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Post by ƤαƖƖαѕ ✧ on Jun 23, 2019 6:08:46 GMT -5
("I got kidnaped when I was a child and my captain betrayed me" "my second captain literally tried to drown me when he found out I was a woman" "Men suck!" XD) (So true Between the two of them, kidnapping, abuse, attempted murder XD)
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Post by Hawkeyes258 on Jun 23, 2019 9:03:14 GMT -5
(mmm now I'm tempted to rp a young Uriel XD)
Uriel allowed his feet to take him wherever he wanted to go. Where did the years go by? He still remembered joining the navy and having such a burning desire to hunt all the pirates in the world. However, he was feeling the years catching up, and he was no closer to catching the bigger pirates then when he was a younger man. A small part of him wondered if this was a sign. Perhaps, he ought to finish his service and start a family. His family name still carried some weight and having an heir would keep the family going. Despite his feelings, Uriel felt that there was something more. He had some sort of destiny to fulfill. "Suppose, I'l figure it out." He muttered softly to himself.
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Post by Hawkeyes258 on Jun 23, 2019 13:27:09 GMT -5
A young fifteen year old Uriel watched in awe as the Man o War navy shipped lazily sailed on past. He wondered what it would be like to sail on such a large vessel. His adopted father placed his hand on his shoulder and pointed at the ship. "That is the SS Victoria! She has over a hundred officers and sailors operating at her helm. Her purpose mainly is to guard merchant ships and to engage with the Spanish!" Uriel widened his eyes taking note of the rows of cannons lining the decks. He could only imagine how many cannon balls they could fire. "What about the pirates? Do they target the ship?" The man chuckled at his question. "They try but not many can stand against her. Now she may have trouble if a group of pirate ships surrounded but even then she can stand her ground!" Uriel slowly nodded his head wondering how many pirate ships the large vessel had taken down. "Father, I want to sail on a navy ship and fight pirates! I want to find out who killed my parents!" The man gives him a sympathetic smile and kneels down in front of him. "I know boy, I know. However, you have to wait. Remember you are to serve your king and country first before yourself. You will fight plenty of pirates when the time comes trust me." Uriel hoped he was right. He was still haunted by that faithful night.
~~~~
Five years later
Uriel stared out at the sea as the ship sailed through the water. He recently joined the navy about a year ago and was having the time of his life. The work was hard and his commanding officers harder but he endured it all the same. Due to an increase in Spanish and pirate activity, he and his squad had been tasked with heading to the Caribbean to deal with them. "The sky is perfect ey lad?" A older looking man asked grinning at him. Uriel turned his head and nodded his head. "Nothing but smooth sailing I rekon. Those pirates better watch out for us!" The man crossed his arms over his chest. "Pirate this, and pirate that. There is more to life than hunting pirates lad. For one thing there is women and drink!" Uriel rolled his eyes and looked ahead. He had better things to focus on than women. Either way, he would show them all. Mom, dad I hope you are proud. I'm going to avenge you and find Lilith. Who knows ,maybe once they found each other they could fight pirates together!
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Post by ƤαƖƖαѕ ✧ on Jun 23, 2019 15:25:31 GMT -5
Lilith was still in her quarters when she heard shouting amongst the crew; they had found the Captain’s body. But she did not move to hide the bloodied weapon that sat beside her, only to wipe the tears from her face. They had to believe this was a coup, that this was intentional. She could never tell them the real story of why she had killed him. It was humiliating, it made her look weak, and most likely a lot of them wouldn’t believe it.
She couldn’t help but wonder, as she waited for the crew to process the information and put two and two together, what her life would have been like if she and her family had never been on that fateful boat ride when she was nine years old. Her older brother Uriel and her parents would all be alive, Lilith would be an educated noblewoman. She would probably know far more than the bits of Latin, Italian and French she had been taught. She would probably already be married to someone she hardly knew, and live through as many prejudices and injustices as she did as a female pirate captain, if not more. Still, it amused her to consider how different her life might have been. Ballrooms, beautiful dresses, expensive jewellery, lost of suitors. The romance of noble life might have entranced the young woman if she hadn’t been shown throughout her life how brutal the world was. Even nobles weren’t safe from the cruelties of life. Her parents hadn’t been.
How ironic that the last of the noble House Killoran would become a pirate captain.
