, as he went around and found his way to the others, urging them down the pier at intervals so that, one by one, over the course of the night, the group left.

Siege was a pain, he had to promise to get her more to get her to go. Emilia proved more troublesome because he didn't have blood on the mizzen mast, and he couldn't figure out how to get to her for a bit. Nidia was still sober, so he found that a little easier. Her flute had been drowned out by the drunken singing anyway. Who knew pirates had such a repertoire of shanties? Roy and Katsuo went last, until Jalin was the only party member on the ship, making sure they'd be safe and able to come help if this backfired, and it was time to go to work.

Jalin claimed that he could perceive quite well through blood, but it wasn't sight. He could sense precise points of impact from feet, tails, body parts, and hear the sound of voices if he searched, he could only provide educated guesses as to what was actually happening from those points of contact and sounds. If he wanted to find someone, he'd have to precisely keep track of every set of feet on the ship, and that was a herculean task in itself. So it took him a bit to find Sal, and longer to figure out how to get to her while still pretending to be just as drunk as the pirates.

"Pard-ONN!", Jalin feigned slipping on something and falling straight into the captain, using her as a secure, albeit drunk, wall to get his bearings again, palming and patting around her chest area in what, to anyone looking, just looked like the blind man getting his bearings and making sure he hadn't hurt her, as he searched for the stone to take and then vanish with.

 

[Fangs9090]

Sal stumbled a bit as he bumped into her before she laughed and roughly pat his back. "Are we rocking the boat too much for you?" The stone was still in her coat, right where Sinach had said it would be.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jalin chuckled, still having his hands on Sal's shoulders for balance. "Never been drunk on a boat!" He knew where the stone was, he just had to figure out how to get it off of her, now. He hadn't realized she closed her coat until the moment of truth was at hand. "Ah, warm weather this time of year, isn't it?"

 

[Fangs9090]

"Warmer still with rum in the belly. Ah, but a dip in the sea will cool you of quick, if you need it." Sal laughed.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Oh, I'm not that brave," Jalin smiled, "I don't think I can fight off Brine right now." He shook his head and dusted off his front, "Sorry about that." He picked his cane back up and went to take another step, faking another slip on a puddle of rum. This time, instead of grabbing Sal's chest to balance himself, his hands found her coat, ideally his body weight would force the buttons back through their holes to open the coat. Of course, Sal was wearing the coat, and wasted, so that might not work as intended.

 

[Fangs9090]

The button's held on better than Sal did, which wasn't saying much. She stumbled and slipped as Jalin fell, falling over on top of him.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Oh!", Jalin wheezed at the sudden weight on his chest. That wasn't part of the plan! "Well, that's unfortunate." He felt around to figure out how to get out from under Sal, but that didn't go quite according to plan, either, as the only things within arms reach were his cane, and Captain Sal. "Miss, I..." He tried to lightly push her off of him, succeeding instead to find something softer where he expected her stomach or her arms to be.

 

[Fangs9090]

Sal shifted around, and at first it seemed like she was getting off, but then Jalin would feel the tip of her nose touch his. "You know, you sure have a lot of accidents."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Ah," Jalin sounded nervous, this wasn't part of the plan, either. "I'm blind?" New plan, get the rock by any means necessary and get out of dodge! "I'm not doin' it on purpose..." As he spoke, tiny tendrils were undoing the buttons of Sal's coat to open it so Jalin could get to the pocket with the stone, until Sal's coat opened freely.

 

[Fangs9090]

“Blind or no, you’re certainly grabby. But I’m sure you can’t feel much of anything right now.” Sal quickly got up, pulling him to his feet along with her, even as she stumbled. “Ahah, that’s why you mentioned the weather. You’re trying to get my coat off.” Her grip on his shoulders tightened and her nose touched his face again. “That can be arranged.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Ah," her breath smelled like the cheap rum the hold was stocked with prior to this party. Think, Jalin, make a plan. All he had to do was get the stone and leave, the coat was open, he knew where the stone was, he just had to break her grip, take it, and get away. It was just a question of how to do that. Playing along, Jalin put his arms around Sal, "Then how do we arrange it?", he asked with a sly grin.

 

[Fangs9090]

Sal grinned before likewise putting her arms around him, only she followed up by lifting his feet off the deck. She certainly had the strength to be part dragon. She turned and started carrying him off towards her cabin, leaving the rest of the crew to keep partying amongst themselves.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Oh!", Jalin wasn't expecting to be picked up. Without his feet on the ground, he was mostly blind, and not in the sight sense. I parts of the ship, a rust-colored crust appeared and flaked away in the wind as Jalin's control of the blood cells failed, and the magic sustaining it couldn't keep it alive. Jalin lost his exteral sensory "organ" as the shark woman carried him bridal-style to the captain's cabin. "My cane!" He reached out and the cane followed them, rolling behind but unable to catch up to Jalin's position, and ended up forming a convenient bar between the doorhandles of the captain's cabin, preventing access and exit without Jalin's permission.

