#elokian 01

[vuldak-juneau]

Juneau made no argument about how wretched and rotten the witchers were, but she studied Elokian closely for a few moments. “What would you know about witchers?” she asked, figuring that a life on the sea meant a life safe from the unfeeling hunters known as witchers. She crossed her arms as he talked about the burning if Iskaldrik, and though she felt no love lost of the ruling class and fall of its governing body, she did mourn the expansive wilderness of the kingdom. It was wasted under a man like Orhan who turned it from a rich landscape to a wasteland of intimidation and fear. It wasn’t the land’s fault its ruler was so inept. She listened to his words carefully before asking, “How old are you?” He seemed young–looked like a man in his adulthood and acted like a one in early adulthood. For him to have passed centuries in Taravell was a surprise to her. “Hmm, probably an apt regret, I’d never heard of you before.” 

Why couldn’t she? Perhaps because a lifetime of being abandoned and beat down had convinced her that even wanting was more than she deserved, that she was worthy of nothing, not even goals or wishes. It frustrated her that she couldn't answer him, so she pretended the question was rhetorical as a means of self-preservation. But he showed her the mercy of breaking the silence first, and she viewed him from the corner of her eye as if he was speaking to a bad dog. “I’ll try.”

“Hey!” Her protest was immediate and she was slapping at his hand again as he patted her head again. She only huffed out another, grouchy breath and didn’t argue with him. Again, she’d learned it would be pointless. He saw things the way he wanted to. Juneau struggled to understand why almost everyone had seemed to care so much about her outcome, about their rejoining, except for the functional use of their escape. But they hadn’t needed her to escape; she was almost certain they could have left without her. Almost. They hadn’t tried, hadn’t tested that hypothesis. Even Elokian, who she had spoken to so directly and so harshly, who she would have expected to turn her back on her and toward the exit first. Perhaps that was why she lazily lifted her arms toward him and with her usual storm cloud overhead gave him perhaps the most half-assed hug in history. “Happy?” she asked, straightening back up and crossing her arms as if she were too cool for what had just happened. “Are you done with your lectures, or can I go now?”

"Fuck yeah, and Witchers are even worse! They got their tongues so far up the king's ass they can practically talk for them. I've got no stake in the game and only sailed through those frigid waters when I deemed it necessary, but god damn was I happy to see that place burn. And I usually don't feel any type of way about countries." Elokian's crimes in Iskaldrik weren't nearly as plentiful as those in other nations, but he and his crew were still sought after by Iskaran law enforcers. He wasn't scared of the old regime, he wasn't scared of much, but he did have to be more stern with his crew when the docked there. Luckily, he never lost anyone to the mines. "But I will admit, some of my best stories come from my adventures there. Over the centuries, I pillaged some of the most vile Iskaran Raiders and left their corpses to sink beneath the frozen waters. I've gone up against those pesky Witchers once or twice and have the scars to prove it. I've even screwed a Jarl for weeks on end before he finally drove me away. Can you believe he got jealous I'd also sampled some of the finest men in his jarling while he was resting up from tumbles with me? Ha! Though I'll always regret my legend wasn't more canonized there before the fall."

Elokian did enjoy talking about himself as he enjoyed his life, every aspect of it. There wasn't time for regrets, especially now that his time had been cut short. From his perspective, anyone who did less than what their heart truly desired was repressed and sad. Even more pathetic were those who couldn't speak to their desires, so he puffed up proudly at Juneau's words. "There you go, listen to your heart and do what you want. If scoundrels and lowlifes like those who hang around the docks can, then why can't you?" Elokian was never alone because he found his people. He knew that if Juneau eventually lived her life by her own code, she'd find hers too. And maybe once she did, the threat of loneliness would disappear from her life forever. One could only hope. "This life hasn't done you many favors. You don't owe anything to anyone but yourself. Remember that."

Again, his tone turned somber and serious on a dime. He spoke from a place of knowledge because he felt just how deep her pain ran. They were entirely different people because if Elokian had survived what she had he'd be consumed with enacting revenge against fate itself. In that sense, she was stronger than he was. That's why he stops, smiles, and pats her head without saying anything except, "Sure, everybody." She doesn't need to know he saw her turn to stone and sink beneath the surface. She doesn't need to know he was the only one to know something was wrong while the others fucked around with some pointless stones or whatever. He'd been so caught up in Juneau then that nothing else mattered, which was why his fondness ran so mysteriously deep. "Everybody wanted to give you a hug, but I was determined to get mine before them. You're right, that is something to brag about. And I'll give you another any time."

[incubusnero]

Person: @elokian Location: It's a Beach "I believe I owe you an apology, Captain." Okay so maybe he was doing more than one good deed this year because as he comes upon the pirate lounging, he passes him a bottle of rum. This thing he had with Elokian was petty, it was selfish, and yet much like with Robin, he couldn't really blame a pirate their love of the sea. He could be plenty annoyed that he didn't think he compared to such a thing, but that wasn't Elokian's fault.

