Pirate Age: The Golden Era

[Capt. Blu]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Collab: @Grothnor and @Capt. Blu[/BCOLOR]​

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[BCOLOR=transparent]Location: Yula Fei --> Bathhouse[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Time: First day of R&R[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Ray shook his head amusedly at Luro's pestering antics, glad to be back with his friends. Seeing Kadi's response, however, had him laughing out loud. Once they came ashore, Ray took advantage of the hospitality afforded to them, drinking and partying with anyone who would. After a long night of celebrations, he found himself alone in a bath, enjoying some time to himself, much like he had some two years prior on the eve of the Battle of Yula Fei.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]He began reflecting on the past 2 weeks of seemingly nonstop action and emotion. [/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent]It all began with a rendezvous and questions, and it ended with only more questions....[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Was there anything real between us, or was it just me?"[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]"It was my mission to get close to you."[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]"Dammit, Lisset, that's not what I mean! We loved each other, didn't we?"[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]"My mission-"[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]"Damn your mission, do you love me or was that just another lie?"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]All I got for an answer was silence... and a seastone truncheon from the marines waiting to ambush me. After all these years, she still has her fucking claws in me![/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent] He slammed his fist into the water, feeling awkward from the lack of hard impact. After a few sullen moments, Ray moved on to reflect on the prison break. [/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent]At least she isn't the only woman who has a grip on me. [/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent]He smiled, grateful that he helped rescue Runali. He sighed, and slid deeper into the bath, letting his tension, and filth, wash away.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Location: Port Hurasai --> Durant's Departure[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Time: The Second Day of R&R[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]The morning after, Ray saw off Durant and his crew, alone. "Hey, Durant, uh..." Ray looked aside awkwardly before swallowing his pride and speaking up, "I owe you. For rescuing the Captain. So if you ever need help... well, just ask. I'm sure the rest of the Stardusk'd be glad to help too."[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"What, ask for help from a filthy Lendrian? I'll pass." Durant rolled his eyes.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"I always pay my debts, Durant."[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Durant sneered, "Yeah, if I knew you were just trying to rescue your woman, I wouldn't have bothered."[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Ray blinked and blushed, "What? No, she's not-" before scowling, "You inconsiderate ass, I'm trying to thank you and- look, she's just my Captain."[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"So she's not your woman, but you want her to be, is that it?"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"No! I- it just would be improper for someone of her rank to... fraternize with her crew."[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"That is it!" Durant grinned, enjoying Ray's discomfort.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Go drown, you ass." Durant only laughed, casually waving goodbye as Ray responded with less charitable gestures.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Location: Port Hurasai -->The Cutthroat Departure[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Time: Day Before the Stardusk Departure[/BCOLOR]

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[BCOLOR=transparent]Hana looked over aup Alicia with a struggling, confident expression before saying her final goodbyes. A few days before, she managed to get a moment of the swordswoman's time in order to talk to her in order to speak with her. She poured her heart out, so desperately wanting to join Alicia and the Stardusk on their travels, but knowing full well that she wouldn't have been able to handle it. Hana had been reassured that not everyday they decided to break into high security prisons, but the young woman the young womanhad made her decision. "I need to become stronger… Braver… I have to this for myself first." [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]She hated to be so dependent on Alicia's every move, feeling as if she was a burden. With a life of adventure, the last thing she wanted to be was a liability in the face of the countless dangers. Out at sea where life was always an adventure, she didn't want to be the liability. So, she decided to return home with the Cutthroats, taking the time to learn how to be someone better. She vowed that the next time they met, she wouldn't be the same Hana they had met before scared Hana they had met before. And now, as she sat in the boat, waiting for everyone to say their goodbyes, she was feeling a little more confident with her plans. [/BCOLOR]

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[BCOLOR=transparent]"Oi, princess. It was a fun 'venture. Thanks again for pickin' me up when ya did. Saved me one helluva trip." Saffron crossed her arms as she spoke to Alicia. "Ya know you'd make one helluva first mate- at least better than those other buffoons." Her thumb jutted towards the rest of the Stardusk crew as she laughed. Her thumb jutted towards the rest of Alicia's crewmates, reminding everyone that she definitely was still a Cutthroat pirate. "Should consider it. Captains need their first mate." [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Walking over to Runali, who was saying her goodbyes to Cecilia, she grinned and gave a salute. "Can't wait to see you guys back on yer feet, sailin' and doin' big things! Better not keep us waitin'. Before ya know it we'll be rivalling the Pirate Lord herself, ya can't fall behind!" Her expression became a bit more somber. "Oh and if I hear anything about Jemima, you'll be the first to know."[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"R-...Right. Thank you." [/BCOLOR]

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[BCOLOR=transparent]"Miss Saff, be-" Dani swallowed and gave a deep bow, her eyes shutting tight. "Before you go, after everything that you've done for me…" She wasn't use to not having the right words to say. She wasn't used to pleading like this either. With a small gulp she continued, a bit slower so her accent wouldn't thicken and make it harder for Saff to understand.. "I recently lost all that I had. There's nothing left of me besides my name and my sword. But if you are willing-" Dani's head was still bowed but she paused when she felt the hand on her shoulder. She allowed her head to be lifted and she stared at the orange gleaming goggles in front of her. It was hard to tell the expression behind them, but the large woman waited.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Saff said nothing at first, choosing to examine Dani a bit closer. After a few moments of silence, Saff lifted her goggles and smirked. "The smooth talkin' is for the captain, not me. But, I can say captain would adore a new lass for the crew-" She chuckled and looked behind Dani. "More like two new ones to her crew. Cecilia was it? Don't stand around, on the boat. Both of ya." The thief perked up almost instantly. Without a moment's hesitation, she was on the boat eager to have new friends. The taller woman nodded, whispering a thanks. She gave a quick salute to the Stardusk crew before following Cecilia. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Oi! Belen! Keep lollygaggin' and yer stayin' here!" It was an empty threat considering Saff's whole mission was to bring Belen home but nonetheless, the feisty navigator quickened her goodbyes. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Make sure it's not a whole two years before I hear from you again, okay Kadi? Also, you guys, don't die again! I'm waiting for the day you guys take on the big bads and rise in the ranks! That'll be a sight to see!" Belen grinned before she ran off to catch up to the boat that was slowly drifting away. She jumped and Dani managed to catch her arm and pull her the rest of the way in one smooth motion. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Ooh, I like you- Not funny Saff!" [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"You were movin' to slow. Besides, you're probably just-" The rest of the argument was hard to hear as they grew farther and farther apart. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Location: Port Hurasai [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Time: A Whole Week of R&R Later[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"So...it's not the Coral Pearl." Runali looked around at the ship they were currently standing on. During the long week of recuperating, the captain borrowed one of the many transmission radios Yula Fei had to offer and a merchant/tradesman's time in order to 'buy' a new ship since she refused to take any of the Yula Fei ones. Although, buying became more of an IOU because obviously she didn't have the money to buy a pirate ship. But that was neither here nor there at the moment.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]A few Yula Fei soldiers were quietly carrying cargo boxes onto the new ship's deck for the group to reorganize later. Runali continued, leaving the soldiers to it, "Besides the little work to have it ready to handle anything and everything, she's still a nice and sturdy ship- I had Luro check it over last night so we've got a thumbs up. Right, Luro?" She tapped the floorboard with her foot. [/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent]"Name's Lady Luck, nice right[/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent]? Well-!" Runali was about to turn to the main mast, but paused in her tracks. [/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent] [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Ah, right, right. I should be a little more formal here." She cleared her throat and looked at each one of them. "To the world, the Stardusk- well, we died that day two years ago. Two years and like three weeks give or take. It's been awhile- anyway. As captain, I take full responsibility in allowing our adventure to be cut shorter than intended. But, as the captain- if you'll allow me, we can all set sail once again- and be better than ever!" She gave a somewhat sheepish laugh. "So? Whaddya say? Care to sail the seas with me again? As a crew, old and new~?" Saying 'new', of course she looked in Aidan's direction, still amused and excited that he agreed to joining the crew- more or less, but who cared about frivolous details. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]The reaction she got was expected, but still heartwarming nonetheless. It had been awhile since she was as happy as she was. With an uproarious cheer, she yelled, "Let's set sail!" [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]The new flag was raised. Their jolly roger, similar to the mark of a Stardusk was a skull with a star over the left eye and a single ribbon around it. A new detail Runali took pride in was, now in an effort to be even more 'official', the jolly roger was also painted across the sails to mimic the flag. There was something special and symbolic about seeing the reveal of their jolly roger for her. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Are you crying?" Runali forgot the soldiers that were transferring their cargo were still on the ship. One had been waiting to let her know they had finished the job.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"No... being half blind makes my eyes...water sometimes." [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"You do realize that's not a thing that happens...right? Anyway, all the cargo's on deck." [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]The captain sighed and pointed them off the ship, thanking them and the others that were seeing them off. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Location: Setting Sail → Île du Ver Rouge[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Time: 3 days since Yula Fei, Present Time[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Runali had spent most of their trip, save for meals with the crew, on the deck staring out at the ocean. There was nothing spectacular about the sight, but the idea of just how open and free they were was comforting. At that present moment, it was early afternoon and Runali was sitting on the edge of the ship, looking over a map Kadi had given to her. He asked her which way they should head, but she was still making up her mind as to which way they should start their adventure again. There was no such thing as picking up where they left off if that was in the middle of nowhere.. "Hm...so, we're here, yes?"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Aye, captain." [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Hm…" [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Hmm…" Ray poked his head in at the chart, noticing an island near where Runali was pointing. "I heard something about this place," he pointed to an island labeled 'Île du Ver Rouge'. "When I was working with the Separatists, I heard the Royalists were planning an expedition to there. It's supposed to be a deserted island, but I heard there was some kind of temple there that they were planning to loot. The Separatists had bigger targets that needed dealing with, so they ignored it, but I'm thinking we can go in and steal whatever the Royalists are planning to take from right under their noses. If they're outfitting a full expedition to find it, it has to be valuable. And best part; the Royalists aren't supposed to exist, so they can't go complaining to the navy that a bunch of Pirates screwed them over. We'll be making a nice profit and be keeping a low profile. And if it's morals you're worried about, have no fear; these Royalists are people who think conquering and slaughtering Lendrians is a good thing." Ray looked to Aidan. "You know, that one nation that's part of the World Government? Stepping on their toes helps everyone: us, Lendrians, The Navy, and anyone else who isn't a racist warmongering Ceranian fruitcake with more money and spare time than sense."[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]The captain listened intently, debating on whether or not that's where they should go. There was very little debate after Raymond mentioned looting a temple, but she decided not to cut him off. She even grinned when he catered to Aidan's 'pro-navy' ideals. "I think that settles it!" Runali hopped into a stand, still on the ledge of the ship. It was almost expected for her to stand on a mock podium just to get everyone's attention. "I don't see any harm with a few pirates stepping on toes. So, we're going to… Ah, Ray mind repeating that name again?" [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"'Île du Ver Rouge'"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Right. 'Illle de Vur Rouge'!"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"'Île du Ver Rouge'." [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Aye. We're headed that way!" [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Ray rubbed his temples. "Your Ceranian is atrocious."[/BCOLOR]

