Airship Pirates (Peregrine x Jackalope)

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"Finally," Irdyn complained, before a merry hum slipped from between his lips. It took a lot to wake Kail up, but once he was awake, he was awake. And when he was awake, he was irreplaceable. "I've been gone too long as it is. But I am not carrying you. I'll leave your arse behind before I carry you." And, with that, he ducked around Kail and took off, barely slowing down enough to give his friend a chance to catch up. It might have changed little to run, but Irdyn did not like leaving the ship alone. A small, active part of his imagination was consumed by the image of scavengers swarming over her wreck like ants, Seth and Avira, surrounded by corpses, lying dead on the ground. It wasn't even worth the effort to sake the thought out of his head. He simply put all of his energy into running. A part of him meant it when he said he would leave Kail behind. But the man could keep up, if he wanted to. This wasn't the first time they had run together.

They were lucky on the way back, and made good time. Made better time than Irdyn had on the way out. They managed to slip aboard a departing ship, which took them right to the island. Irdyn was off again as soon as the ship was safely docked, ignoring any complaints his friend might throw at him. He was committed now, and would keep up.

He slowed down about halfway to the ship, waiting patiently for the likely complaints. As soon as those were finished, he would offer as much of an explination as he could. he tried to talk, tried to explain the ship, before finally giving it up with a wave of the hand. "I can't do it. You'll get to see her. But there is one thing you need to know, so pay attention now if you have paid attention to anything I've said to you today.

"There is a boy with the ship. His name is Seth. And you must be nice to him. Because otherwise the ship won't let you near her." He turned around, halting suddenly in his fast walk. He wasn't particularly fond of the delay, but Avira would kick his ass if he messed this up. "Have you got that? Then repeat it to me." That kind of thing wasn't likely to tick Kail off, especially when he was excited about something. And it was worth a minor bout of irritation to make sure that Kail didn't accidentally make a mistake, and ruin their only chance of getting into the air with her.
 
Before Irdyn had even ducked beneath Kail the man was letting out a low whine, bottom lip jutted out as he made to fall, long legs catching him just in time as he let loose the most pitiful sigh he could manage, far from above pouting childishly and insistently at the other. "You're a horrible person, you know." He groaned, standing stock still even as Irdyn bolted off, but after a long moment he gave a very audible whine and set off after him.

For all his narcoleptic ways and absolutely lazy tendencies, Kail could make waves when he wanted to. Those long long legs were for more than just looking pretty and he used them with the skill of a cross country runner, his pace steady and even as he overtook the other with a sprint, then settled into an easy pace along Irdyn's side. The fact that the man was running was in of itself an interest and Kail couldn't keep the flash of interest from gleaming in his eyes. Maybe there was more to this super shit than he thought..

--

"When m'I not nice to people?" Kail grumbled, all that annoying travel montage later, fighting a yawn, "I'm the nice one, remember?" He flashed a grin once more, winking cheerfully at his friend as he swung an arm around Irdyn's shoulders, always the more touchy feely drape-all-over-your-friends-they're-just-pillows-with-legs of the two.

Nevertheless the charmer gave a wide yawn and set his full force adorkable fool attitude on Irdyn, biting his bottom lip and lifting his brows cheerfully as he pulled back and offered the other a hand and a sheepish laugh, "Oh wow--you're Seth? S'nice to see you--I hear you've got one helluva beauty of a ship! I'm Kail by th'way an' I'm happy t'help in any way I can!" He wiggled his brows and leaned heavily on Irdyn. "That friendly enough fer ya?"
 
"Very good," Irdyn replied, taking Kail's hand. He pretended to reach into his pocket and offer Kail a treat, slapping the invisible candy in his hand before ruffling his hair. "Good boy." He laughed warmly, before turning around and launching himself back off in the direction of the ship.

It seemed luck truly was on their side, because no scavengers had found the ship. It was sitting, silver and bright, in the field, and Irdyn couldn't help the small sigh that slipped from between his lips. He had worked with vitae all his life, from the moment that his father realized his son could manipulate the powerful energy up until this very moment, and he had seen some remarkable feats of vitae craftsmanship. But he had never seen anything that came close to the grace of this ship.