[witchernjal]

closed starter for @elokian location: caribella note: wandering about diving into pits

Caribella. What a place. Njal hadn't ever truly stepped foot outside of Iskaldrik, but he'd learned of these places. People who were actually able to escape the mines often found themselves looking for a vessel to escape on. That was something he didn't like to think about though. It reminded him that he had made errors. He'd slipped up a few times. If he was perfect at his job, then nobody would have ever had the opportunity to escape those mines and start up a new life. The only reason any of them should have been able to get out would have been a situation like this. Aetherians taking their home was something that he couldn't have predicted nor would he have been able to keep all of those people down in the mines. He probably would've sooner let them rot than let them out on his own though. Missed opportunity, he guessed.

That was why he was at this bar anyway. Maybe there would be people he recognized here, people that had maybe escaped. What would he do in that situation? There was nowhere for him to send them off to and he was no warden right now. He was just a witcher in a place where witchers weren't wanted or needed. As he finished his mead, he signaled to the bartender. "Another one." Just as he ordered, he felt a presence near him. "I don't need company."

[rowanmaxim]

Person: @elokian Location: Thee Docks "Did you always want to be a pirate?" While the crew of Neptune's Fleet had been in his life for years, there were things he'd just never asked them before. He'd been a child once, wide eyed as he watched ships come in and his uncle point them out to him. Said uncle loved the pirates, he made a living traveling the isles and singing and telling stories and every summer he'd gather Rowan up and away from his deadbeat father and taken him along for the whole song and dance. It's where he'd met Robin the first time, they'd been just boys then, hadn't realized the kinship they'd shared over what they were just yet. Elokian was to Robin as Uncle Barnabas Maxim was to Rowan and he couldn't say he didn't hold a bit of affection for the captain.

[hiddenvaldis]

Where Elokian and his crew worshiped the Lysaran sea god and attempted to leave no messy leftovers to their meals, Rán’s Armada aimed for the contrary. To worship the goddess of storms, drowning, and drowned souls, one had to leave behind the aftermath of a tempest. Broken masts and drowned hulls, not a single surviving soul they had not chosen to spare. Monsters they both were, each choosing to stalk their prey through different means but the thirst for blood remained, carefully hidden beneath brilliant smiles. Nari might be the well known siren amidst their club, but that did not make the rest of them any less a creature from the seas. They had inherited or built their armada’s and by naming them they had named the most dangerous part of themselves. 

Valdís had always known this, but there is a particular sort of thrill born from coming face to face with yet another monster wearing a familiar face. Before her it’s Neptune’s chosen, his wrath manifested, and she rather enjoys the thrill of knowing she stands amidst giants, having become one of her own. From a nameless orphan to a devoted worshiper of the drowning depths, from a prey to a predator. Oh, how much a few years and some determination could do. 

“Caribella is a respite from the storm,” she agrees, a simple nod acquiescing to the other Captain’s point. The island is the Eye of the Storm, and without it, she doesn’t know what most of them would do. The careful calculations and reckless abandon that followed each of them out into the waters could only find their peace on the island where debauchery ran free but unity kept them leashed, their violence stayed until they left these unhallowed grounds. There is something delicious about the racking tensions, the barely leashed urge to bare one’s teeth and sink them into your opponent’s throat. 

The tension ratchets up and up, until it’s cut by Valdís’ laughter. It’s a mean spirited thing, meant to undercut Elokian’s high and mighty speech, to show her disdain for his claim on the waters they both call home. “The seas belong to no one, Captain,” she says with a sharp grin, eyes lidded as she tilts her head. “Even the gods that we worship, your lord of earthquakes and my lady of drowning, share it. To believe oneself in ownership of it it’s to fall prey to ocean madness. I assumed someone of your advanced age would be well aware of this fact, but I suppose that not all elders gain wisdom with their years.”

The image of his fleet that Elokian pushed could only be created with careful folding of his tongue. It was no secret that in terms of the wreckage left in the wake of an attack, his armada was cleaner than any other. They honored the waves never poisoned them, a very classy act if he had any say in it. However, this was the same captain who'd launch himself onto an enemy ship and have his way with them until he was drenched in the blood of the fallen. Monstrous didn't even begin to describe the level of brutality Elokian exhibited or what he demanded from his crew.

"Aye, but he's more known for his wrath. Those who upset him find themselves on the receiving end of it. Like the seas, his fury has no bounds and dark depths. Those bearing his namesake do well to remember that, just as they do well to live up to it. That's why I love Caribella so." The island was his home, but more than that it was his refuge. A place to lay his rage to rest and enjoy the pleasures life had to offer because when Elokian led his armada into open waters, it was with the full fury of the sea god. "Setting that all aside lets me relax and take stock of all I want to plunder when I leave."

