Elves and Clockwork

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EquinoxSol

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Silently taking the brunt of Tiris's words, Oriske simply answered, when he had finished, "Well, do you know how to fly it?" Seeing the expression on his face, Oriske nodded once before taking the book back. "At least I can read," he said, chuckling at his own wit. "So sit over there," he pointed to one of the stations, "and do what I tell you."

Sitting back down in the captain's chair, he started reading again, before saying to the bounty hunter, "We need to drop the ballast...at this rate, someone'll notice before we're gone, and stop us...It should be the lever to the right of the station left to you. Think you can manage that?" Oriske's golden eyes moved left to right speedily as he tried to read the captain's manual before anyone noticed the airship leaving.

((Original thread: here.
 
"I...You..." More unintelligible words flew from Tiris' mouth as he stammered trying to spat out a reply. Damn Oriske for catching him with that question. Of course he didn't know how to fly an air ship. Shoot, capture and hunt. That was all he needed to know in life, up to this point that is. his lips closed into a thin line as he clenched his fists and just stared at the other. Oriskes smart remark cause the fuming bounty hunter to raise his fist but instead of punching him he raised a finger. Only shaking his finger.

"I'm going to kill you when we get out of this." Was he only retort as he stormed to the seat and sat down. He looked at the console and simply froze a moment. All the levers and nobs confused him as did all the gauges and toggles. He shook his head looking everything over. "Drop the what?" He said glancing back a moment. "There's like three levers here damnit!" He grumbled as he picked one and touched his finger to it. Taking a moment to pray to his deity of choice before flipping it.

Much to his surprise they didn't seem to be falling or crashing, yet. A small glimmer of relief tickled him before it was chased away. More and more guards were arriving on the docks. And scrambling to figure out a way to stop them. "Uh... You better hurry..."
 
"You promised that you wouldn't kill me, Tiris," Oriske retorted, smirking at the bounty hunter. "You wouldn't want to go back on your promise, right?" Reading the manual as fast as he could while Tiris fooled around with the levers, his golden eyes intent and focused.

After the elf had told him to hurry, he announced, "The long green lever!" The moment it was pulled, he felt the airship become lighter as the ballast was dropped. He watched the ground begin to fall away, though it wasn't nearly fast enough.

Soon though, he felt the mooring lines snapping, and they were rising into the air. Oriske smiled to himself and called to Tiris, "Fifth station, yellow button!"
 
Tiris merely grumbled and cursed under his breath. Damn he did make that promise. But only because he was dangling high above the ground on a thin rope. He wanted to snap back a reply but the situation wouldn't have been made better by it. It would only cause the bounty hunter to loose his temper. Then they'd both die.

A great sigh of relief jumped from the elf's chest as the airship rose into the air, though the motion did make his stomach drop a little. "We need to go faster!" He cautioned as he was sure they were about to be shot at. "Fifth what? Shit this one?" Tiris said pushing a button that he decided was yellow enough. But it was the wrong one, a button that was a mixture of orange and yellow that activated the front propellers. Effectively slowing the airship down instead of speeding it up. "Wait... We're not speeding up... Damnit Oriske!" He said blaming his mistake on the thief.
 
Oriske ran a hand through his hair, getting up angrily. Approaching Tiris, he shoved him to the side, sitting down in front of the station. With the book in hand, he turned off the forward propellers. "Just sit down and keep out of my way," he grumbled, finding the correct button. Pressing it, he hummed happily as he felt the vibrations of the engines in his feet.

Watching the ground fall, he waited until they were high enough before sitting at the master wheel, guiding the ship out of port. "They won't shoot at us," he said. "It'd cause too big of a fire. They wouldn't want to lose the warmarshal's airship to fire, or pop it or something. Dimaethor would probably raze all of Eathkar... He'd..." He stopped as he realized that he had just referred to the warmarshal by his first name, something that only close friends ever had the privilege to.

Hunching his shoulders slightly, he hoped that Tiris wouldn't say anything about it. He didn't want to have a conversation about the warmarshal right then.
 