"There she is," he purred to Kail. "Isn't she remarkable? Now, what do you say we get her in the air again?"
 
To say that Kail preened at the praise would be a bit of an understatement as he beamed at the other, happily pretending to eat his invisible treat with a deadpanned woof as he trailed after the other, shuffling his boots noisily against the rocks. Before they had even gotten eyes on the ship, however, Kail was moving in front of Irdyn, pushing past like a hound on a trail with his lazy amusement completely replaced by a wild interest. He stopped at the crest of the hill, his eyes wide and his nostrils flared as he stood and stared at the ship, vitae buzzing around him almost audibly as he reacted to the swarm inside the ship.

"Yeh I gotta touch that." He muttered, not giving Irdyn so much as a look as he started off towards the ship, taking long excited strides. He stopped short of the ship, not so much because of the swirling warning in the vitae than because of the low growl that sounded as soon as he was in range, a lean form dropping from its perch on the ship to glare warily at Kail. Both hands went up as Kail gave an easy laugh, eyes crinkled in a lop-sided smile. "Alright, alright mate. No harm meant."

Avira rose slowly from his crouch, tails swishing thoughtfully, but he quickly caught sight of Irdyn and relaxed from his guard position, meeting Kail's smile with a grin of his own. "Ah, dis is de miner, Irdyn?" He called, ears twitching, "He is even more saturated with de vitae den you are! Do you two just roll in de stuff?"
 
Irdyn let out a laugh at Kail's comment, and quickly set out after his friend. He was moments away from hollering at his captain to back off when Avira spotted him. Irdyn offered a friendly wave, and jogged the last couple of steps to stand next to his captain. "Yup," he replied. "This is Kail. Kail, this is Avira." He pointedly ignored Avira's comment about rolling in vitae, knowing that it was meant more in tease than out of any real desire to hear an answer.

"I am going to go get Seth," he said, a moment later. "Why don't you two get to know each other?" He looked from one to the other, and figured that, so long as Kail didn't fall asleep, he and the energetic captain would get along well. He still threw in a last parting tease as he walked up to the ship. "Make sure that I don't have to clean up any blood when I come back out."

He walked over to the ship, but slowed as she drew close. He had never had any reason to worry about vitae before. As a child, he had considered it his own personal plaything, despite constant reminders that it was dangerous. This was the first time he had ever come to believe that vitae by itself could pose a danger to him. But there was no human element controlling this ship. It was pure, unrestrained vitae, and if, for any reason, it decided that it did not like him, he might find himself in a situation even he couldn't work himself out of.

"Hello, lovely," he crooned softly to the ship. He placed a gentle hand on it, letting the vitae swirling along its surface feel him. "Remember me?" A few feet away, the door slid open to admit him entry. "I would like to introduce Seth to someone. Will you take me to him?" He didn't see the corridors shift, but he certainly felt it. It was another sensation unlike any he had ever felt. It was going to be interesting to see if he and Kail combined would be able to work through the corridors, so that they, at the very least, always knew where they were. Until then, he simply had to trust to the ship.

He found Seth in a small room, pouring over a document. Irdyn knocked gently on a wall to draw the kid's attention, and he looked up with wide eyes. He quickly recovered himself, however, and stood up, rolling up the document he had been reading and sliding it under his seat. "Aiden?" Seth asked hesitantly.

"Close," he responded with a grin. "Irdyn. My friend Kail is here, and I'd like you to meet him."

Seth nodded, standing up and walking over to Irdyn. "Very well." The kid had resigned himself to the way things were going, and he seemed almost cheerful about it. But watching him travel down the corridors truly was fascinating. It was no wonder that the ship seemed to respond primarily to him. He must have had no sensitivity for vitae, because he did not react as countless small traces of the stuff ran all along his body. The ship obsessed over him, and seemed to only barely be willing to relinquish him when he reached the doorway. If Kail hadn't understood how important it was to keep the kid in good humor, he would understand soon.