Elokian's tone turned pointed and his grin turned evil. His captain's swagger on full display, the energy between them was the kind of thing he lived for. Two forces of nature, standing face to face with their congruent ideals causing tension neither would do anything about right now. He truly was a fan of Rán's armada.

"My sweet Valdís, a sailor never looks back into the storm, they always peer ahead. It's important that my centuries of wisdom is used to build the future, and so I provide my lessons freely. That includes the one you seem to have missed from the tale of that culling. If my then second mate had known it, maybe his mushy insides wouldn't have been pulled outside." With all amusement quickly draining from his eyes, his expression became one of sternness. "The seas are mine, and that includes everything that graces their waters. Forget that, and you might find yourself witnessing firsthand what kinds of things are left to me and my ilk."

[faelortianyou]

"Elokian...I don't need to fight you to gain pleasure. You're asking for my help here, are you not? You would do well to not antagonize me. Plus, antagonizing me doesn't work." After how much he dealt with Riandur, he was desensitized to that sort of thing. Tianyou was so often frustrated with his other half that it felt like others could never really bother him. Elokian was obviously trying to get some sort of rise out of him and he would not let that happen. All of that meditation did work wonders for his many frustrations. "I never said you weren't good. I just said you wouldn't be able to beat me. I'll always see you coming," he stated with a pat on the other's face.

A brow rose as Elokian went on and on and on. Tianyou was used to people talking his ear off. Eventually, he would have to find a way to accept his path in life. He'd have to take over once his father was gone. It was a path he had not chosen for himself, but it was one he would have thrust upon him anyway. The high elvhen supposed he understood the other's plight. He had people counting on him as well. His mother. His siblings. Ikaros. Abelas. Areina. Even Riandur. But he wasn't the one that had a demon latched onto him. He wasn't as stupid as the silver elvhen standing in front of him. Well, he supposed stupid wasn't the right word in Elokian's case. Nonchalant about everything was more like it. Even if he was damn near begging for his situation to go away. "I really don't need you to teach him how to do anything. We are perfectly fine without your assistance. You need to give me something better than that." His fingers lifted to his chin. "Maybe some sort of acceptance that you fear death because the people around you would suffer from it as opposed to acting like you don't give a fuck about yourself."

"Sounds like a cop out to me. Beating me would be easy? And who decided that?" Violence without aggression, combat without malice, Elokian shed the blood of his enemies as easily as he drew breath into his lungs. He loved to fight, hell he was born for it. And as Val'shira would surely attest to, Elokian had no problem getting in the face of stuck up nobles. "If you think you wouldn't have fun with me in a ring, that's your deficiency. Only a bore or a stiff wouldn't derive pleasure. I'm very good."

Good enough to put everything on the line, aside, wherever it needed to go to get what he wanted. He rose to his feet and slipped his hat back on, his pride taking no hits from Tianyou's laughter. Elokian made a promise he intended to keep, that's how important he was. He could be paraded around each branch for every highborn of Avalon to point and laugh at his circumstances and Elokian wouldn't care. Turning his back on the tree meant turning his back on them, so they owed him nothing. But if there was a chance this ritual could work for him, then he'd take anything. "Disease, age, or even the wrong side of canon fire would be acceptable to me. No, I don't fear death, and of course, I don't give a shit about someone else's choice in that matter. Neptune knows I've made that decision for plenty. What I can't accept is my downfall because of some demon from beyond. I've got shit to do and promises to keep. I'm not ready to go out like this." Say what you will about Elokian, but he was an elvhen with conviction. When he puts something into words, he means every bit of it, and that had nothing to do with his truthful tongue. "I need help. It's not easy for me to say, but I do. Believe it or not, I got people counting on me. So help me, and I'll teach that man of yours how to suck the very soul out of your dick. The Caribellan ways are unmatched."

[vuldak-juneau]

“Iskaran kings don’t talk about anything but themselves when they’re not giving orders to see half of their subjects killed,” Juneau responded with a sour expression on her face. She didn’t need to be raised to hate Orhan and his overbearing rule, didn’t need to be conditioned by Ivar to despise the crown. She hated the Iskaran royalty by the fact that they’d robbed her of the most basic comforts that ought to be a right to all by virtue of being born. “Why don’t you fill me in? Who would know better than you, and you can’t convince me you don’t like to talk about yourself.” She wondered if he would take the bait, but she did genuinely enjoy a story. 