Tiris stumbled as h was pushed out of the way, shooting a glare at the thief for doing so. The nerve! Shoving him out of the way! The hunter wanted nothing more than to punch Oriske. But then again his solution to everything was to punch it. "What!? You said the yellow one! That's yellow!" He shouted before he paced a moment, trying to look out the window to see what the guards were doing. Some of them aimed but another man seemed to stop them.

Oriske's words seemed to explain that very situation and now that Tiris thought about it that would be incredibly risky for them to shoot at them. He nodded. "Well at least we wont be shot down... But that just means..." He was going to finish by saying they'd just chase them but suddenly a name entered his ear. Dimaethor. He knew it but no one called the warmarshal by his first name. Not unless you were close. He paused, looking out the window then looked back at Oriske.

There was no way the thief knew the warmarshal. "Wait... How do you know the warmarshal on a first name basis?" He said, sharpening his eyes at Oriske.
 
Oriske cursed as Tiris called him out. After a few seconds, he sighed and answered, "He was my betrothed's brother. I am not attracted to women, and neither was he, so we would sneak off at night to be together. A couple days before I was to be married, we were caught. My betrothed's father called off the wedding...And before you ask how a thief could ever have the station to marry the warmarshal's sister, I'll have you know that I'm the eldest son of Lord Daechon of Serona. I ran away when my 'disgrace' became well-known."

As they came to a high enough altitude, he asked Tiris, "Where am I leaving you? Ashanti?"
 
Tiris had assumed that there was a fallen friendship. Though he highly doubted that the Warmarshal would keep a thief as a friend. The truth however was not what he expected. His brows raised as he simply looked at Oriske. They were lovers?! It was one of those tragic tales he'd normally hear in a bar. Being the eldest son of a lord hadn't registered in his mind yet though. He was stuck on something else. "Wut wait. You were lovers?" He questioned as he scratched his head. then his brutish mind got stuck on something else. "Wait if you don't like women, why the hell would you marry one?"

He turned fully to look at the thief, crossing his arms across his chest. "Don't change the subject just like that. You cant just casually say 'I was sleeping with my betrothed brother' and talk about something else." Oh no Tiris wanted to know more.
 
"I didn't have a choice, Tiris," Oriske said. My father made a deal with her father before she was even born that I would marry his first daughter. I remember meeting her when I was five and she was still just a baby. While we grew up together, I quickly found out about her handsome older brother." He grinned slightly before steering the airship around to face a western direction.

"Sooo, Ashanti,, right? Cause if you don't tell me soon, I'm going to Eastron."
 
There was another long pause. Tiris was a loner by nature and therefore a free spirit. Arranged marriage seemed like the most daft and arrogant thing a parent could do to their child. The whole 'you're going to marry this person because it makes me richer' was the most selfish thing someone could do. Damn he hated the rich. "Yea fine. Ashanti." He said quickly as he motioned for him to just go. "... No choice… That's bullshit on not having a choice who you want to be with." He grumbled more to himself although his words were loud enough for Oriske to hear.


As the ship turned the bounty hunter looked down, seeing the floor made him think that maybe this was a ship at sea. Fooling himself into thinking it was a sea ship was much better to his palate than it being an air ship. He could swim after all, but not fly. "See that's why I keep to myself. A side from the murder you were framed for, you now have an angry exlover after you." There was bitterness in his words that suggested a personal emotion. A lingering of scorned betrayal hovered around his voice as he kicked his legs up on the consol, busying himself with inspecting the cut on his leg.
 
"Hey, I was sixteen, going to marry some girl I'd only met a few times as a child, and lonely. When Dimaethor asked me if I wanted to meet him in his room that night, I practically threw myself at him. He was handsome, charming, and I wanted to know what being ith a man felt like." He fell into silence, focusing on the sky before them.

Brushing his hair back, he muttered, "Wish I had a look out. The warmarshal could have been on our tail the whole time..." After a while, lad was within sight, but Ashanti was far inland. "Do you have a place to stay at in Ashanti?" he asked. " 'Cause I've got a hidey hole we could stay at. What do you think?"
 