Seth led the way out, and quickly spotted Kail. He took a quick breath, before stepping outside. There was a small smile on his face, which was more than Irdyn had seen from him in a while. Smiles certainly seemed to be the currency of the day.
 
"I don't dink I can make any promises like dat, Irdyn." Avira purred, arching a slow brow as he slid into Kail's space bubble, one of his tails draping over the other's shoulder and tugging him in. Kail, for his part, merely gave a snicker of a laugh and elbowed the shorter male in the ribs, giving Irdyn a lazy wink.
"I'll keep th' shorty in check, no worries mate." He grinned, catching Avira's sharp glare at the height comment, and as soon as Irdyn was out of view, he slid free of the other, straightening to face the captain with a stern expression.

"Irdyn seems to think you've put the sun in the sky, captain, but I'm gonna be nice and solid when I say..." He flashed his teeth and leaned in, his usual relaxed expression lost in a rare ferocity, "I don't come full of loyalty and trust and as far as I'm concerned you're a criminal who is a little too good at gettin' caught...and Irdyn is just lucky he didn't get pulled down with yer mutated ass."

Avira was still, brow lifted and tails still, but as the pair stared at each other, a slight grin slipped onto the older's lips and Avira's back bent with a riproaring laugh, his tails leaning back to balance against the rock before he leaned forwards, pounding on his knees. "Dis is what I like to hear!" He chirruped, popping into Kail's space again, "I do not like people who are instantly loyal...and I am glad to know dat Irdyn has a long legged doofus to have his back. Dis is very good. I am pleased dat you will be on de crew." His grin grew and he straightened, offering his hand and tail with a pleased expression.

Kail's ferocity relaxed into a lazy smirk and he chuckled, giving a nod as he instantly slumped, shoulders back and limbs loose as he easily took the other's tailhand, lifting a brow as though excepting a challenge and beaming at Avira's stunned expression. "Mutant you may be, but a hand's a hand, mate."
The captain tilted his head dogishly, opening his mouth to say something, but both turned away at the same time instead, Avira's ears perking to the sound of approaching people and Kail whipping to locate the whirling of moving vitae.

The brunette was all friendly charm and cheerfulness as he pulled away from Avira, sidling straight up to Seth with a crinkle to his eye and a light laugh on his lips. "You must be Seth!" He drawled, smiling as he offered a hand to the other, the vitae centered around his own body rushing to his fingers to test and poke and prod at the vitae on Seth with the eager attention of small children or hyper puppies, "M'name's Kail. I'm a vitae miner." He grinned wider and tilted his hat with a thumb, "Your ship is a work've art, mate. The vitae in her.." He bit his lip and shook his head, shrugging his shoulders, "Its just bloody incredible." He didn't comment on the vitae drenching Seth, but he flicked his eyes to Irdyn, his expression full of excited interest.
This was going to be a beautiful job.
 
Seth had left Irdyn and Kail alone to explore the ship, and had also hidden the plans he had taken using a more traditional method. This left the two vitae workers free to roam as they needed, and work on whatever they needed to. Seth knew what it would take to repair the ship, but as he tried to watch the two workers he was left nothing short of bewildered. At some point he was going to have to learn what it would take to repair this ship, he didn't really plan on having these two aboard forever.

No, that wasn't entirely true. When Seth finally retreated from the repairing method, leaving the engineers to do their work, he retreated to the room he had dubbed as his own. The ship tended to keep it close to the helm, but when he stepped inside it he didn't really know where it went. Not that it mattered. He lay there, studying the ceiling and let his thoughts roam. Since there was no one to correct him he didn't try and halt his thoughts. He let himself be selfish, and tried his best to acknowledge everything he was thinking. This wasn't a time to be dishonest with himself.

He was more in love with this ship than he had ever been in anything in his life. Perhaps it was because she had saved his life, and freed him from the depths of the air. She had cared for him, and accepted him for exactly who he was. And, most importantly, she had been company, after three years of chaos and him having to fight to even stay alive. He didn't want to leave her.