Elokian’s question was a valid one, and he was correct in that she did not particularly enjoy loneliness. Many people, Juneau supposed, did not like their flawed coping mechanisms and avoidant tendencies. Loneliness was not what she liked; it was the predictability of solitude. “I don’t know,” she answered with a shrug, because it felt pointless to lie about the topic. “I’m hoping what I'm looking for will stand out when I find it. I figure if I try as many things as I can, something will fit right.” She frowned when he laughed at her, but she didn’t waste time arguing. She was certain he would only dig into her further. 

“Fine, then something in the middle,” she groaned, though she suspected he would just continue to contradict or lecture her. “Something more neutral.” Juneau didn’t see herself as honorable nor was that a descriptor she cared to work toward. She gave him a withering look when he warned her against a life at sea–even if she wanted one, it wasn’t an option with the entire fresh, running water clause of her abyssal form. “Pirating is not high on the list–you can’t save your breath trying to warn me off of it. Although, if you ever find yourself on more of a land-based errand…” He had scared her at first, but his frankness was growing on her. He seemed to be someone who felt life so materially, so presently. Juneau experienced the world as if from under a wall of water, numbed, blurred, and dulled. 

“I survived because of everybody, not just you,” she barked, unsure of why she was so eager to defend the rest of the group. "You did hug the tightest out of everyone when you all found me if you're looking for something to brag about though."

"Who said anything about only? I know you come from some backwoods snow pile of a nation, but have Iskaran kings really crushed my legend so thoroughly? Stay awhile in Caribella if you're tough enough and you'll learn. Someone will fill you in." Even to this day, Elokian reveled in the tales and songs born from his adventures. His violence and plundering know no bounds, but no matter where he sails his flag invokes the name he earned here. Neptune's Fleet was attributed to him and him alone in this era. "Wherever the ocean flows with azure waters is my dominion, however pirates from other continents recognize that unless you're big here, you're just a guppie waiting to be devoured. I'll sail through and wreck their shit for fun, but after years of play even a seagod has to return home."

The Azure was reborn in the Veild Sea, so the Veiled Sea he would always return to no matter how far beyond the horizon he sailed. He could stake his entire reputation on his activities in these waters alone because it was his efforts that helped make those who answered the call of the waves recognize Caribellan culture as the Raider's bedrock. "What are you looking for then? Because it sure as shit ain't lonilness. If you're gonna lie to a Captain, you better believe your words enough to die by them. Even the green ones can sniff out a bad liar without much effort, and girlie you're a terrible one," he says, laughing in her face. Her silly words and ideas were quite entertaining.

"Will honor get you gold? Food to eat? Someone to warm your bed? People who put stock in honor as a currency end up dead. I should know, I've killed enough honorable people by exploiting that quality," he says with absolute nonchalance, however he does turn to look at Juneau with a serious yet excitable expression. Elokian loved the life and loved talking about it, but he chose it for himself risk and all. "Someone can't really be recruited. Either they hear the sea in their souls or they don't. Those who merely dip their toes in end up dead. You either dive into the life or stay away. This is a warning, Juneau. Don't go sniffing around pirates unless you're ready to go all in."

That was the benefit of freedom. Elokian acted with his own sense, circumstances changing like the ocean winds causing him to only ever act in what's best for the moment. When he glared it was because his anger was all-consuming, when he laughed it was because he fully enjoyed the moment he was in. Sure others could claim to do the same, but he knew only Raiders were capable of writing their own rules. Anyone else was just another piece in the game, whether they realized it or not. "I've faced death more times than I can count. The scales were just the latest, though at least I'm not lying to myself. I survived because I had Robin. You survived because you had me. What's so wrong with that?" Elokian may have understood her pain, but that didn't mean he understood her. And frankly, he wasn't sure if he should since knowing how she thought would have no benefit at all. And yet... "The only thing I'm worried about is how easily you lie, especially to someone who sees right through you. It's not healthy, which is why you'd make a terrible member of my crew. Yeah, I'm so not trying to recruit you," he chuckles.

[vuldak-juneau]

Elokian was right about that–for now at least, but the statement about how long she’d been alive just made her think about how she was fated to a life of three centuries give or take before the madness she had already started to feel consumed her entirely. Juneau wasn’t about to share that with the pirate, however. She could tell from Elokian’s grin that she was meant to be impressed with what he told her, but instead she simply crossed her arms and shifted her weight. “I thought Neptune was supposed to be the ruler of all of the seas,” she recalled. “Don’t you think that’s a little bit elevated of a nickname for only having dominion over the Veiled Sea?” Juneau doubted he would like this nuanced perspective, but she said it anyway. Though a moment later, when she remembered how severely his temper could flare she regret it. 