 

[Mizos]

Location: Port Hurasai Cutthroat departure

Luro had kept his distance during the goodbye's only approaching when the Cutthroats actually started leaving, he had a feeling Kadi might be in a mood with his lover leaving, and they were near water he wasn't in the mood to go for a swim again. Though it was hard not to approach at Belen's comment, a smile forming on his face at her expectations of them. With the Stardusk back together grand adventure was the only real option, he'd expect no less from his crewmates and captain. He did feel bad seeing Hanako go, he didn't get a chance to see the true bloodlust of Alicia's student, he hoped that would change one day. He waved goodbye to the departing Cutthroats yelling at them before they got too far away.
"Tell Ozz she's still one of my favorite mistresses!" Luro yelled. "See you guys soon!"
Luro took the time to say goodbye to a few cohorts he had gotten to know during their venture, he made sure to find Banon to say a proper goodbye as well, and started to approach Durant but seeing he was talking to his best friend Ray decided to let them have their moment. The meat shield pirate left with his brother a day before and Luro promised that one day he would use him as a proper meat shield if they ever met again, he didn't seem too ecstatic about it for some reason but didn't seem against meeting again.


Location: Aboard Lady Luck.
Time:Departing from Yula Fei.

Luro was having a conversation with a few workers trying to figure out how much rum was being put on the ship and why there wasn't anything throne related being added. The workers seemed to know the answer to the first question but the second one Luro never received an answer too, he considered going to talk to the queen but staring into Yula Fei realized he had forgotten where exactly she stayed again. He stared at the palace wondering if someone inside would know but at the captain's words put the thought aside since he had been called for his opinion. With a grin Luro gave a firm nod and pat the side of the ship.
"Aye she doesn't have the heart of the Coral but she's a fine ship," Luro said. "We have enough wood for basic repairs and the quality's not too bad, could be better but it'll get us where we need to go. When we reach a town I'll get some extra wood and reinforce some key areas just to be safe, but I gave her a good polish since I was up anyway...though washing the ship part near the water was probably a bad idea...the polish will wash off."
Luro brought a hand to his chin just realizing this fact but lowered it at the captain's comment.
"Hahaha you already know I'm with ya captain. Just pay me in rum and tell me who to shoot, I don't care which order it's in," Luro said grinning at her. "Wait I need gold to buy rum though...so if I have the gold I can buy the rum...but if I'm just buying drink anyway...ah I was always bad at commerce. Whatever you think is best captain."

Luro looked up at the flag and chuckled at the symbol, sailing under the banner of a pirate was always invigorating and seeing the Stardusk mark again made a warm feeling spread through his chest. Reaching over he placed his fingers over the tattooed symbol on his chest, there were many times when he'd look at the symbol during his travels. Sometimes it kept him from feeling alone and seeing his comrades again he started to wonder if this was a magnet. He looked up at the captain at the worker's comments and chuckled pointing at her.
"Hehe the captain's got feelings," Luro said smiling a little.

Location: Lady Luck
Time:Present

Luro spent the first few days on the ship trying to drink with Aidan and messing with his rifle, he sat on the end of the ship taking it apart and putting it back together. He'd strip it down to the bare essentials, put it back together a different way only to take it apart and put it together correctly checking to make sure it fired and repeating the process. The remainder of the time he tried to figure out more of what everyone was doing on their own, except for Kadi who he tried to get juicy details of his nighttime events from, away from railings. Once content he sat on the edge of the ship watching the sea in silence for the remainder of the time. At the comment of their next destination however Luro turned to look at the captain actually curious where they were going to go. Ray seem to offer a suggestion though he had no idea what exactly he was talking about, the only words he truly caught were valuable and morals.
"What do morals have to do with this?" Luro asked Ray. "We have plenty of rolls in the kitchen right? Ray if you eat too many of those you'll start getting a gut like Alicia, be careful."
The captain seemed to decide Ray's suggestion s as their next destination so Luro smiled and nodded to show he was okay with heading there as well.
"I'm not really a wine guy but I'm all for stealing something valuable, if we're sailing to get it this du Rogu wine must be good."




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[Capt. Blu]

Collab: @Grothnor and @Capt. Blu​

Location: Île du Ver Rouge' → Somewhere in the Forest

It didn't take too long for the ship to finally reach the island. In that down time, besides asking Ray a bit more about the Royalists and Separatists, she pestered him about the name of the island. After the third or fourth time of terribly mispronouncing Île du Ver Rouge', she started to just mess with him on purpose.

The ship docked on a clear reef. It was clear enough to see groups of fish scattering towards the ocean when the ship disrupted the peace. The white sandy beach was as far as Runali could see, on either side. Ahead of them was a huge forest and it seemed to encompass the majority of the island. While they were on the ship, if they were paying attention, the group could see what looked like the very top of a temple, just barely visible through the ocean of trees.

"Well, it looks nice." The captain started after she hopped into the sand. "I was expecting more of a raid, but anything uninhabited is easy pickings!" It wasn't very often the Stardusk had a stroke of luck that consisted of free treasure, so Runali went with it. Before she took another step forward, she nudged Kadi ahead. "Looks easy to get lost in. You're our best bet to avoid running in circles." She laughed and motioned for everyone to follow. "I say, we just head forward, North. Either we'll get to that temple of treasure or end up on the other side of the island. Fifty/fifty is good odds to me." Realizing Ray might have known a little more about this island than he had mentioned before, she turned to look his way. "Whaddya think Ray?"

"Well, translating Île du Ver Rouge from Ceranian, you get 'Island of the Red Worm'. I can't see anything red or worm-like from here, though it could be named after anything. Explorers tend to be an eccentric bunch.... not unlike us, I guess. I heard there's an Island somewhere named 'Soditall', so this place could have been named after some culinary accident involving spaghetti stained with beet juice for all I know."

The group trekked forward into the thick forest. The farther they went, the harder it was to simply walk through. Vines and branches alike would tangle and block their paths and no matter how many times they'd cut or break them, it seemed as though more would take their place.

Flora was definitely against them, but at least the fauna remained at a decent distance. Monkeys had swung from the trees above, curious about the strangers, but not daring to come close. Birds made themselves scarce when the group got near. A few times, a wild boar would run past, only moving faster to avoid being captured by any of the Stardusk almost as if it knew there was a chance of endangerment.

"Hm. Is it just me, or are these animals avoiding us?" Runali was almost positive she had seen that same boar running away from them before. With a sigh, she rested her back against a tree trunk and looked around, trying to formulate a plan. While she did, something large shifted behind her and farther up the tree, shadowing them.

"Guys, a little difficult to think when all that hissing is-"

The captain whirled around away from the tree, only to be met by a large anaconda, staring at the group with its beady eyes. "Good to know there are other animals that get entirely… too large."

"Well, that could be considered a worm, of sorts." Ray remarked casually. "It looks like a constrictor of some sort, so don't let it wrap around you. It isn't red, so I don't see how- oh there's one." Ray pointed out another gigantic snake slowly slithering towards the crew. "That one's red, and going by the stripes, it looks poisonous. Best steer clear of that." More giant serpents began slithering out of the foliage or many different varieties, and the crew soon found themselves surrounded. "Oh dear. Looks like we stumbled into trouble. Again." Ray remarked dryly, drawing his cutlass and forming an ice pistol in his other hand.

"Stumbling into trouble. It's like the fine print of a Stardusk, yeah?" Runali had taken enough slow steps to return back to the group. While she slowly removed her sword from her hip, she spoke. "I'm taking a guess it's a slim to none chance they'll let us go without a fight."

The snakes decided to respond in kind. Almost like a domino effect, once the one Runali encountered lunged forward, the rest followed suit, attacking whichever pirate they could get to.

"Alright guys. You know the drill. Don't die!"

 

[Mizos]

Location: Île du Ver Rouge' trailing behind

The moment Luro set foot on the sands of the island he felt a shiver creep up his spine, his gaze moved back to the ship at this and the feeling faded as a small relieved sigh escaped from him. His instincts kicked in without him knowing, this was the first time in two years he had been on an island without being stranded. A part of him wanted to look back and make sure the ship was still intact, spending all that time on the island made it hard to determine what was real anymore sometimes, granted he was having trouble with that now but it was worse when stranded. He wouldn't be surprised if he woke up right now and was still alone on that island with his magnificent beard, everything up until now a dream. Luro reached up and rubbed his chin, feeling nothing but smooth skin he looked back at his fellow crewmates and continued walking. He much preferred their company over glasses Luro, he was a bit of a jerk.