And that brought him back to Avira. Trying to fly this ship by himself was what had gotten him into this situation in the first place. He couldn't do anything with her by himself; even if she was mostly self-sufficient she needed a crew to maintain her. And Seth knew he was no captain. He was barely even a pilot, and if it hadn't been for his ability to read the winds he never would have found his way back to... anything. The strange captain and his friends had been nothing but kind to Seth, and Avira could have tried to take the ship from him, had he wanted to. The fact that it wouldn't have worked was entirely beside the point.

Except it wasn't entirely. Seth may be young, but he was no fool. And neither were Avira and his friends. They knew the ship wasn't going anywhere without him, and they were desperate to get their hands on it. that meant getting him on their side, whatever it took. And that was more than Seth had been able to find in a long time. He had always been the captain's pet on his previous ship, treated with a kind of discourteous attention when superiors were looking, and downright abused when they were not. He had learned how to do everything on that ship, including how to take some blows without making a noise. His crewmates had not been kind teachers.

The fact that Avira might offer him a place was almost intoxicating. Seth was no stranger to cruelty and black marks, especially over the past three years. That wasn't his problem. His problem was that the ship's attachment to him wouldn't be enough to ensure his welcome for the rest of eternity. Perhaps he would get a chance to prove himself to them, at the helm or otherwise, or perhaps they would simply shove him to the side whenever they could, in an attempt to get the ship dependent on them. And then not only would he lose a place where he might be able to belong, he might lose the ship too.

But he might lose the ship no matter what. Without Avira he was stranded, even if he was stranded in the air. There was no way he could safely land this ship by himself. Was that his destiny, to be dependent on the generosity of someone else for the rest of his life? He would have laughed at his own childishness, if he hadn't been so honestly worried that was true.

Thoughts spinning around like a hurricane in his head, making little progress but doing lots of damage, he finally fell asleep. Hopefully they would be in the air soon.



Irdyn wiped his brow with the back of one hand, and leaned back to study his handiwork. Vitae was a complicated thing to manipulate, but in many ways building from scratch was easier than trying to fit the new vitae into the old vitae. But it wasn't for nothing almost everyone he knew called him a genius. He glanced over at Kail, before rolling his way over to him. "Well, she isn't perfect yet, but she is flyable," he grinned, and blew a strand of hair out of his face. "Ready to get her in the air?"
 
Kail, as usual, was slow in answering, and when he finally acknowledged Irdyn it was more to yawn widely and shift to lean against the other, scrubbing a hand over his face and through his hair and completely ignoring the crazed buzzing of vitae that was swarming around his fingers. "If we intend to be gettin' up at all we'd better do it soon." He agreed after a moment, straightening to stretch himself in his seated position. He cracked his knuckles before speaking again, vitae flashing off his fingers like tiny firecrackers in multiple different types and colors, and flashed his teeth in a tired grin.

Mining was nothing if not endlessly exhausting.

"Let's go find that two-tailed lunatic while I've still got the energy to make emergency fuel if it comes to it." The young man chuckled, winking, and got to his feet, steadying himself before offering Irdyn a hand and heading off to hunt down Avira and Seth.

Avira, meanwhile, was just getting out of a shower he enjoyed far too much. He was grinning ear to ear as he scrubbed at his newly neon hair with a towel, his tails helpfully holding up a second towel on his waist as he strutted into his quarters clean shaven and smelling like soap for the first time in months. "Got to hand it to you, beautiful," He chirruped, singing to the ship, "Dere are very few dings on dis planet dat surprise or impress me, but time after time you do noding but impress me fuder and fuder each moment." He purred and reached over with a tail hand to affectionately rub one of the walls even as he dug out freshly cleaned clothing, "Of course, dat may be de shower talking right now. Perhaps I will have to re-compliment you later."