“Well, I’m not out here looking for him now, am I?” she asked, assuming he was alluding to Ivar in his speech. Juneau despised the knowing glance he gave her. She could intuit that the sense of understanding he carried within it was not counterfeit or assumed; it was real. It was knowing, not assuming, not imagining. “How would you have any idea what I want? Maybe what I want is to stand on my own so that I can thrive under abject loneliness.” What a thin veneer of defense she was capable of these days; she knew it, and it was almost certain that Elokian knew it, too. 

“Honor isn’t the worst thing,” Juneau mumbled under her breath. But it wasn’t in defense of herself. Corrupted lupine, childish and naive she judged herself to be devoid of honor–but Alder wasn’t. Others she admired weren’t, and she didn’t write them off as mere fools. Idealistic, sure, preachy–like Thora–absolutely. But not fools. “What a winning endorsement. Really feels like you’re trying to recruit me.” Her lack of genuine interest in signing on was plain in her tone. Even if she did want to emulate Elokian and the lifestyle he and Robin seemed to enjoy so much she wouldn’t make it far–demons and water didn’t mix. 

Her temper flared when he spoke of her rescue–she hadn’t been the only one to need the help of the others trapped in that labyrinth of suffering and Elokian knew it. “That’s pretty rich from someone who almost died using a scale,” she snapped back at him. She slapped at his hand as he ruffled her hair, but her hand connecting with his forearm didn’t have more force behind it than her simply batting away an unwanted gesture. She hadn’t chosen solitude when it came to her abandonment by Ivar, it came as a consequence of her moving on to a new attachment–the thieves guild. Not that she’d gotten to do much in it, but she felt justified in her point. But Elokian would know how keenly she feared abandonment, and abandonment was only possible when connection came first. “Maybe I like solitude because it feels safer,” she argued, but she would have to convince herself that that was fully true, that it was an idea she didn’t just examine in theory but lived in practice. It wasn’t. “I have a few people, so don’t feel like you need to worry about me.” She only realized now that she was following him, but she would leave if he sent her away. 

"You don't need to tell me twice. I've been the wrong crowd for longer than you've been alive. Don't you know? They call me Neptune because the Veiled Sea is mine and I took it by force." Elokian's reputation was one that filled him with pride, but if his carefree grin didn't clue Juneau in then surely the experience of the mystery game would. He was more than the vicious pirate captain of legend, more than the Azure, and capable of acts not inline with the violence he's enacted against the continent over the centuries. "Aye, I'll lecture as I please, and you'd do well to heed me. There are better crowds for you, if you're really not here for a particular reason. You should be looking for those who can truly understand you. Those who won't lead you into danger." A shadow of an expression flashes across his face, a knowing stare into her soul. Replaying events, it was clear no one who entered that cursed space with them truly understood the depths of Juneau's heart, leaving Elokian to be the only one. "You survived, after all. You don't have to accept anything less than what you desire, and abject loneliness isn't that."

A boisterous laugh follows, a cutting contrast to the seriousness of his previous words. "Honor is for fools. Raiders are more than thiefs, we're scoundrels and murderers. You shouldn't get wrapped up in the life unless you're prepared to get robbed, maimed, or fucked into heaven," he says, his ears twitching at her words. "But we're the most free. Free to do as we please and go where we want. Free to knock around idiots who think when I drink I get wobbly enough to be shoved about."

Grinning, Elokian starts bounding on his toes and shadowboxing the air, but the display is short-lived. Ever sensitive to the lies people tell themselves and others, the expression in his eyes is borderline compassion, though it doesn't quite get to that point before he opens his mouth. "For a girlie who needed to get plucked from her despair by others, it's funny you'd say that," he says, ruffling her hair as he walks past. "Even tough raiders like me need a crew to get shit done. Remember that. Don't choose solitude to prove some dumb point. We both know you aren't built for that." He doesn't expand on what he means, shoving his hand in his pockets as he strolls along the docks. "I don't take notes from others, but if you ever manage to impress me maybe I'll consider letting the crew call me something ridiculous in front of you as a reward."

[vuldak-juneau]

“Don’t you know associating with the right crowd is boring?” she called back up to him, suspecting that he was fully aware of as much. She doubted his line of work was something one just fell into. “And you’re the one who called out to me, anyway. You don’t get to do that and then lecture me about it.” She didn’t doubt his comment about having enemies around every corner, but this didn’t deter her. Though being called girlie almost did. What was with everyone and the patronizing nicknames lately? Juneau crossed her arms and took a half step back when he launched himself from the side of the ship to make room for him. 

“I will shove you,” she half-growled at him, noting his exaggerated posture to meet eyes with her five-foot frame. “Pirates are just water thieves–and there’s no honor amongst thieves.” She supposed she did believe his offer to shatter someone’s kneecaps on her behalf. He had been remarkably emotional when the group recovered her, especially for the member of the party who probably had the most right to leave her behind.  Juneau still didn’t quite understand that he had been put in a predicament that caused him to feel the sharp sting of abandonment she had harbored within her for nearly her entire life. 