Tiris smiled and shook his head as he chuckled. "... I woulda done the same thing. The hell with forced marriages. The hell with marriage all together..." He said as he changed the bandage. Grabbing a pack on his side he fished a moment before finding a healing salve. He gingerly applied it to the wound before wrapping it again with a new bandage. As he tended to himself he started to feel a bit of sympathy for the thief. Perhaps it was a rare situation where the wrong guy got mixed up in the wrong thing. He shook his head of those thoughts. He couldn't allow himself to feel anything for Oriske, no matter his story or how handsome he was. Bastard had him hanging above ground.

The rest of the ride was relatively quiet, mostly because Tiris took this time to sleep. That is after lulling himself into a false security that he was on a lovely boat at sea, and not in air miles above ground. He only woke from his cat nap when Oriske spoke. Grumbling as he weakly opened his eyes before yawning and stretching. "Ashanti? Well... there's always the inn." But he heard something he wasn't sure of. Furrowing his brows he sat up straighter as to look at Oriske a bit more clearly. "You made me chase you... Turned the guards against me... Taunted me as I hung from a thin ass rope miles above ground... And... Your asking if we should stay in the same room together? ... I still have the urge to punch you. Are you sure you want to stay in the same room?" He said crossing his arms across his chest.
 
Oriske smiled and answered, "Well, considering how you failed about on our way here, I think that I could take you." He grinned, brushing back his dark hair. He wasn't worried about Tiris trying anything, given that he was better a fighting than him, since Tiris was a brute. Oriske was certain that he could beat Tiris.

It was three more hours until they were within sight of Ashanti City. Oriske was exhausted, irritable, and wasn't in the mood for nonsense when he asked Tiris, "Do you know any semaphore? 'Cause it might be hard for me to moor without some communication with the guys at the mooring staff..." He shrugged, slowing down the grand airship until it was drifting on the wind.
 
Tiris Had to laugh when Oriske boasted he could take on the bounty hunter. Well that was only true because Oriske cheated and held him hostage above ground, or that's that Tiris was telling himself. He was convinced it would be a fair fight on level ground. The remainder of the flight was uneventful, much to Tiris' relief. He'd caught naps during the three hours but they didn't help. his back was aching from the position he tried to stretch in the chair and his neck felt stiff. He looked at Oriske as he spoke to him.

"Sema-what? I don't even know how to spell that... Let alone what the hell it is." Oriske was suddenly speaking what sounded like another language, no doubt something to do with air ships. He stood up and walked to stand behind Oriske at the helm. His eyes narrowing on the men on the docks waving flags. "Uh... There waving flags at us... what does that mean?" His simple mind not knowing that was the exact thing Oriske was asking him.
 
Oriske grumbled as Tiris revealed revealed how much of a brute he really was. Sighing, he said, "They're asking for the landing code. I know it, but I don't trust you to fly this while I go and tell them. You'd end up crashing us into the city. Guess we have an emergency." He pulled a lever besides the captain's chair, and bright yellow flags opened up on the balloon. Oriske turned the master wheel hard to the left, making the airship careen sideways, and causing the cockpit to pitch violently.

The men on the mooring staff began frantically spelling out protocols while many others tried to ready safety measures. Inside the cockpit, which was completely sideways, anything not nailed down was gathered on the side that was facing down. Oriske had buckled himself in, but Tiris wasn't, idiot that he was. The men at the mooring staff had used harpoon guns to pierce the balloon, reeling the Leviathan in slowly, though it would be a while until they could get it right side up again.

"Come on," he said to Tiris. "We gotta hide before they search the ship..."
 
Tiris simply watched the men wave the flags as they tried to communicate with them. He only briefly glanced at Oriske as he said something about an emergency. "Well cant you make-" This thing hover is what he was going to say before the ship was violently shifted to the side. He yelled in shock and panic as the once level ground tilted and turned. He kicked his feet trying to stay upright but it was useless. Tiris was flung against the side console, flailing as the ship turned completely side ways. "DAMNIT ORISKE!" His voice bellowed in anger.

"What the hell are you doing?! You're going to make us crash and die! I will haunt you forever if you get me killed! Damn maniac elf!" He said as he climbed off the window, opting instead to hide under the control panel. "You know word might not have reached this far! We could have walked off the ship but noooooo! You decide it's better to try and KILL ME." He yelled as he, shakily, stood up and half crawled his way to the door to the rest of the air ship. "I'm not hiding in another damn closet by the way!"
 