Occasionally Luro would reach over and run his fingers along the wood of the trees as they walked, he'd knock on them only to realize he was falling behind and would rush to catch up. He didn't pay too much attention to the history of the island, he was still trying to figure out why there was wine in a temple. He heard that aged wine was good but how long had this temple been here? If the wine's been aging for hundreds of years was it still any good?
"I hope this wine is good Ray, though if it's as old as the temple that means it's aged for a long time right?"
Luro spent most of his time ducked down due to the vines as he kept getting tangled in them no matter which direction he tried to move in, he generally just asked for help if he got stuck which happened often. At the captain's question he looked up at one of the monkey's before scratching his cheek.
"Maybe our expressions are scaring them, Kadi and Aidan should try smiling more and seeing if that calms them down. Alicia hide your face so it doesn't scare them," Luro said giving a small nod. "Excessive manliness probably seems threatening."
Luro started to hand Alicia a cloth to hide her face when the hissing reached his ears, by time he turned to check on the captain the snakes were already surrounding them. Luro grinned and grabbed and flexed his hands spreading his feet apart slightly.
"Talking to snakes normally doesn't work captain, unless you give them a potato first. I don't think we have any though," Luro said. "So we should just solve this with necessary violence."

Luro turned and leapt out of the way of one of the snakes stumbling back a bit into a tree as the slithering creature ducked into the bushes afterwards. He got a tad separated from the others but since they were still in sight he wasn't too worried.
"Aye captain!" Luro responded. "Don't worry if you get bit I think Alicia remembers your name so we'll write it on your tombstone!"
Luro turned seeing the snake lunge at him, he turned his body sideways narrowly dodging the attack before grinning and raising his arm to grab his rifle, however as he tried to grab it he found his arm wouldn't budge. Looking up he noticed his arm was caught in vines again.
"Why is nature mean today?"
Luro grabbed his arm and started yanking on it, a hiss reaching his ears as he tried to get his arm free. He stared at his trapped arm for moment, then his free arm, than back at his trapped arm. He glanced back to see the snake had shown itself again and just as it leapt again Luro drew the gun with his free arm and fired. The bullet pierced the snakes' skull and Luro watched it fall to the ground. Raising his rifle he repeatedly slammed it down on the snake's head before before poking it with his foot. These things were good at playing dead, and cutting of their heads didn't always work, a double tap was a good idea in this case. After a bit of effort he got his arm free and grabbing the deceased reptile threw it over his shoulder before going to check on his friends.
"I'm going to make your skin into a fancy holster, that way you don't go to waste," Luro said patting the snake.

 

[Arcadius]

Location: Lost in the Genius Loci
The new ship didn't feel right under his feet, not yet anyway. It all came way too soon, way too quick, this jump back into the old life. Not that he didn't wanted it, after all he intentionally sought the old crew, but before he knew it, the old crew and the old life just sucked him back in. Night instantly, they replaced the ship, and things were just as they have been two years ago...

Well, not completely.

"Luro?" he finally spoke. For the last two days, he stalwartly responded to Luro's questions about his love life with Belen with scandalously detailed silence. Instead, he stared onto the horizon, hoping three weeks ago would somehow appear there, and would take Arcadius with them. He was already deeply missing Belen, doubly so because of her last words. Two years time, beautiful. Damn it all, woman, what sort of sins have you had to commit so that Providence would send someone like me into your life? Someone you'd wait for... The train of thought stopped there. It was absurd Belen, well, 'waited' for two years, but she still remembered, and cared... And then you invaded her life once more, when things seemed hopeless, and saved her like a knight in a shining armour. I'm worse than laudanum addiction, aren't I? Almost gone, almost broke your heart, almost out of this, and then I show up again, and two weeks later, gone again. Ain't life grand?

"Luro?" he repeated again, breaking the one sided silence. "Are we the same crew, still? All of us are here, sure. Almost all. Pearl ain't. Lady is a fine ship, no doubt, and she will serve us well. But Pearl was part of us just as you and me. Would you still be the same crew if I was killed at Kane Artem, and Belen was here instead of me?"

Location: Aile Defer Rogue
"Of course it is uninhabited. Who would live in a place they can't pronounce the name of? Common sense, I say. Or murderous fauna and flora, but I'd bet on the linguistics, captain. Words definitely killed more people than venomous snakes." The island looked pleasant enough, though, and after noone managed to be killed by random falling coconut, Arcadius was feeling like cutting the place some slack. Bonus points for causing painful nonlethal head trauma to Luro would not be awarded, though.

"Well, why could they animals fear us? I'd imagine they either are scared by the unknown actors in their environment, or by the very well known predators in their environments. And I could try to smile, Luro, but I will not be responsible for the streak of nightmares and bet wetting on your side that will follow up to that," Arcadius finished his observation on the animal behaviour. "Well, whoever's doing the snake hissing impression, it seems to be scaring them away too. Odd though, I don't think snakes are usual predators to apes..." he continued, turning around to face the huge reptile, sizing them up like a general would with a battlefield before a skirmish.

"Actually..." he wheezed out in a manner that definitelly placed him under Alicia in the manliness spectrum. "You see... there are certain hypotheses that human are related to monkeys..." he continued. "This one looks like he'd be interested in some empirical teeth-on research through logical induction... and he brought colleagues, too..."

A small, rainbow-coloured snake jumped at Arcadius from a tree branch somewhere up above them. Before the vaunted research fellow could completely establish his argument, the navigator put a bullet through its head, the energy of the projectile practically disintegrating the front half of the animal. His stretchered arm, holding his pistol, proved a simple target for a large constrictor that extended from another branch. The snake wrapped itself around his forearm lightning-quick, while still holding onto the branch. Immobilizing his one arm, the reptile went for Arcadius' neck, hoping for a quick knock-out.

Working with knife in his non dominant hand was hard, especially under the threat of inglorious death and gravestone with a typo in his name. The knife's sheath was on the wrong side of his body, and it took strength and focus he needed elsewhere to rip the knife out. He could feel the snake beginning to squeeze his neck, making his head pound. The sudden pressure made him almost faint. The snake looked into his eyes, and Arcadius felt he saw a small glint of malicious intelligence there, before his vision went all blurry. By that time, he was already feeling the cold blade trying to push in between his and the snake's skin. The sharp blade cut him as he clumsily pushed on it, twisted it, and cut off the snakes head. The spasm of the animal's body as it lost it's head nearly strangled him, and he lost his balance and fell on the ground. His hand was still stuck in the dead snakes embrace, and kept him from falling completely, instead pulling him into an awkward sit. His air-starved, pressured brain found it funny, the idea of him sitting here, with snake's cut off head in his lap, his hand held up by a headless snake's body, while everyone around him was shooting.

In the midst of the chaos, Arcadius started giggling.

 

[CrossJustX]

[BCOLOR=transparent]
Aidan burrowed his brow as he felt his hand slapping the back of his neck once more after more bugs began to swarm in the group's trail. As Ray responded to the captain, Aidan piped in. "You don't know? Then why com-" He paused mid-sentence, the sensation of insects fluttering about was already taxing what little patience he had for this current trip. Sure he could've remained on the ship… but there were only so many ways you could pass the time without consorting with pirates so he spent it checking inventory, counting inventory, & inspecting inventory. The Stardusks weren't exactly masters of logistics but even counting bottles of rum lost its charm after a few days. [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent] [/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent]With nothing to break the boredom in sight he decided to follow the Stardusks up onto Jungle Island, The infamous Island of Jungle or whatever folly they were wrapping themselves into this time. As the group stopped to take a break, Aidan caught his breath & placed his hand on a tree. He felt his neck shudder as the jungle shifted & crawled around the group constantly, way too many things moving for Aidan to be comfortable. [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]"Rayne, why are we here?" Aidan hadn't bothered to keep up with the story but if he knew why they were there the faster they could be off the forsaken Jungle Bugs island, infamous for its jungles & bugs.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent] [/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent]"What, weren't you listening?" A mosquito buzzed onto Ray's neck and instantly froze solid as it tried sucking his blood. "There's treasure here, something valuable in that temple we saw a ways off. We wanna snag it before the Royalists do. And it's 'Ray', by the way. Short for Raymond?" He hacked away at some shrubbery impeding his path.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent] [/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent]"Oh… well you'll have to forgive me, I have a slight tendency to blank out to the sound of Burros, I mean Luro's voice. I should see a doctor so if you just drop me off at the next marine headq- I'm sorry, did you say 'Royalists'? As in we are fighting against a member of the world government?"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent] [/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent]Ray rolled his eyes and sighed at having to explain things again. "No, they're Ceranian radicals who want to take over Lendria, which [/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent]is[/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent] a World Government state. Officially, they don't exist, but they've been growing in strength over the past few decades and now have a private army and flotilla."[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Sounds very illegal..." Aidan seemed to look off as if he'd been distracted. Something was [/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent]moving[/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent] and it was making him incredibly uncomfortable. "Hey... I th-" But before he could figure it out snakes began to whip out of the trees as Runali ordered the pirates to stay alive.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]"No! This isn-" Aidan quickly spun on his heels and gripped a snake right below its jaw as it lunged for him. He spun its body & slammed it into a tree. "This isn't how any of this works!"[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Snakes do not hunt in packs!" Aidan cried out as he kept ducking from side to side, more distracted by the fact of the snakes rather than the fact they were trying to killed them[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent] [/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent]Ray slashed at a snake who got to close, cutting open it's snout, seemingly only making it angrier. "Snakes shouldn't be this big either, Aiden. Then again, I shouldn't be able to do crap like this:" He fired off his ice pistol, discarded it and formed another just in time to pierce through the snake's exposed palate and into the brain as it opened it's mouth to lunge. "There's plenty of things in this world that should not be, but are."[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Aidan ducked once more & whipped out a trench knife from his belt, stabbing a snake's head straight against a tree. "Is this how you live? Fighting disgusting monsters for imaginary treasure? You people are insane. How are you possibly not dead?" [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Lords know," Ray said, smiling, though narrowly avoiding a lunge from another snake. "I guess they have a soft spot for rapscallions such as us."[/BCOLOR]

 

[Capt. Blu]

Collab: @Grothnor and @Capt. Blu​

Location: Île du Ver Rouge' → Meeting the Locals

Alicia wasn't having the best of times trekking through nature that decided to fight and pull at her kimono and hair, but her face didn't show it. As usual, she was as calm as ever- at least calmer than the rest of her crew. She continued hacking away at vines and branches, helping clear the path for the ones behind her. Ones like Luro who managed to get himself entangled in plant traps way too often. "As tall as you are, shouldn't you see these things from a mile away?" Fortunately, she was as vigilant as Aidan as the forest shifted and changed around them. And like their...hostage? 'Plus one'- it was making her uncomfortable.