For a moment, she considered sticking up for Val’shira, but she doubted she had that much sway with the pirate. “I can solve my problems on my own. And even if I couldn’t, there’s no one I can think of to send you after.” The residual denial of Ivar’s betrayal was partially to blame for her refusal of his offer, but she also still had no idea if he was even alive. “I actually came to give you some leadership advice. When you give your crew a command, they say ‘yes, captain’, right? Have you ever considered having them say ‘Elokie dokie’ instead? Get it? Like okie dokie?” She deadpanned the entire suggestion as if it were serious, her face somehow not cracking despite how preposterously stupid what she was saying was.

It wasn't often Elokian docked in a place like Tiber Bay, but so long as he had business to attend to in the city, he wouldn't mind the thick air of tension his arrival has brought. Anything could happen, though if one were to pass beneath Elokian now they'd catch his undeniable crooked, toothy grin plastered across his face. "Don't you know associating with the wrong crowd is the quickest way to attract trouble? A casual conversation with me could result in a death sentence for you. I have no shortage of enemies, any could be watching as we speak. Seems like someone is living dangerously, girlie," Elokian jests before hurling himself over the edge of his ship.

He lands feet flat in a squat, knees spread so he's low enough to speak directly into Juneau's face. "Your brains get rattled or something? Or did you think pirates have no honor at all? I told our little group I'd happily shatter the kneebone of somebody you chose. Even that stuck up Val. Call it a gesture of camaraderie." With a wink, Elokian begins bouncing on his toes and shadowboxing off to the side, showing he's pretty much always ready for a tussle.

"You expect me to believe you wandering about the ports has absolutely nothing to do with me? There's no need to be shy about it. Who pissed you off? Let me at 'em and they'll be limping for the rest of their lives," he says rather boisterously as if violence and lawlessness were part of his daily routine. "Juneau," he adds with a smirk.

[vuldak-juneau]

END

Juneau made no argument about how wretched and rotten the witchers were, but she studied Elokian closely for a few moments. “What would you know about witchers?” she asked, figuring that a life on the sea meant a life safe from the unfeeling hunters known as witchers. She crossed her arms as he talked about the burning if Iskaldrik, and though she felt no love lost of the ruling class and fall of its governing body, she did mourn the expansive wilderness of the kingdom. It was wasted under a man like Orhan who turned it from a rich landscape to a wasteland of intimidation and fear. It wasn’t the land’s fault its ruler was so inept. She listened to his words carefully before asking, “How old are you?” He seemed young–looked like a man in his adulthood and acted like a one in early adulthood. For him to have passed centuries in Taravell was a surprise to her. “Hmm, probably an apt regret, I’d never heard of you before.” 

Why couldn’t she? Perhaps because a lifetime of being abandoned and beat down had convinced her that even wanting was more than she deserved, that she was worthy of nothing, not even goals or wishes. It frustrated her that she couldn't answer him, so she pretended the question was rhetorical as a means of self-preservation. But he showed her the mercy of breaking the silence first, and she viewed him from the corner of her eye as if he was speaking to a bad dog. “I’ll try.”

“Hey!” Her protest was immediate and she was slapping at his hand again as he patted her head again. She only huffed out another, grouchy breath and didn’t argue with him. Again, she’d learned it would be pointless. He saw things the way he wanted to. Juneau struggled to understand why almost everyone had seemed to care so much about her outcome, about their rejoining, except for the functional use of their escape. But they hadn’t needed her to escape; she was almost certain they could have left without her. Almost. They hadn’t tried, hadn’t tested that hypothesis. Even Elokian, who she had spoken to so directly and so harshly, who she would have expected to turn her back on her and toward the exit first. Perhaps that was why she lazily lifted her arms toward him and with her usual storm cloud overhead gave him perhaps the most half-assed hug in history. “Happy?” she asked, straightening back up and crossing her arms as if she were too cool for what had just happened. “Are you done with your lectures, or can I go now?”

[vuldak-juneau]

It was stupid being as close to the water as she was given she was a demon–falling in would reduce her to little more than a puff of steam and gristle in the shape of a girl. Juneau, of course, did not let this sound logic stop her. She’d loved the sight of a vast expanse of water since she was young, and she never expected to have an opportunity to see any of them beyond those that colored the coastline of Iskaldrik azure. It might have been more enjoyable if the events from just before hadn’t been quite so harrowing. All in all, she felt that she had handled the happenings of the Mystery Box about as well as she could have until she was trapped underground for what felt like a month, but it unknit closed wounds within her and had sent her crying back to Alder with her tail between her legs.

