#elokian 01.

[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.

[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.

[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."

[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."

[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."

[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."

[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."

[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?"

[rowanmaxim]

Rowan thinks he loves everything about hearing anything Elokian says about the high seas. Elokian though is a captain, he's seen a lot of action, was a friend of the sea herself. If he were more musical, he thinks he'd put together a ballad for him, if he was more of a writer, he'd write said ballad and hand it off. Iskra could write it, he was sure of that and he could tell the tale. That brings about another question. "Is the crew family to you?" Because the other man painted this amazing life of fighting and fucking on the high seas but Rowan does wonder if such a thing gets lonely. Part of being a pirate was indeed leaving everything behind and ultimately he thinks that is what is holding him back from going out to sea himself. And yet that would the point, wouldn't it? Leaving it all behind and escaping all of his problems and sailing out on the water away from all obligations?

"Well, there was a short time when I was happy staying on the island. Getting drunk and fucking the mightiest men of legend used to be enough. I was a bit of a groupie in those days," he confessed with a chuckle. That era of Elokian's life was many lifetimes ago. However, Caribella's energy was infectious. Lying on the chest of a mighty Raider after fucking until the sun rose was when most got their stories of adventure and plunder. Elokian was no different, and eventually, the stories he heard were the very ones he wanted to tell himself. "But you can only hear a man prattle on about his greatness so much before you begin to wonder if you can have it as well. That's how it started for me, with the question. Once I wondered if I could be a legend too, that was it. I took what was mine and made sure that my status, my ultimate treasure, always returned to my hand no matter what. I'm the greatest because I'm always ready to fight to prove I’m the greatest."

[shewolfaurea]

"There will be no bedding of captains unless she's some buxom lady of the high seas." And even then, her affections are somewhat occupied at the moment. Queen or no queen, Aurea didn't think she could compete with a pirate's love for the sea. Biting at the inside of her cheek and looking down the beach, she needs to get this all dealt with and she might not have the patience to charm this guy. "I just want to know if anyone's going to be crazy enough to journey to Iskaldrik." She says outright, looking to the man with a shrug of her own. "Risky enough for you?"

He wasn't a businessman or even a stand-up guy. He was a crook, as all pirates needed to be. They lived outside of the law by their own rules because they embraced their own sense of entitlement. What they wanted, they took. "You want a contract then go find herself a fancy merchant. You want to do some risky shit, then you need to learn the language of the dirty seafarer." Caribella was most beautiful because she could infect anyone, meaning outsiders were easy to detect for someone like Elokian. She may have been skulking around the ports, but she couldn't hide how much of a fish out of water she was from him. "Gold, ale, a pretty boy to sing to and warm a bed, treasure isn't fixed but it's always a reward for assuming some risk. The Captian would assume all of it if he got into bed with you," he said, leaning over to level her gaze with his. "So what is it exactly you're after? And what do you have now to pay for it?"

[incubusnero]

He was going to need to give Elokian another apology for how he was about to act while he was supposed to be giving him an apology. Resisting the urge to just get up and walk away, Nero's eyes narrow at the pirate from where he's sitting. If this had been happening to anyone else, he'd have been terribly amused, it was the kind of messy statement he lived for. When he was on the other side of it though? Not so much. None of it is probably as personal or deep as he's taking it, but there's this terrible little crack in his armor and insecurity did seep out from time to time. "I can get laid whenever I want." He points out almost haughtily because it's true. It doesn't take a whole lot of effort on his end, little smile here, a few compliments there, and clothes just fell off. The point was that he chose Robin, that he was one of the few people Nero went back to. "Due to contrary belief, there is more to life."

Elokian offers a mockingly fake pout as he snatches the rum straight from Nero's lips. People who talked about their empty hearts were boring drunks in his opinion. Alcohol was meant to help people feel merry, or lessen the sting of a good punch. "I'm glad to hear it. Robin is at a critical point in his life and doesn't need to be burdened by this shit," he responds callously, sloppily drinking more than his share of the rum. This was supposed to be an apology after all. "A bit of advice though: if you spent less time running your mouth to his captain and more time blowing him, you'd get laid easier."

[shewolfaurea]

The sigh that escapes her wasn't meant to, and yet she's standing there with her boots in the sand and looking to this clearly eccentric pirate. "You guys don't just do direct business, huh?" Pirates, smugglers, all of them, she knew they had their own way of going about things. "I can't just look at you and tell you I'm offering safe passage through the Wildlands and call it a day, huh?" There's a bit of exasperation to it, Aurea's smile is more sarcastic than anything as she stands there with her hands on her hips. "But if it's ale you're after, I'm sure that can be arranged." Something nice, she had connections now, she could make this happen.