The sounds of the party faded as the doors were closed and barred. It was odd how insulative this chamber was to sound, but then again Sal probably didn't like being disturbed when she slept. "Where are we?" Jalin was still blind.

 

[Fangs9090]

"Captain's quarters." Sal deposited her catch on the bed, and she could still be heard moving afterwards. "At least you won't care that I don't make a show of this."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Make a show of what?", Jali felt around util he found a bedpost. This was not a couch. This was not the plan. But they were in an enclosed space that was very hard to hear annything outside of, even for him. Option three jumped to the forefront of his mind. She was drunk, it would be easy... No... Killing her would only create more problems at the moment, unless he could kill everyone on the ship at once, that wouldn't work, and they were in port.

And Jalin didn't have Niudisa's phylactery on him to make option worthwhile, either, that was with Katsuo. At least the chamber was small enough that with Jalin and Sal together, the room was quite well filled and easy to navigate, once he had his bearings. He stood up to walk over to Sal, "We don't need to make a show of anything, captain."

 

[Fangs9090]

Sal pressed against him as he came up to her. He could no longer feel her coat on her, nor whatever she might have been wearing under it. All he could feel now was exposed, scaly skin. "Agreed." She started pushing him back towards the bed.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Oh," Jalin let himself be pushed back, not sure how to deal with this situation. "Captain, I don't think- your skin is soft." Sharkskin was rough, but it seemed along with her strength, Sal's draconic ancestry lent itself to making her tiny scales overlap in a much less rough manner.

-------------

"Headcount," Sinach fluttered over the table that Roy and Emilia were seated at with Katsuo, "Roy, Siege is at the bar, Emilia, Nidia's still playing, Katsuo, me... where's Jalin?" It had been a couple hours since Roy had been filtered off of the boat. They hadn't heard anything.

-------------

On the edge of town, a dirty, disheveled man hobbled into town. He was soaked through and looked like he hadn't seen a bath nor a shaving razor in weeks. He walked like he wasn't used to his legs, making his way to a blacksmith.

"I need a kit," the man growled. He was at least as large as the blacksmith. Even if he was a mess, he was certainly a strong mess. "Armor, a weapon."

"You sure you can pay for that?", the smith raised a eyebrow, "You don't look too-" He shut up as he heard a gagging sound before a solid gold bar the length and thickness of the large man's forearm dropped down onto the table. "Okay then, come around back and I'll see what I can do."

 

[Fangs9090]

Sal chuckled as she followed him down onto the bed. "Go ahead and take a 'look' all you want now. We're gonna be here a while."

----------

Roy shook his head. "I haven't heard from him, no. He had the ship rigged with his blood magic, so I don't think he would've gotten into any trouble he couldn't get out of."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"This won't be any fun if I'm the only one "looking", Jalin pointed out. He brought his hands down from her shoulders to her thighs, lifting her up to reverse the position.

------------

"I guess we can call in a few hours if nothing happens," Sinach shrugged, "I really hope he doesn't kill anyone while we're in port..."

"Come on," Siege came over to the table with a pint of... it sure smelled strong, whatever it was, "Quit brooding, it's creepy!"

------------

"You don't think that's a bit short for you?", the smith asked as the disheveled man picked up a shortsword. It was the relative size of a large bread knife to the man holding it, hardly a weapon suited to such a large man.

"It'll work," the man growled, "What can you do for armor?"

"You better get cleaned up, first," the smith raised an eyebrow, "Get some clean clothes, armor takes measurments." Of course he had a few pieces left half-finished, so that any surprise commissios would take nearly as long, but he still had to know what he was going to be waking his sons for.

"Fine..." The smith went upstairs to get his family woken up, he was hardly a tailor and didn't run a salon, and the man was paying very well, so might as well go above ad beyond. That lump of gold was a year's worth of living expeses.

 

[Fangs9090]

"Now you're talking." Sal was agreeable enough to the change in positions, already starting to tug at his clothes.

----------

"And I'm sure he's smarter than that anyway. At least, he seems like he's smarter than that."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

As Sal and Jalin removed the blind man's clothes, underneath the well-trained muscles of a martial fighter appeared. This was not the body of a helpless blind fellow, but a trained fighter that happened to lack any sense of sight. Getting frisky with a shark definitely wasn't on the agenda before, but it was now...

-------------------

"Yeah, well, you're not gonna learn nothing complaining," Siege slid her pint in front of Sinach, "So quit thinking so much!" Sinach looked down at the dark mixture, then up at Siege.

"You know I'm made of paper, right?"

 

[Fangs9090]

"Well, you're just full of surprises. Let's see if the trend continues." And from there, Sal had no intention to waste any more time.

----------

Roy shook his head. "Siege, you should be just a little more careful about how much you drink."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Shush!", Siege poked Roy's nose to punctuate, "This was your idea, I'm following directions." Well, following directions by not defying orders.