In the few days that had passed, she also found herself thinking that perhaps she was too vicious toward Elokian as she chose her words before that final trial–her trial–where she was finally forced to look at the ugly face of her separation from Ivar for what it was. She had told Elokian that he and Ivar were two sides of the same coin before she was truly forced to confront things, to know, and she had felt like the comparison was far worse than what the pirate deserved now that she couldn’t reside in the comfort of denial. 

That might have been why she was so shocked to hear his familiar voice carrying over the breeze that blew in from the bay as it addressed her. She frowned, looking in the direction she heard his voice coming from. It took a moment to place him and she put her hands on her hips, eyes narrowing and one brow lifting. “Girl? Forget my name already? I don’t remember you making any offers,” she called back to him, though she didn’t much care to have a conversation so easily overheard. She would humor him–for now. She felt like it was the least he deserved. “You’re the one who stopped me,” she reminded him as he relayed his plans to her. Her head cocked to the side slightly as he continued. “Who’s unlucky knee caps?”

who?: @vuldak-juneau where?: tiber bay when?: neptunalia

Naturally, Elokian was eager to put the whole experience behind him. Whoever he became in the prism would remain in the prism. The things he brought back with him were far more pressing than worrying about the state his other competitors had seen him in. Elokian was still the Captain of the greatest armada on the Veild Sea and that had to remain his priority. Though, however resolute he may have been in such sentiments, from atop the deck of his ship he couldn't stop his eyes from following her down below. Everyone experienced a unique sort of pain during his trial, and Elokian experienced more types than anyone. But the feeling of Juneau's impacted him deeper than any pain he'd experienced before. "Aye there girl, don't tell me you've come to cash in on my offer already," he shouts down, leaning over the edge of his flagship. "I have a rather busy day of tavern hopping and flirting with pretty boys ahead, but I can squeeze a kneecapping or two in for a fellow survivor."

[incubusnero]

He knows he should have let it go several banterings ago and yet he can't bring himself to. It's the mental image of Elokian dangling several pirates before Robin with absolute glee that gets to him. "Who says you have anything to do with this?" It's more contemplative than snarky but Nero's eyes did narrow. "He has a say in this. What are you going to do if he chooses me?" Hilariously, that was the part he was actually most worried about. Rejection he could handle, the idea that things might actually work out for him are foreign. Elokian doesn't need to know that part, it's none of his business. Just like whatever Robin chose to do wasn't any of his business.

A sneer, a curl of his lip, another scoff, these are the things Elokian offered to Nero. Apologies meant nothing when they were followed up by incessant complaints. "I've been around a long time. Probably, longer than you. You're not original to me. So yeah, I kinda do see right through you. That's why I'm not impressed, never have been." He developed his sense for desire out on the open waters. He needed to know what people coveted from instinct alone, that's how he discovered what treasures to plunder for himself. Any pirate who wasn't in tune with their own desires or the desires of others was worthless, and he tended to get irritated when people hid what he clearly saw. "If I'm so wrong, then what's the point of you even talking to me? If I'm so wrong, then you have no one to blame for yourself when I take my crew off the continent and introduce Robin to guys I actually like," he says with a roll of his eyes. "He's not yours to have or deny, that's what I'm trying to get through your head. That will never change. He belongs to the sea, so fuck him when we dock and shut up about it. Then, don't do shit you have to apologize for."

[shewolfaurea]

He seems overconfident which isn't anything new for a man, but there is this kind of sparkle in his eye and a heart boldly beating in his chest. It's not confidence if someone could back it up, it was fact. Whatever crew he had, he seemed to believe in them and as a leader herself, she could appreciate that. "I'll keep that in mind." Aurea hoists her bag further up her shoulder. "Next time you head towards Feronia, ask for the queen. She'll see you." It wasn't a bad thing, to have a few pirates in her back pocket. Along with smugglers. Along with whoever else was bound to be be some help.

END

"Sounds like you're asking a sailor to head into a storm instead of around it. You'll find no cowards on my crew, but no fools either." Yeah, Elokian had nothing good to say about Iskaldrik, but he'd sailed those frigid waters before and knew how to navigate the ways that caused the least trouble. "If you're looking for a pirate you can trust, you'll look forever. But one you can toss your highborn gold at to get a job done is standing right here. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. My beauts can handle a storm or two."

[incubusnero]

There's only so much he can shake off. If this had been a few decades ago, had he still be mortal, he'd have rolled over and just took it. Seethed later while alone, he had never been in a position to be upset with anyone anyways after he'd been taken off the streets. It'd made him a people pleaser at one point, somewhat pathetic even, when he looks back on his previous life. "You're presuming a lot about me, Captain." Nero replies coolly, arms crossed over his chest. They knew of each other, they didn't know each other, and that was because of just what Elokian was getting at. He was there for Robin, he cared about what Elokian thought about him to an extent because of Robin. Because the damn pirate was important to the other man and Nero was determined to keep him in one way or another, as well as he could. "There's nothing I deny myself, it's not within my nature." What did some pirate know about pleasure, worldly or otherwise in comparison to an incubus?