"Give me a favor and a tankard of ale and I've got a tankard of ale," he scoffs. Clearly, she was a novice to the ways of Caribellan ports otherwise her approach would've been much more appealing to a Raider like him. Oh well, schooling her on the ways of the Veiled Sea could prove entertaining. "First, you claim their attention for yourself," he says, tossing a small bag of coin down only to flip out of his hammock right after. "Next, you sweeten the deal as you make your proposal," Elokian continues, lifting and twirling his hat to expose a second bag on the inside. "And then, when you've got them baited, you pull the rug from under them. They want to get paid, then you get what you want. That's how you speak the language of the Raiders, girlie." In one, fluid motion, Elokian scoops up the bag and flips his hat back on, his coin safely back on his person. "You don't gotta pay upfront, but you sure as hell better be able to prove your worth outright."

[incubusnero]

Sometimes Nero did actually want to just cover his ears with his hands and start singing. He wouldn't have brought it up if it meant he was about to have his insecurities said to him out loud. People have called him all sorts of things the last few decades and he simply shrugged. Nero played his part in The Game in Lysara, he was the charming merchant, he wined and dined and he sucked and fucked and he got by. But to be told he was going to be watching from the sidelines? "Captain, I have been suffering from heartbreak long before any member of your crew was in the picture, I assure you." It's said with a roll of his eyes and a rather hearty sip from the bottle of rum. "Nothing left for him to break."

Elokian felt incredibly prideful. It seems Robin has taken after him in terms of bedroom skills. Seeing Nero so whipped was proof of that. "We're raiders. Our first love will always be the sea. We're a special breed because nothing can landlock us. If you can't handle being an afterthought, then you have no business falling for a pirate." It may have been harsh, but it was true. Elokian himself would leave the bed of the finest Caribellan twink in a heartbeat if he caught wind of new treasure to plunder. "Glad you've come to your senses, boy. Robin shares my love of adventure. Enjoy our exploits from the sidelines. Expecting us to change is setting yourself up for heartbreak."

[shewolfaurea]

Aurea looks to the man and she first blinks and then she breaks into a grin because there's some kind of comfort in not being fallen all over. Her title was something she'd fought for and rightfully earned, but even with her entourage traveling with her, it's always nice to just be Aurea. "That can be arranged. I ask a pretty tall favor though. If the captain and crew agree to it, I'm sure I can sweeten the deal." Safe passage through the Wildlands was the least she could do if someone was willing to rescue refugee wolves for her. Worst case scenario they say no and the word gets out that she's looking to be able to house the werewolves fleeing Iskaldrik. That wasn't a bad thing to get out there, she wanted Haven to be a home for them, a beacon even.

If any of Elokian's crew were confronted with the same question, they'd probably react the same way as he did: with laughter. It wasn't that his identity was some grand secret, it was that an audience with the Captain was an earned privilege. "And what makes you think they'd be interested in whatever you had to say? Doesn't the size of this fleet suggest they might have more pressing affairs to attend to?" Of course, Elokian was incredibly curious and felt compelled to eye her from beneath the rim of his hat. "Though, for the right price, any Raider would hear you out at least."

[rowanmaxim]

He nods along as the captain talks, eyes on the masts of the ships coming into port and he gets it. The calling of the sea and all that wasn't something that could be learned or taught. For as easygoing as he liked to think he was, Rowan didn't think he could put his trust completely in just going wherever something took him, not really. It's not even that he doesn't like being on a ship, he did. It was what came afterward that made him nervous, somehow it always felt like he'd be turning his back on home. "And you've never wanted to do anything else?" He asks earnestly, resting an elbow on his knee and then his chin in his hand.

"No. There was a time when all I wanted to be was the fucker who punched the hardest. And I was." Elokian laughs because the days of simple desires where his dads' praise was his whole world feels like a lifetime away. "It's not something you want, it's something you become. Wanting the life isn't enough," he goes on to elaborate. "You have to turn your back on everything you knew and believed, prove yourself day in and day out, suffer and conquer, plus be prepared to die at any moment. That's just the bare minimum, and if you can't stomach that much you shouldn't even be having the conversation." Being a Raider wasn't a spectator sport, so he believed people like Rowan should never even ponder unless they were prepared to take the plunge. "The wrong person hears you asking questions like that and they may think you're one. Outside of Caribella an accusation like that could spell trouble. And only a true pirate would welcome trouble."