The awful compliment or the small jab, Alicia couldn't tell but it was insulting all the same made her frown even more at Luro. "I swear, I will-" Unfortunately she didn't get to finish her threat as they were now preoccupied with snakes...and a lot of them. "A-...Aye, Captain." Alicia had been hoping to avoid large reptiles after Nyiri, but she swallowed her surprise and remained behind her captain to assist. This was definitely the Stardusk life.

Captain and swordswoman did a fine job keeping snakes at bay, minus the once or twice of being constricted. The former was just glad she hadn't forgotten how to use a sword in the matter of two years. She was definitely a lot rustier than she wanted to be, but she was sure training with her crew like the old days would help her muscle memory.

One snake in particular, not that much larger from the 'average' snake, caught her attention. Instead of attacking either two females, it slithered past with haste. She followed its line of sight to find her navigator on the ground, laughing without a care in the world. "Uh, Kadi?" He didn't seem to hear her. With a sigh, she left one crew member's side to go to another's.

There was a definitive crunching sound when she jumped on the snake's head. "I see you've hung around Luro long enough to lose your marbles, yeah? Unless of course you never had them ta begin with." Runali held her hand out to help the navigator up, only to be met with a slicing noise above both their heads. Behind them, Alicia offered a small smile as a 'you're welcome'.

As expected the group put up a good fight against the snakes. They had been through enough hell and training alike to fair against them, but that meant nothing when snakes wouldn't stop appearing by the numbers.

Aidan's uproar of things not being 'right' and them not being 'dead' made Runali stop in her tracks and laugh aloud. "What're you talking about? You've never been attacked by a bunch of snakes on a deserted island before? You don't get out do you?" At the question of their well being, Runali had to agree with Ray, even she couldn't give him a direct answer. Although that didn't stop her from making her way to Aidan's side with the most mischievous grin she could muster. "Who knows, maybe you've been dealing with an undead crew this entire time."

"Well…." Ray trailed off, focusing more on the task of not getting bitten, eaten and/or crushed by the snakes instead of bringing up their trip to the locker. That was a whole other bag of worms- heh, like these guys, sorta- for another time.

"As much fun as this is-" She kicked away a smaller snake that was trying to wrap around her leg, "I think it's best we take our leave!" She jutted her thumb behind her. "Can't keep on this path. Looks like there's a pit of 'em that way!" As a group of smaller snakes rushed towards them, she scrambled out of the way to regroup. "Now's a good time to look for an exit."

Unfortunately, the snakes had the group surrounded and were closing in. "Lords dammit, I'm not falling here after everything just to sodding die now! We're gonna get to that Feth-damned temple or my name isn't Raymond Kareth Skalter!"

Just as she was about to search for a way out and also tell Ray to calm down, a volley of arrows flew over them. While a few made contact with the snakes, most hit the ground in front of them. As each arrow hit something, a cloud of gas leaked from theses peculiar arrows and blanketed the air in a somewhat heavy fog. It didn't have much of an effect on them, save for obscuring their surroundings, but the snakes reacted much harsher. With threatening hisses, they all began to retreat and leave them be. It fell silent for a brief moment before Runali spoke. "Huh...ask and you receive? Those lords you yell at must like you"

"They must, Feth knows why. We truly do live charmed lives." Ray smiled at the Captain and offered a silent prayer of thanks to the Lords of Lendria.

The foliage around them began to shift and sway much more than the wind could move them. Alicia was already on guard and the captain followed suit, although more curious than suspicious. Curiosity turned into surprise when almost a dozen people, dressed in skirts made from what looked like the giant leaves overhead, emerged from their hiding spots. They were decorated in paints and tattoos, many with bone piercings in their ears and noses.

"Yeah Ray, 'deserted'. I don't think that word means what you think it means."

"Look, Separatist intel isn't always accurate and-" He shook his head, "Anyway, I'm sure we have to thank our new friends for the fortuitous rescue." Ray stepped forward and bowed. "Thank you for the help, good sirs, I am-"

"You are son of Kareth?"

Ray blinked. "Well…" Ray was aware that Kareth of Lendria, his ancestor and namesake, had a very polarizing effect, so he steeled himself for anything. "...Sort of?"

The natives chatted amongst themselves in their tongue before the first beckoned them to follow him. "Quick, you come with us. More wurm come soon."

"Oh! So that's why it's called- right. Captain?"

"They aren't trying to kill us, they know you, and I'd rather not get attacked by those 'worms' again. So, I say we follow. And get answers along the way of course."

The crew followed the natives, who seemed to slip through the foliage with ease and dexterity. After half an hour of struggling to keep up with their pace, they entered a clearing with several dozen grass huts. Natives began to congregate when they noticed their hunting group come back with extra bodies. The leader of the group that saved the Stardusk shared a few words in their tribal language and after a moment of 'suspense', they began to cheer and lead them off to the center of town, showering them with flower necklaces and fruit and all sorts of gifts. "Well, it's certainly better than getting shot at or chased out, though I don't know what we've done to deserve this… besides having an infamous pirate lord for a great grand-uncle."

Examining the new crown of yellow and pink flowers she was given, Runali could only shrug. She had no idea what was going on, but she id appreciate the hospitality. "You'd think being a pirate was...a good thing or something."

The native who talked earlier clapped his hand on Ray's shoulder, "Tonight, we feast!"

 

[Arcadius]

He finally managed to untangle the damned snake wrapped around his neck and arm. Free finally, he nearly lost his consciousness again when he finally managed to pull a deep breath, making the funny circles on the sides of his vision go away. "Damn it all..." he coughed out in constricted voice. "What in the name of the seven unholy gods was that thing..."

An outstretched arm shoved itself in front of his eyes. He grabbed it, and gave his Captain a nod of appreciation for the gesture of help. "Thanks, Captain," he silently wheezed out. "We need to add iron collars into our equipment. I can't recommend being ambushed by giant constrictor snake. Bad for health, I think. I fear my opera singer career might be irreversibly over." Still, at least his face started to leave out the shades of blue. Wouldn't hear the end of it from Luro if it stayed that way. "Hey, Kadi, why so blue today? Want something to cheer you up? I told Ray to compose a song of one hundred thirty four stanzas about your sexual prowess!" I'd have to strangle the man, and even then I doubt it would shut him up.

The snake ssssituation seemed to be under control for the moment, though, and everyone else managed to go through without further embarrassment or wound. "Well, sir, I'm afraid that while this might be the most absurd skirmish you have ever been through, for us it is Tuesday," he hoarsely said to Aidan as he passed him, the navigator all drenched in snake blood, reloading his pistol. "Let's see how they handle attacking without element of surprise, eh? Can't surprise us if we know they are all around us!"

The sudden volley of arrows made sure they question would lie unanswered. The snakes quickly retreated, and the crew was left wondering exactly what the hell just happened.

"That, or maybe the gods he yells at have something much more sinister and tasty prepared for him, and being killed by a swarm of snakes would simply not do. Hopefully, we're not invited along if that's the case."

Perhaps it was the case. The natives that appeared seemed to know Ray, by name even.

"Captain, are you saying the know the man who just yelled his name across the whole island? And they are not trying to kill us at the moment. I'd be wary about these people. Having your kind of pedigree, Ray, can be very good or very bad. And I'd trade being chased out and shot at for being sacrificed to some blood-crazed god Ray may have accidentally summoned. We best stay suspicious, until we know more."

The notion about feast made Kadi go white-faced. Feast on what, exactly?!​

 

[Mizos]

​

Luro adjusted his prize as he rejoined the crew a grin on his face as everyone seemed to still be alive, he gave a firm nod to the idea of getting out of here. Fun as it was to fight snakes he wanted to get this fancy wine of Ray's so he could try some, if there were snakes guarding such a thing it was probably better than he thought. Luro's gaze moved over to Kadi as he seemed to be a little out of it, though it seemed the captain was helping him out so he checked on everyone else. Luro's looked over at Aidan as the captain made a casual comment in his direction about their situation, Luro smiled a little at this as even Kadi joined in to comfort Aidan.
"You'll get used to it Aidan, even Kadi had it rough at first," Luro said nodding at the man. "Speaking of Kadi having it rough-"
Luro cut himself off during their retreat when they were surrounded by snakes once again, standing back to back with his fellow crewmates the snake on his shoulder bobbing a few times, Luro moved the snake around his shoulders, trying to mimic a fur he'd seen on nobles before grabbing his rifle and loading another shot. He laughed a little as the hissing reptiles steadily got closer, this was a prettying boring way to go but he was sure if he killed a few dozen of them it would make a pretty good story for Davy Jones. Luro knelt down as Ray started yelling only to stop as arrows fell from the sky, he looked up at them blinking a few times as they hit the snakes around them before the smoke blocked his vision, he made no attempt to try and cover his mouth even though he realized it was safe after inhaling it a few times. When everything settled down Luro locked his rifle and returned it to his back before reaching down and plucking one of the arrows out of the ground. Staring at the arrow he turned it over a few times before looking over at Kadi.
"I hope you're right Kadi. Dying to snakes seems like a boring story without a little extra," Luro said raising his head as the sounds got closer. "Oh you're right Kadi something's coming, you wanna guess what it is? I'm going with crocodiles wielding cutlasses."