"Yeah, but it's Robin you want the most. If you can't handle being lower on his priority list, then I may have to create some distance between you two," Elokian scoffs. Doing so wouldn't be entirely for Robin's benefit. He knew Robin heard the call of the sea too strongly to become landlocked for a pair of decent holes, but Nero causing a stink about the attention he doesn't receive would only serve as a distraction. This was a critical point in Robin's development. He couldn't afford to get distracted. "See, that's why someone like you could never join my crew. Raiders don't pick and choose which of life's pleasures we claim, we have it all. Sex, treasure, booze, adventure, it's all the same to us. You not getting that is why you get so irritable at him being "taken away from you". Can't lose what you never had. Robin was born with seafoam in his veins. Accept that and let go."

[shewolfaurea]

Aurea is not sure if she likes this man or finds him just the tiniest bit insufferable. But then again that was her opinion of a majority of men unless they were either Leander or one of her brothers. "It's less about wanting to go and more about finding those that would go if an emergency arose." Brow raised, the wheels were turning in her head as to how to go about this. "I want to make sure I wouldn't be trusting any coward."

Iskaldrik? A magicless land of stiffs, that was for sure. Not the kind of place someone like Elokian would frequent especially not with their recent turmoils, though he's done his fair share of plundering in the area. Still, the scent of nobility hung off the girl as thick as her aura of not belonging. An out-of-place high-born looking to travel to Iskaldrik? Elokian's smirk provided foretold his answer. "For the right price. Heard the waters have gotten quite choppy around that hunk of ice. However, while I'm no lady I'm quite buxom if I do say so myself. Why would you want to go there though?"

[witchernjal]

Fucking hell, this guy just kept going and going and going. When would it end? Clearly, this captain wasn't the type to take no for an answer even if it was very much clear that someone was not interested in conversation with him. Maybe Njal hadn't been direct enough. No, that wasn't true. He was always direct with what he had to say. It wasn't like he could tell a lie anyway. Still, he could've walked away a very long time ago, but he had stayed this long so it was really his own fault that he was in this predicament now. Hence why he tried to nip it in the bud right now. Maybe he would've been better off just fucking the guy and that would get the other out of his hair. Too late for that though. Well, right now at least.

"I have something called self-control, you fucking idiot. Clearly something you know nothing about." He'd been a warden. He had to have some sort of self-control if he didn't want to kill every single person that had tried to escape the mines. Well, he did want to kill them, but he wasn't really supposed to. He guessed he had come up with reasons before though if he just so happened to do so. Nobody was ever the wiser and it was easy for him to just skate around that truth if he was asked a question. Nobody ever doubted a witcher's words when they were always meant to be true. "You won't have anything of mine. Like fucking ever." He tapped the other's temple a few times. "Use your fucking brain and get over the fact that someone doesn't want to just give you what you want. Maybe you'll fucking feel better." He paused. "And stop using innuendos. If you wanted to fuck, you should've just said that. Thank you though. For this very enlightening conversation. I truly hope to never fucking see you again. I might try to fucking kill you next time."

It was true Elokian rarely charted courses for the cold waters of Iskaldrik, but he had sailed them before. Those few times he docked in the terribly drab land he encountered many stiff, tight asses like this one. They tasted sweet, even as they spat their baseless poison. Unfortunately, it seemed the witcher would have to learn the hard way what Elokian had forced the kings and jarls he committed crimes against learned through his many years of being a pirate. Elokian always got his way.

"Truth is absolute, sweet cheeks. If your desire for solitude was really most important, you would've drawn your weapon by now. Your actions betray you, but that's alright," he says, leaning cavalierly against the bar and letting the other come to him. He even pursed his lips to make kissy faces, proving there was nothing in the witcher's words Elokian took seriously. How could he when the twink was too closed up to bear his truth? "You don't listen well, maybe it's the liquor. All you do is prattle on about your wants, which I have no interest in. I told you, desire runs deeper than that. And I'll have yours. Watch me." Elokian wasn't above a challenge. For all the cold wafting of the other, Elokian was pure heat. His desire was out in the open, so why did the Iskaran struggle so much? He'd find Caribella much more unforgiving if he couldn't embrace the desires he clung to so tightly. "I'm guessing they didn't do a lot of flirting back in that cold hunk of rock you fled from. I already told you I'd cover your tab but we're far from even. I'll feel shortchanged until I get what I'm after, and it's never wise to fail to settle up with a raider." Elokian laughs again as he tips his hat to the other. "Getting what I'm owed from deep inside you will be the greatest treasure hunt of this age. You'll be seeing me again, I'm sure."