He shrugged, fully to himself as usual, and pulled on a pair of short cut pants--cut above the knee so that his unusual legs and the warped gait they supplied would not be hindered--and a simple v-neck shirt, rolling up the sleeves past his elbows even while he dug around under the bed for the custom made boots he had meticulously hoarded and saved away for the past years. He wiggled his toes in them absently, scrunching his nose at a feeling that had become normal but now was annoying, and pondered the chances of landing somewhere with lava for ground before promptly wiggling his way back out of them and spreading his toes against the floor.
 
Seth felt the ship shaking his bed gently, and stumbled his way out of the sleeping world, feeling no more resolved than he had when he finally managed to fall asleep. "Time to go?" he asked blearily, before standing up and shrugging his way into jacket and shoes. He walked over to the door and stepped out, blinking when he found himself in the sudden illumination of the bridge. He stumbled slightly coming out of the door, but quickly righted himself. "i guess you are in just as much of a hurry to leave this place as I am," he murmured, walking up to the helm and placing his hand lightly upon the polished wheel. He felt the ship thrum, and another smile crossed his face.

"What do you think of these strange men? Do you trust them?" The same thrum as before pulsed through the steering wheel, but uncertain whether that meant that she liked them, or if it was simply a reaction to his speaking he discounted it. He was going to have to make his own decision, and he was undoubtedly going to have to make it soon.

"This wind is picking up," he remarked to the first person to walk into the bridge. "If we are going to leave, we had best do it soon, since gusts like this rarely hang around for long."
 
"I believe de engineers are just as eager to get into de skies." Avira rumbled as he strode powerfully into the room, his pace nearly silent on the metal but his statue imposing with the stance of a true captain. His eyes were gleaming with the twisting joy of a man who had been cut off from his love for too long...and was getting a chance at that love again. He licked his lips, grinning as he stared out of the helm, his exterior calm except for the steady swish swish swish of his tails as they swayed back and forth.

He hummed to himself, the hoops and bangles in his ears tingling gently as his ears twitched and he cocked his head just as Kail shuffled into the room, his hand stuffed into his pockets and a pleased smile curling beneath the dark circles under his eyes. "Speak of de devil, mm?" Avira chuckled and turned his attention to Seth as Kail outright flopped onto the floor near a wall, giving a wide yawn and assuming Irdyn would take care of their side of the job as he curled away from the open space and was quickly asleep.

Avira shifted his weight, snickering under his breath, and inhaled deeply, flexing his shoulders back before relaxing, running a hand through his hair. "Alright den, gentlemen! Let us get to de skies and set a course away from dis floating hellhole, shall we?"
 
Seth watched the crew step into the room with slightly narrowed eyes. But, mostly, his attention was focused on Avira. The man had charisma, there was no doubt of that. Even the ship was starting to respond to his presence. At his words he felt the energy begin to pulse through her wheel. She warmed up slowly, seeming to run through a series of tests. On the far side of the room, next to where Kail had curled up, Irdyn was leaning against a wall, his eyes closed and a wide grin slowly stretching across his face. For a moment Seth felt a stab of jealousy. What it must be like to actually be able to see her, as she truly was, rather than hidden behind a metal face. His hand tightened spasmodically on the wheel, and he felt the ship's thrum begin to lessen. Irdyn's eyes snapped open and narrowed in his direction. Seth felt himself respond with a small smile. There was no reason for him to feel jealous. Not of Irdyn, and not of Avira. Because, at least right now, this ship was still his.

His grip lightened, and the ship quickly finished her takeoff preparations. Even Seth, blind to the inner workings of vitae, could feel the charge being to vibrate around her. This was no dive off the edge of an island. This was a full-on launch. And then they were moving up into the air, and Seth took a deep breath, forcing himself to relax. They would be out of the influence of this floating country in less than five minutes. The air was clean and fast, tugging at her wings and leading her on. There was nothing but open air ahead of them.

Three minutes later things began to spiral into chaos. The wind suddenly shifted direction and Seth let out a gasp. "Captain," he said hesitantly, so focused on the air in front of him that he did not notice how he addressed Avira, "We have a problem. We are heading towards a warship. And there is no way out right now without passing almost right on top of her."
 
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