Sadly Luro was incorrect as people stepped out of the brush, though depressed it wasn't sword wielding animals the moment Luro laid eyes on the strangely dressed helps Luro threw both his arms up dropping the arrow in the process.
"Tattoo buddies!" He exclaimed laughing a little. "Ray I didn't know you had tattoo buddies! You should have said something. This Kareth guy must be popular with them though."
Luro was happy to follow the friendly newcomers, he folded his hands behind his head following behind Ray, while trying to avoid the vines he wondered if they had something to drink wherever they were going. Expecting a tavern might be a bit much on an island but it wasn't impossible, while chuckling at the thought of being able to sit down and take in the sights the right way he caught Kadi's comment on their guides.
"Kadi they're tattoo buddies, besides people normally try to kill me when I say my name this is fun. If this works here maybe we should shout Ray's full name more often. What was his middle name again Satia? No that's the captain's name...it started with a W...I'm sure the Kareth guy Ray knows could tell us."

The moment they stepped into a village Luro eyes lit up and his breath caught in his chest as he noticed the grass hut's surrounding them. This place was beyond fancy, the architecture was so beautiful he could see the care put into the huts, down to the smallest blade of grass. He ran his hand along one of the huts wondering if he could take one with him back to the ship, he would call it his castle and probably never leave. He started to ask the natives when he felt flowers start pelting him in the face. He moved his snake to his shoulder so he could accept the flower necklaces and fruits, thanking them as he was handed gifts. Slipping a few of them into his sleeve he looked over at the captain before arching his brows at her catching what she said.
"Captain being a pirate is a good thing," Luro said with a nod. "Can we stay? Are you curious about their culture? We gotta find out what those arrows were made from, what mixture they used for that gas, how long this village has been here, oh we should learn their language too. Wait there's a pirate lord in Ray's family? Ray why were you ever a noble?! Your family reunions had to be amazing!"​

 

[Grothnor]

Collab: @Grothnor and @Capt. Blu

Location: Île du Ver Rouge' → "Fine Dining"

The captain heard and understood Kadi's concerns, but that didn't change her light heartedness about the situation. "Aw c'mon, look at this cool flower crown. Who takes the time to decorate their food before eating-" She paused and shook her head. "Don't answer that question." She wasn't sure if Kadi had an actual answer, but this was Kadi she was talking to. He probably did the answer to it. Of course, her nonchalantness wouldn't appease the worrisome navigator, so she carried on. "Look on the bright side Kadi!" She gave Ray's shoulder a light pat. "If they're intent on blood sacrifices, they'd probably want to only kill our ice-ssassin. Since they know his name and all. You've got nothing to worry about! ...Not that we'd let them kill you, of course not.'"

"So, uh… what's your name?" Ray asked the native.

"I am Katamasa."

"Katamasa, what exactly will we be feasting upon? Pig? Fish?" He hesitated. "Long pig?"

"Long pig? What is this?"

"...People?"

Katamasa blinked before laughing uproariously and relaying Ray's words to the others, who also laughed. "You are worried we will eat you? Do not be. We only eat 'long pigs' in lean times, and you bring us so much." He pointed to some tribesmen dragging the giant serpents the crew had killed into the village. "You are mighty hunters. I think your tribe not have many lean times."

"Eh, yes, something like that."

To Alicia, since she had ended up next to her, Runali commented. "I s'pose hunting for treasure doesn't count."
They were surrounded by domed shape homes, most made by stones or mud bricks. It was safe to assume that the largest of them, positioned as if to block the sea acted as the leader's home- or at least somewhere important. For such a small village, there was plenty going on. Some of the natives began bringing out gourds filled with fruit wine while others began spitting the snakes and roasting them on fires. And while everyone around them moved this way and that, the Stardusk were ushered in one direction. The center of the village was where everything was taking place; the feast, the celebrating, the dancing, and whatever else they may have missed out on.

"The plan was more of a go in, get stuff, and leave trip. But by the looks of it, we'll be staying for the party too. So, uh, if you can learn all that stuff before we leave then yeah, go for it Luro." It wouldn't be fair to keep the group all cooped together if they didn't want to be. So, she figured as long as they were around to make the trip to the temple they'd be fine. Besides, learning more about the way this tribe of people lived did sound pretty interesting.

Before the captain could get too carried away by the fun of the celebration, she turned her attention to Katamasa. "Hi, yes, captain of this, uh, tribe. Runali." She moseyed her way to where the tribal leader was walking and fell in step beside him. "This is nice and fun. It's always nice and fun not to be shot at but, uh two kind of important questions." As they walked, she gestured towards Ray. "How exactly does a secluded tribe like yourselves know this Kareth? And while we'd love to stay and party," She paused and actually debated returning to the village after their short trip. "we're actually looking for the temple on this island. Maybe you've seen it?"

"Ah, so you saw the great gods' hut. Yes, we knew that is why the son of Kareth has come. Let me explain. When our ancestors first came here from across the great waters, when the world was still young, we found the gods' great hut here. The gods were not there, but we knew they would return someday, so we protected their home until they return. Then, many generations later, the son of the god Lendori, Kareth, came to us. We let him in the hut of his father, but we must have angered him with our caretaking, because Kareth put a curse on us, killing any who entered the gods' hut. Now that Raymond, son of Kareth has come, he may ask his father to lift the curse from us so we may protect the god's hut again from the outsiders who have landed."

"Outsiders?" Ray asked, fearing the Royalists were a few steps ahead of them.

"Two nights ago, my people spotted a large boat on the far side of the island and we went to see the travellers. They were a violent and powerful people. They attacked us as soon as they saw us. We tried to fight back, but their numbers were many and their weapons mighty. We had no choice but to flee into the trees. We watched them from the shadows. They sought to enter the gods' hut, but Kareth cursed those who entered too. They did not stop. Now they try to break into the gods' hut with their mighty weapons. Our warriors are trying to stop them, but I believe it is only a matter of time until they invade the gods' hut. Their intent is not good and I fear they will anger the gods more."

"I feel like 'demigod' would've maybe been kinda important to add when you hopped on the ship, but I won't fault you there. I haven't quite taken a crash course in all of your lives' - 'cept maybe Alicia's." Runali turned her attention back to Katamasa and put two thumbs up. "The son of Kareth here would be honored to lift the curse plaguing your people. As a bonus, we'll help too! By...by getting rid of those invaders for ya."

"Excellent! I will tell the others!" Katamasa began calling out to his tribe.

Ray waited until Katamasa left earshot before whispering to the crew. "Driving off the Royalists isn't exactly how I'd like to do this, but if we steal the treasure before they get it, they wouldn't have any reason to stay. I'd also like to state for the record that I am not, in fact, a demigod. These tribals probably mixed up their Lendori god with my homeland, Lendria. As for curses… well, that could be another tribal mix-up, or…" Ray swallowed, "Well, I guess we'll see when we get there, eh?"

The captain didn't have an issue with the idea of not fighting the Royalists. She decided to trust Ray's judgement on that matter. "Well, demigod or not, you weren't getting special treatment on the ship."

"Pity." Ray dryly snarked.

"But lucky you, you can practice your de-cursing abilities for the people, because we're getting that treasure first, curses or not." They'd dealt with a number of dangerous and strange things, why not add a tribal curse into the mix?

 

[Arcadius]

Location: To serve the Men

Arcadius leaned to the captain, answering regardless to the unfinished and unwanted question. "At the risk of facing penal punishment for insubordination, captain, people who have pretty flowers which can also double as seasoning when boiled in a big pot." He kept a worried, awkward smile of a grimace as he listened to the capn' answer. "Well, you know what they say. Why sacrifice one pirate when you can sacrifice the whole crew? I imagine you get some sort of a bulk bonus with the respective deity. Economy of scales, you know. Modern worshipping trends." Kadi started to realize that trying to evade the potential gruesomeness of the situation with questionable effort at witty humour was proving to be very inefficient.

The conversation that followed brought some solace. "Oh good. We brought the snakes. Now they won't eat us. I quite sure reptile that is mostly just one long intestine will feed them for a long time..."

Few short whiles of exposition later, the situation was laid bare in front of them. "Well, I guess we are doing this, then, yes? Waiting for the Royalists get into the temple, then taking them out from behind, ideally with the help of locals, ideally with them leading the charge?" Arcadius was still not yet feeling like trusting the local population, and should there be a quick charge from the flank, he would find most agreeable to have them go first. "I mean... I suppose we want the same as they do. Get inside. Might as well take more careful approach, and have them do the mapping of the deadly and amusingly cruel traps laid by the entrance?"

 

[Capt. Blu]

Collab: @Grothnor and @Capt. Blu​

Location: Île du Ver Rouge' → Temple of Doom Lendori

"Alright, so it's settled!" Runali clasped her hands together, quieting down the chatter. Complaint, agreement, uncertainty and everything that followed all received a nod from the captain. "Mhm, now that we've gotten all that out are system, Katamasa lead the way!" Despite having such a short rest with all of the celebrating still going on, it was time to get moving. They could make up for that when they got back.

Katamasa was more than eager to oblige. The sooner they could get rid of the curse and those outsiders, the sooner his people could live in peace. Though, 'soon' had slowed down a bit when he realized the 'mighty hunters' were falling behind him as he weaved through the forest. "Must be from different land." He spoke his thoughts aloud, wondering why they weren't efficient travelers like he was. Slowing down, he gave them a small tip. "Keep low to the ground. Stay light on your feet. Avoid the plants from above and the roots below." It wasn't much, but it was enough to get the Stardusk moving a little faster through the forest. Even it was just a little.