Oriske couldn't help but suppress a laugh as Tiris shouted. He always reacted so predictably--either angrily or brutishly--and both always seemed terribly funny coming from him. As he shouted about what they could have done, he rolled his eyes, smiling to himself. "I don't intend on being arrested for the theft of the Warmarshal's airship on top of a murder I didn't commit. You can stay here though if you want to get arrested. Even if you didn't steal it, you didn't stop me. Hell, you even turned on the automatons in the boiler room. You are an accomplice now, Tiris." He unbuckled himself from the captain's chair, much more balanced than Tiris as he made the way to the door.

"And we're going in the closet whether you like it or not. If they only find you, then only you will be arrested. And by the time you tell them I'm in here, I'll be gone. Now come along. This model doesn't have a supply closet right next to the cockpit."

Oriske walked along the walls of the hallway, seemingly more at home than Tiris was. Clasping his hands behind his back as he did so, he ran a hand through his golden hair, finally finding the door he was looking for. Standing to the side of it, he stomped hard on it until it swung open, not even glancing behind him to see if Tiris was following. Let the fool be arrested,he thought. Less trouble for me. As soon as the for was open, he jumped into the room, glad that it was on the side of the airship that was facing down.
 
An accomplice? Was that Oriske's plan all along? To bait him to follow then black mail him? Oh if this ship was straight he would have knocked the other man across the room and then some. "Well I didn't have much of a choice ya damn thief!" He griped back as he staggered to the door. Where did this prick get off claiming he was an accomplice?! He didn't have a choice. "Well I would have stopped you but you made the guards think I was the murderer." He grumbled as he pushed his brunette hair from his eyes. Ah but was always the situation grew worse, of course it did.

Oriske was now telling him to get in the closet. He glared for a moment wondering if he should just ignore him and get himself off the ship alone. But running from the law was fairly new to the bounty hunter and he really didn't know if he'd make it. Unaudible curses left his lips as he followed Oriske through the softly twisting ship as the men on the docks fought to right the ship. Against the other's wishes, Tiris was right behind. Although far less sturdy on his feet, his hand out stretched to keep his balance.

They came to a door which Oriske kicked open. Tiris briefly glanced in the room with a frown, tooking at the tumbled and toppled over supplies. Though despite the mess there was enough room for the two of them. "I don't know why I went through all of this..." He grumbled as he followed the other elf. Squishing himself against the wall so he could close the door. "How long are we to wait this time?" He said looking at the other man from the corner of his eye.
 
Oriske shrugged. "I don't know, perhaps when the ship is upright and safely secured. Dimaethor will probably be on his way by now, but I don't think he knows where my hiding spot is. As long as we move quickly, we won't be found. Now shut up." He ran a hand through his golden hair, rolling his eyes. Resting against the wall, he sighed, bracing himself against the wall as the ship was righted.

"You ever been here? Ashanti? I think I have a brother here..." He gave a hallf-smile, adding, "They've got a nice brothel where there's only men working there. The entire red light district is nice..." He yawned, rolling his shoulders. "I've got some money tucked away, we could go out tonight..."
 
Tiris' stomach turned as the ship turned right side. For a moment he thought he might get nauseous but as he steadied his breathing it started to fade. His hands against either side to hold him up right, he looked up at Oriske. Up right and safely secured was all they might have to wait for before getting the hell off this flying death trap. The bounty hunter nodded as he looked away a moment. When he was told to shut up he did toss the other man a scowl but for the sake of not being found he remained quiet.

Then to his surprise Oriske started talking. Didn't he just tell Tiris to shut up? Oh how this irritated the brunette elf. "Yes... I've been here once... I think... Didn't you just tell me to shut up? Why are you talking?" He grumbled at the other. He had been here once before but it was to capture a bounty and it was a long time ago. The man didn't remember much from then. His brows raised curiously as Oriske started talking about brothels and... going out?

"Are you asking me on a date? To a whore house? Because that's just weird..." He said dryly. Though visiting a brothel was not a bad idea... He kept that to himself.
 
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