"This place is...farther than I thought." Runali mumbled after another moment of some article of clothing getting caught by a branch.

"We stay far. Protect the people and keep the gods happy.."

"...Right."

Once more, they were at a standstill, but this time, they were across from the temple entrance. Between them and the temple was a short, clear path. "Wait." Katamasa crouched in the bushes and pointed upward at the temple. It was structured like a large step pyramid, and on the lowest of these 'steps', a group of people were moving back and forth. Some hovered a little behind, carrying bags of equipment while others began setting things near the temple wall. It wasn't easy to see, but it was clear that whatever they were setting up was going to be at least a little destructive. Ray surveyed the people, relaying his thoughts.

"There seem to be plenty of Royalists here. Look there." He pointed to a small handful of heavily armed troops guarding a collection of supplies. "Picks, shovels and barrels, full of gunpowder, I'd bet. Looks like they don't want to try entering the temple through the entrance. Going by their numbers and disposition, I don't think it'll be too long before they get inside, maybe by the end of the day, tomorrow tops before they get in. Damn..." Ray pointed out a pair of women standing towards the top of the pyramid. "See them? We don't want to tangle with them. They're Songbirds: elite Royalists agents. If they know we're here, they'll go to any lengths to hunt us down and take us out, up to and including burning our ship and theirs to make sure we can't escape. I doubt we could snag anything they take out with them guarding it, so if we want whatever they're after, we'll have to beat them to it."

"Oh. Yeah, okay. Just get through the Temple before they do. No problem. Bonus if they don't see us rush in." Runali stood back up from her hiding spot and gestured for them to get ready to run.

"I go no further. Gods do not like when we intrude. I must return home to protect my people."

Runali nodded and offered a thumbs up. "You go back. If we're not out by sunrise then we're probably lost in the jungle. Don't worry, we got it… More or less." She didn't bother mentioning the possibility of them dying. There was no need to worry Katamasa...or the rest of the crew. The native gave a firm nod and a 'good luck' before disappearing into the trees. "Alright pirates- pirates including you Aidan. Actually, just assume you're always included when I say pirates. Anyway! Move it or lose it!"

While the group prepared to make a run for it, Katamasa had a plan of his own in mind. He slipped through the trees, staying quiet and unseen as expertly as he could. As he created his path Katamasa began tying vines together and positioning branches to snap back upon impact. Instead of going home as he said he would, the man slipped into some bushes closes to where the Royalists were keeping their equipment. He had to be a distraction so the group could pass through safely. Surveying the outsiders, he spotted a few he could take down silently. As many as there were, thinning the pack also sounded like it would help the small crew.

Swiftly and quietly, he managed to take out four of the Royalists, two on different sides, until someone noticed the last man's body being dragged into the bushes. "It's those brutes again! Stop them!"

"Where are they!?"

The uproar only caused some of the Royalists to avert their attention from the temple, however it was enough to ensure that most eyes weren't on the Stardusk crew as they made their way into the temple.

The short run was pretty anticlimactic and the captain couldn't tell if they had been seen or not, however the sudden commotion didn't sound very promising. Though instead of going to check, she kept moving further into the temple… That is, until it got too dark to see anything. "Hm… Okay so I may not have fully planned this part out."

"Maybe there are torch sconces? With some torches?" Ray suggested.

"Good idea." Runali snapped and at first gestured for them to search until of course she realized no one would actually see. "Well, only way we can find out is to start searching." She could hear the group shuffling around to find wall space so she followed suit. "You would think a light source would be a key element to building a temple."

After a few moments of awkward shuffling, there was a faint clicking noise. It was hard to say which of the crew pressed what but the sudden row of flames indicated that a light was found. Just as the flames illuminated the hall, the sound of grinding stone could be heard as a section of wall spun… with Ray and Alicia standing on the plate. A sudden vacuum of air sucked them inside before they could react and they disappeared behind the wall as it sealed shut. The crew desperately tried searching for another trigger or some way to pry the secret passage open, but to no avail.

Runali tapped on the wall. "There's gotta be a way to open this again. Or...Or maybe another exit? If you guys can hear me over there, look for another exit or go towards the center of the temple! We'll see if we meet you there!" She hoped they could hear her.

---​

Location: Île du Ver Rouge' → ???

The swordswoman and duelist fell a few dozen feet down a chute, though fortunately their fall was broken by a dense collection of tangled vines. After a few moments of letting their eyes adjust to the again dim lighting, they noticed the floor was only a few feet below them. Their blades cut them loose and they landed on the smooth stone floor. Faintly hearing Runali calling through the wall above, Ray called back, "Sure thing Captain, we'll find our way to you." A dark hallway led out of the chute, the only apparent way out.

 

[Mizos]

​

Luro spent most of his time trying to learn more about the natives and their homes asking questions and observing a few of the objects in their village. He was only pulled from his inquires at Kadi's comment of them leading the charge, Luro turned towards the man and looking back at the natives for a moment pointed at them before speaking.
"That's silly Kadi why would they lead the charge, we're the ones that generally rush into danger without thinking about the consequences," Luro said.
He nodded to Kadi before turning and continuing his conversation with the villager, his large snake had been taken away since it was the tribe's dinner, he was a tad hesitant to part with it but it was hard to say no to these people, they were Tattoo Buddies, it was only right to be nice to them.
When it was time to depart Luro quickly ran to rejoin Stardusk grinning a bit as he couldn't hold in his excitement of breaking into a temple guarded by a harsh god, and they were Ray's ancestor of all things.
"I hope this is like that one time we met your uncle Ray, maybe your ancestor will finally reveal your middle name, what was the guy's name again Kareth or something? This is going to be great!"

Location: Ray's Temple place

The travel through the forest was pretty simple compared to the hiding they were doing in front of the temple, Luro had raised his rifle pointing it at some of the gathered gunpowder getting a tad impatient when it was decided they would need to sneak in. His eyes moved to the woman up top and he listened Ray's vouch of their strength. Returning his rifle to his back Luro stared at the Songbirds bringing a hand to his chin with a slow nod.
"A flaming ship battle..." Luro mumbled closing his eyes. "That sounds really fun..."
He was pulled from the pleasant thought as the group made their way into the temple, he looked over in Katamasa's direction a little jealous that he got the fun job. Upon entering the temple Luro slowed down a bit as they entered the darkness, he started patting his pockets for something flammable when the Captain brought up finding torches.
"That sounds good Captain. Ray next time you eat a Devil Fruit makes sure it has fire powers, so we can find torches easier," Luro said as he started feeling for something to light the room with.

Luro's hand rested on something firm yet soft at the same time, he was confused by the sensation since they were surrounded by stone. He gripped a few times trying to determine what it was, he wasn't entirely sure what he was touching but it was very pleasant to the touch. Eventually the lights came on and Luro found his hand gripping Aidan's posterior. He stared at his hand for a moment before giving the man one final squeeze.
"You got the rear of a lass Aidan, you must exercise them daily," Luro said before he watched the walls take Ray and Alicia.
"Whoa! That was amazing! Captain we have to do that again, Luro started messing with the wall but to no avail, he eventually moved away from it and looked over at the Captain as she brought up meeting up again.
"They'll be fine Captain, Ray's got his devil fruit powers and Alicia's manliness can handle almost anything, they're an unstoppable duo," Luro said before pointing ahead. "Let's keep going."

 

[Arcadius]

​

Location: Run through the jungle
Heat. Humidity. Heel high heliconias.

The deeper the group got into the jungle, the thicker and more tangled the vegetation got. Oh, avoid the plants above and under us? Stay light on out feet? What a capital advice! Don't you say, good chap, we ought to also avoid the... whatever are those brambles with thorns that catch every bit of clothing that just looks in their direction too? Arcadius had enough presence of mind to keep his commentaries on jungle traversal and general expedition to himself, staying silent for most of the trip, trying to light the forest on fire with his frown. "Thought, you say, Captain?" his temper finally slipping his grasp, though hopefully, the acrimonious snide would escape her ears. The navigator's longcoat proved to be exceptionally bad choice of clothing for moving through the thick foliage, once again tattered along the edges.

When the group arrived close enough to the temple to see the tip of the ziggurat structure, and signs of activity by its current inhabitants, rising above the jungle's treeline, Arcadius had his accumulated anger slip out once more. "True great feat of architecture, that. Stones piled upon stones. I wonder how those people plan to damage what seems like a very skilful depiction of a geological bowel movement," he muttered sarcastically from the back.

When they gathered around Katamasa and Ray, who were already observing the more minute details of the camp's dispositions, one thing seemed odd to Arcadius. "Ray, that seems... odd. If these people are as good as you are saying, how come we can observe them and not the other way around? We haven't met any sentries or pickets, yet we are in a position where we can see the whole camp. I doubt people this good would allow the camp's commander have such hole in camp patrols... something doesn't seem right..."

Somehow, once more, the quick and brash solution worked in favour of the Stardusk crew. "We could make torches from clothes and Luro's sweat. I'm pretty sure it has enough alcohol content to be technically considered a brandy." Someone did something, and a series of mine gas fired sconces illuminated the hallway they were in. Arcadius was actually impressed. "Huh. I take it back. Ray, your... whatever is your relationship to this place, this is actually some pretty impressive engineering, gas lanterns working despite who knows how long being left without maintenance."

There was a loud absence of an answer. "Ray?"

He spun around, to not only hear, but also see definite lack of Ray and Alcia. "Ray!"

The spinning section of the wall was clearly marked by the dust that was thrown up when it moved and swallowed the two. "RAAAAAAAAYYY!"

 

[Capt. Blu]

Collab: @Grothnor and @Capt. Blu​

Location: Île du Ver Rouge' → Temple of Doom Lendori

Arcadius, Luro, Captain, Aidan

"It's alright Kadi, Ray's not dead. He said he'd go ahead." Runali moved her ear from the wall and gestured for all of them to keep moving. Luro was right, in his own convoluted way. Ray and Alicia were more than capable of handling a few traps on their own. They'd be wasting time sitting and waiting around for them so the best thing they could do was keep going forward. It had been around fifteen minutes and four of the six remained together as a group still. The group was a bit more attentive, although there was nothing but a straight path ahead of them. Fortunately, the torches continued going down said path.

Along the walls was an unfamiliar script that could have been written by the natives, or even some dead language that was lost to the world. It was hard to say really. Runali knew a limited amount of languages and this wasn't one of them. The pictures, though worn with age, still showed up pretty clear against the dim light. They weren't masterpieces, but they were easy enough to understand. Some followed a sequential pattern, while others were lost to a symbolic translation.

"This one looks like some sort of sacrificing." Runali pointed to one of the multitudes of drawings. There was a male with a snake on its shoulders holding up a sword. The body beneath it was contorted and disfigured and could have been stabbed already. "Or a murder." Runali definitely didn't know how to interpret it, so she left it be.

"Either way, I'm sure there's nothing but bones in this place." It was a little too optimistic for an island infested with various sized snakes, but it was all they had at the moment. "I wonder what this treasure'll-" A protruding floor panel nearly tripped the captain over, but light on her feet she caught herself and stepped over it. "That was a close-" One more step and her heel triggered a tripwire causing the floor under her to open like a hatch. She tried to keep her footing, but all she managed to do was reach out and grab the nearest thing she could. Unfortunately for Kadi, Runali ended up grabbing his sleeve and pulling him down with her. Almost as quickly as they fell through, the hatch closed.

When the captain and navigator landed, instead of a hard thud on solid ground, the two landed on something rather smooth. "Huh. Still breathing Kadi?" There was only a sliver of light from the hatch far too high to be reached, but with that small light, Runali caught a glimpse of what was a snake head facing her. Almost instantly she reared back, only for her back to hit a wall. "It's-! It's...oh it's dead, thank goodness." She sighed and tried to make out the rest of their surroundings. Slowly, she stood and felt around the wall to find a door. To her dismay, all she found out was that the two were in a rather confined space and a few human bones were scattered around.

"You know, I'd be less worried about the fact that we're in a box had there not been dead bodies sprawled around. Or at least what's left of them."

Location: Île du Ver Rouge' → Still on Main Path

Luro, Aidan

Luro and Aidan were left with no way of reopening the hatch that took two more of the crew. The floor didn't offer anyway of hearing the ones below them either, so there was nothing left to do but continue forward.

Another ten minutes passed before the 'new duo' came in contact with anything remotely interesting besides the paintings. The torches began to become more and more spaced out until they were left in darkness. Ahead of them, a dull natural light framed their next destination, and when they looked up they'd see that their 'window' was hundreds of feet above them. In front of them four rows with three pillars each were neatly aligned, and on each there was a different gemstone. On the far side, there was only a wall, but on it was a large smudged and scratched drawing of someone picking up one of the gems. Unfortunately it was hard to tell which one the drawing picked up, but it was safe to say in order to keep going, the two of them would have to figure out which gem to pick up.

Location: Île du Ver Rouge' → Some Secret Passage

Alicia, Raymond

Alicia and Raymond walked through the dark passage for what felt like hours, but was likely just minutes before finally emerging into a great chamber. The room seemed to be split in two with a vast pit in the center. The exit lay on the far side, but the spikes and handful of skeletons lining the bottom meant that climbing or jumping down wasn't an option. The only thing of note on their side was a platform hanging over the pit, seemingly embedded into their side with peculiar grid of floor panels. Stepping onto it, it seemed to glow with some sort of arcane energy, as if it activated by their presence. Ray and Alicia gave each other a puzzled look. They'd have to figure out how to use this arcane construct if they wanted to proceed.

 

[Mizos]

Luro walked with everyone glancing back at the spinning wall as they continued, he ran his hand along the side wondering if another would trigger but after five minutes passed he lowered his hand. This seemed like a lot of trouble for a bottle of wine, when he saw Ray again he made a mental note to inform him about the wonders of Rum again, though after three minutes of walking he forgot what he was supposed to tell him. Kadi seemed more on edge than usual as well, Luro started to offer him a drink from his flask when the captain started pointing out the paintings. Luro walked over and ran his hand over the drawing on the wall, he stood for a moment brushing a bit of the dust off the wall trying to get a good look at them. He wondered if the tribe would know what these drawings meant, pulling out his notebook he wrote within it looking up at the painting every few seconds before he closed it shut.

With a small grin Luro turned only to see the Captain and Kadi fall down what looked like a hatch. Luro quickly ran forward only stepping on the panel himself, he reached forward trying to grab Kadi and his fingers gripped the man's tattered cloak, but all he managed to do was rip off a piece as the two fell. Luro got on his knees as the panel closed and he tried to pull it open but it was basically just a floor now.
"Captain! Kadi!" Luro yelled at the panel. "If you're dead say something! Wait I mean don't say something!"
He went silent for a moment before climbing to his feet and scratching the side of his head, there was no point going back and it wasn't fair that everyone else got to go on fun rides in this temple while he and Aiden were stuck walking.
"Let's keep going, if we're lucky we'll fall down a dark hole too" Luro said. "I hope Kadi's not dead, I know the captain could get out of it, but Kadi is a sailor and he almost drowned, I'm a little worried about him. I mean Ray swam better...and he can't swim at all. We should find them first."

While walking Luro continued taking notes of the paintings to ask the tribespeople what they meant when they saw them again, at least until everything went dark around them. Luro made sure to walk in front of Aiden however, a wise man told him that you should only fondle a man's rear once, right before he was shot in the face for fondling a man's rear twice. With little other choice he walked towards the only light but seeing pillars and not a reachable opening Luro stopped and scratched his cheek.
"Really wish Kadi was here, he's good at not getting lost," Luro said.
Luro walked over to the painting to take more notes but stopped seeing what it was trying to show them, his eyes moved to the drawing, then the gems, then back to the drawing, then back to the gems.
"Hey! I think we have to take those gems!" Luro exclaimed. "The temple wants us to steal from it, it really is watched over by a pirate."
Luro looked up towards the ceiling wondering if he was watching them right now.
"Mr. Pirate god! We're going to steal from your temple!"
Luro gave small nod and walked down the rightmost path, walking up to the gem he reached forward and grabbing it lifted it up.
"Okay let's start with this one," Luro said.

 

[Arcadius]

A collab between Arc and Captn. Blu


Location: Somewhere Down Below

"Well, how do you know that, Captain?" Arcadius asked with notable frustration in his voice. "A wall just swallowed them. Literally. I don't know about you, but that seems like a rather apt moment for a sliver of distress and loud yelling to me." After few moments of trying random bricks and protrusions on the guilty wall, he ran up and joined the rest of the crew, before the light coming from their torches faded away in the distance and he'd be another casualty lost to the temple.

Some distance of the hallway later, the basreliefs on the walls started to appear. First, just writing in some old, forgotten script that used series of small wedges to form words together. To the Navigator, it seem'd it used same basic principle akin to the Feyean script; the wedges formed simplified images of the items and concepts they represented in the language. Of course, it was nigh impossible to discern the actual meaning of the words on a simple glance like this. A "house" or a building was a simple riddle, one would quickly notice walls and roof above a head. How would, however, such culture depict such complicated concepts as "love", "movement" or "tax evasion"?

The further down they went, the complexity of the script was getting less and less. Soon, the wedge pictographs gave space to their original parents, and the basreliefs turned from texts to true works of ancient art, the expressions being simply a series of images sculpted onto the surface of the corridor's ancient walls. Arcadius soon lost track of the information described thereof.

"Sacrifice to a snake god? Murder, no, I don't think so, captain. The snake must mean something. Perhaps the man is controlled by the snake in some form? Could he be a priest of some deity, that is represented by the snake?" Kadi tried to guess the meaning. "Or perhaps he is simply avatar of the snakes. We have seen what those bastards could do, outside. He could simply be representation of the snakes and their pestilence on this isla-"

Suddenly, something gripped the hem of his coat and dragged him away, a gut-clenching moment of uncertain gravity. This was soon rectified, as Arcadius found himself in a sickening fall through the darkness, the light torch flailing in the space somewhere above them. Just as he was expecting his end at the bottom of a pit filled with sharp spikes, the ground appeared, spike-less but still hard.

"I kinda… hope… I was not…" a soft moan came from the dark. "It… hurts… Cap'n… breathing… something… broke… rib… I think… damn… it all…" The torch, extinguished by the fall, dropped next to them, making the bones clatter.


Kadi's breathless answer was the exact opposite of what Runali was hoping for. Her attention quickly turned from finding a way out to finding her navigator. Stumbling over bones and a snake body got a little frustrating, so she began pushing them all to one side of their 'cage'. "Alright, hold on Kadi. I got ya." She followed the sound of his voice until she was able to grab his hands and help him sit up against one of the closest walls.

"Can't see much of anything, but Jem showed me how to figure out this kind of thing. So, just trust me for a sec." She mumbled a silent prayer of thanks to their previous doctor before sitting in front of Kadi. She put her hands on one of his sides, pressing into his ribs and checking for damage but found nothing- or at least hoped she didn't miss it. She did the same for the other side, only to feel a bone sticking out of him. It didn't take a doctor to know that was definitely the cause of his pain. "Oh. Huh. Right, there's that. Weellll," Runali's voice trailed off as she put her hands on the protruding bone. "Good news is, from what I know, none of your ribs are broken. Bad news? Well, ya kinda been stabbed… And this might hurt a bit." She removed the sash around her waist and handed it to the navigator, preparing to use it as a temporary bandage. "I'm going to pull on three, alright? One, two-" Without another warning, Runali yanked the shard of bone from between Kadi's ribcage and quickly began tying the sash around him.

Kadi tried to scream as the pain in his side grew from searing white hot to absolute mind-grinding insanity. The partially collapsed lung failed to provide needed air. The man simply stared at Runali with eyes wide open and his mouth contorted in silent scream. He sagged onto the wall, and for a moment lost consciousness. "Cap… next… time… don't bother… with… count… counting…"

"Okay so maybe you deserve an, 'I told you so'." She could only sigh for the most part. "And we're still-" The box they were in rumbled. It wasn't massive, but it was enough to get both of their attention. Moments after, the sound of rock sliding against each other could be heard as two of the walls began to slowly slide inwards.

The captain was on her feet in an instant. The walls were moving agonizingly slow, but without a way out, there was still no time to waste. Runali tried using all her might to prevent one moving, but to no avail. She tried the other with the same results. "This… Now would be a terrible time to mention how I really, really don't like confined spaces, wouldn't it?" She wasn't actually quite sure when that happened, but she was sure that it did happen at some point in time.

"There are… more apt… places… yes… for example… a cloud factory… I think…" He weakly turned his head, trying to figure out the situation. He watched Runali fail to spot one wall by sheer force alone, failing at that. "Look… around… bones… not… pulverized… must be… something… to stop…" He tried to pull himself up, but just made his head spin again. "Damn… it all... just… find a… spare pelvis… and jam it… under the wall… buy… time…"

 

[Capt. Blu]

Aidan
Location: Main Path, still

Aidan wasn't having a good time. If he had a choice, he would have escaped at Yula Fei if he could, but now he was stuck with a group of pirates whose first instincts were to rush into danger. He heaved a sigh, knowing there was nothing he could do save for continuing to follow the insane bunch.

They hadn't been in the temple for long and not only had he been fondled, but four of pirates had fallen into the temple's traps. "That's just...great." Aidan looked behind him, debating his odds if he just turned around and went back. His experience with 'treasure hunting' was limited, but he didn't have too high hopes that the ones who had fallen victim to the traps were all that peachy. "We should leave." Aidan's response went unheard, or ignored. For a moment, he wondered if he could convince the shipwright to retrace his steps and go back to the ship, but the man was too invested in whatever note taking he was doing to pay him much attention.

"The navigator and your captain have fallen underground somewhere, more than likely in a worse off situation than we are. Shouldn't you be worrying about your own safety?" He rubbed his temples and sighed. "Besides, it's just a straight line. How could you possibly get lost-" They entered some sort of clearing and before he could assess the whole situation, Luro was already off.

"No- Wait you insane fool!"

As soon as Luro lifted the gemstone, a black onyx no bigger than his palm, Aidan heard the sound of a few clicks. He quickly scanned the area, spotting a few holes in the wall opening. Before Luro could get three arrows pierced into him, Aidan quite literally kicked him forward.

There was a moment's pause as he watched the pillar sink into the ground before he frowned. "I should've let you get stabbed for doing something so utterly stupid. Obviously, there's a right answer- obviously, this is a trap. We need to go back the way we came and leave." The last thing he wanted was for Luro to try and grab another stone and cause something else to go off and put him in danger.

"Don't think I'm saving you a second time."

 

[Mizos]

Luro eyed the gem with a small grin his attention only pulled as he heard a strange sound, he turned only to be kicked out of the way of the trap that he had activated. He hit the ground face first and blinked a few times before climbing to his feet brushing the front of his clothes off as he looked over at Aidan. He raised a hand to the man as thanks for moving him out of the way, but at his comment he arched a brow at him before slowly shaking his head.
"What are you talking about head back, we've barely been in here a few minutes and we already have treasure," Luro said slipping the gem into his sleeve. "I'll give to the captain when I see her, we divide treasure after all...not sure how we'd divide this though...I'd want the pointy part if I had to choose one."
He looked over at the middle pedestal since the right one was a trap the only option was to check the other one and see if it was a trap, though as he walked towards it he spoke to his companion.

"You can leave if you want Aidan, but I don't put my life over my crewmates, the captain said we'd meet further in so I'm going to keep going. If I die then I die I'm not worried about that. Seems boring to worry about dying all the time ya know. I mean Kadi used to be so boring and he worried about dying all the time, now look at him, I'm sure right now he's facing this temple with bravery in his heart while laughing loudly, like Alicia probably is, showing Ray how to be a man among men among men."
Luro said all this very casually as he reached the middle pedestal, Ray and Alicia had gone on ahead and he knew the captain and Kadi were moving too, his crewmates were making the most of this. If he walked away he'd miss all the fun and Ray would never let him live it down.

Luro looked up at the ceiling and shook his head before lowering his gaze back to the center gem, he thought he could be friends with the Pirate God but he supposed that vengeful thing applied to everyone, he started to wonder if he could mention he was Ray's friend if that would make him less angry. After a bit of thought Luro realized why the trap had gone off, he slammed a fist on the palm of his hand before looking back at the drawing.
"I know why the Pirate God tried to kill me. He booby trapped the stuff he doesn't want taken! I do the same thing with my rum stashes, well not on the ship since Ray finds them but out in random towns. I never know if I'll have rum when I get there so I hide Rum in every town I visit. I completely understand Mr. Pirate God, so let's try this one."
Luro reached over and grabbed the Gem off the center pedestal, though his body tensed slightly remembered what happened last time.

 

[Capt. Blu]

A collab between Arc and Captn. Blu

Location: Somewhere Down Below

Runali searched for any sort of switch or trigger to stop the two walls from flattening them, nearly missing what Kadi had to say. "Spare pelvis- Kadi there's like fifty different bones-" She decided not to argue and began tossing bones around to find the right one. Unfortunately, after tossing bones around, one nearly hitting Kadi, she didn't find the 'right one'. "Ya know what," The captain quickly collected as many bones as she could carry and began jamming them under the wall. A few of them broke as soon as it made contact, while others actually stayed. "I don't think it's working Kadi…" The walls were getting a bit too close for comfort and she had to help Kadi scoot towards the center before he could be pushed there. What she didn't notice was that the wall was actually slowing down the more bones she kicked into place.

"Of… course… another… damned… glorified… butcher… having no ide… idea… what they are… doing…" the wounded man wheezed out, ignoring the bone that hit him. "Pelvis… the thing that… holds you… your arse… in place… flat… large… bone…" He picked the bone and threw it towards the slowly advancing wall. The bone bounced off and fell on the ground, where the wall soon grabbed it turned into bonemeal under its weight, throwing calcium splinters around. "Well… ain't… feeling like… just standing here… and waiting… no?"

Both walls were in arms reach at this point when it finally came to a complete stop. The captain heaved a sigh of relief and sat near Kadi. "I think the ship's sounding a lot better than this temple… Ray's family temple better have some neat stuff in here." She would have continued, but on the far wall, a door large enough to crawl through slid open. "That's pretty sketchy, but we've got nowhere better to go." She lead the way out, checking to make sure Kadi was still keeping up.

He shot her a grumpy stare when she sat next to him. "Well… as far as I can… I can see… this place ending up… our tomb… nothing too fancy… compared to dying on a… ship… or some other… place…" All of this for naught, Arcadius... well, you tried, and almost started to fight back. Just when he started to make his peace, a deux ex solid wall appeared, offering a way out of the rather tense and pressing situation. "Wait… damn you… you have… any idea… how hard it is… to crawl… with a hole… in your side?" he weakly shouted back at her.

"You know, once upon a time ago, some geezer gave me some advice. He said, 'pain is weakness leaving the body' or something cryptic." She crawled out of the doorway and held her hand out for Kadi. "But, I'm also not the one with a hole in my side." When they passed through the door, the area was fairly empty, save for a free standing torch every so often. The dim lighting allowed them to see the walls- or rather, the lack thereof them. Looking over the edge, there was no clear view of the bottom and Runali decided it was best to keep it that way. .

"I would… imagine… it was said… by a person… who never… knew much… about pain…" The navigator tried to stand up, but as the area proved lacking of any walls he could lean against to hold himself upright, he decided it might be wiser to keep crawling on all four. "From… my position… of extremely direct… method… of observing… the pain… empirically… I can pronounce… that thesis… a cartload of… bullshit…"

Besides the two, the only other sound that could be heard was a muffled explosion. Judging by how close it was, she could only assume some of the Royalists had made it inside. "I'm going to guess running will be a bit difficult to." She wasn't suggesting that they ran now, but was making it very clear that it was an option they may have needed to take.

The path grew narrower as they progressed, until Runali was forced to walk behind the navigator. She opted to walk being because it was easier to try and catch him should he stumble- not that she was sure she could even catch a fully grown man her size. Well, hopefully she didn't have to find out.

In front of the two was a doorway to their freedom, or what she hoped was it and behind them, it sounded like the explosions were getting a lot closer. That was proven when the area shook, not violently, but enough to make Runali feel an 'impending doom'. "Not to rush you… with the hole in your side and all, but I think it might be a little wise to...move faster." The captain flinched when she heard the sound of earth cracking. It echoed, so she wasn't exactly sure where it was, not that it really mattered.

He turned his head to look at her. His look gave out a surprising plethora of emotions he felt and wanted to voice, but again and again he failed to find words that would express the mixture of disbelief, anger and general disappointment that a person who was supposed to be an officer would tell him that it would be 'wise to move faster'. Five seconds later, filled only with cracking of the torches and soft sound of his blood, seeping through the bandage and dripping on the floor he simply said: "Go ahead. I'll catch up. You'll cover more space without waiting for me."

"Uh huh…" Runali continued following behind him. "I'm glad to know you've still got your humor Kadi. Joking aside though, I'm not gonna leave you by yourself. What kinda captain would I be to leave her navigator bleeding off to the side." She looked over her shoulder. "And if those guys manage to actually get through, I don't think you playing dead will last long enough for them to leave you alone." The captain shook her head. "Just keep on forward, we're halfway there."