But it was at that moment that a group of the crew, Artem included, burst into the room. They could see Lilith sitting looking rather emotionless, a bloodied dagger lying next to her. Upon their arrival, the woman swept her gaze over the crew, filled with that new coldness.
“Ah, yes, I was wondering when you might come knocking,” she said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, “Before you ask, I did indeed kill the Captain. The way he ran things... well I did not find them just. You see, the Broken Dagger is undergoing a change of management.”
She rose from the bed, looking at each crew member in person. She hoped Artem couldn’t see any of the truth in her eyes. She hoped he could see only darkness and ice. That was all she wanted anyone to see.
“I’m your new captain now. If anybody has any questions I would ask they direct them to my dagger.”
She hoped that would be enough of a threat to deny any challenges to her leadership, which was still new and therefore weak. She knew some on the ship would feel uncomfortable taking orders from her. They would have to either fall in line or leave the ship. She didn’t care which.
She turned her gaze to Artem.
“Corcer, you are now my Quartermaster. The crew are to obey your orders, only second to mine. If you choose to accept, of course.”
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Demisexual
Leo
Surviving off Thai tea and Miguel O'hara
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Post by Leo on Jun 23, 2019 18:55:01 GMT -5
(So ƤαƖƖαѕ ✧ I was out with my dad and I was thinking about Lilith and Elena protecting each other even more after they get drunk and talk about life. And like there's that one time that Elena isn't nearby so someone grabs Lilith inappropriately and makes a scene and Elena just shows up grabs his hand and sticks a friendly little knife through it. That's it. She's gonna protect her now because that's her bestfriend damn it) (lmao thanks guys! Working on Elena's captain post next)
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Post by 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚞𝚜𝚝 on Jun 23, 2019 22:04:00 GMT -5
Not a day went by without him thinking about what had changed in him, in his heart. If he didn’t think about it, he told himself, he would be no different than the pirates he now called family. He shuddered to call them that. How could he do such a thing, he wondered? They were thieves and murderers, the scum of the sea. Yet in the past few years, they’d shown more kindness to him than he thought they were capable of. That wasn’t saying much, of course, most of them were mean to everyone, even each other. But there were the few rare breeds that treated him like a cousin. The Broken Dagger’s crew had accepted him, for the most part, and with the help of Lilith and the captain, Artem was… was it possible? He was respected. Among pirates.
But unlike these pirates that he found himself bonding with, he thought about everything he did: every blade he sliced across skin to break it, every bullet embedded in the heart of some innocent fool on land. He had to think about it, or he would become one of the very people he abhorred, or… used to abhor. He still did not approve of their methods, and still considered himself a prisoner aboard the ship, but it was more than possible that he was deluding himself. It was plausible. Yet he’d taken to their ways faster than he anticipated. He couldn’t say why, even as the years passed. At first, he had been nothing but a shell of anger and fear, trying desperately to hide how lost and alone he felt, like a speck of sand in an oyster. And just as sand turned to pearls inside the oyster, Artem, in the right environment, grew into a pirate.
It tormented him, mostly at night. He tried to tell himself that it was all for something better, the greater good, but of course he knew it wasn’t true. He hadn’t forgotten his mission. He was doing this for Jane, who was gone, so really, he was doing it for himself. Why? Why are you here? What does this say about you as a person? How many times he had asked himself these types of questions in the dead of night, sending his thoughts away with the rocking of the sea beneath the boat. Any answer that returned from the depths was less than desirable.
He never spoke to Lilith about any of it. She wouldn’t understand. It wasn’t her fault, but they were different people. She would laugh dismissively if he told her any of his concerns, or shake her head, or roll her eyes. Their relationship, at this point, was an enigma to him. He didn’t know if she felt the same way. It was rocky at times, perhaps, because he would try to be light-hearted and make her smile (or see how far he could push her to the point of breaking) and she would respond by slapping him with the flat of her blade, shrugging if she accidentally cut him in the process, or she would threaten him with the tip of her dagger at any soft place on his body. He still didn’t know what to make of her, and try as he might, he couldn’t say the same for himself, from her perspective. He was generally unsuccessful with coming across as tough, at least around her. He was sure she knew him better than that, whether he liked it or not, and she was the closest thing to a friend he had now, or probably ever would again. It was discomforting, but better than nothing.
Another conclusion he had come to about Lilith was that she was predictable in her unpredictability. Some days were better than others as far as her temperament was concerned, but she was rarely as mean as some of the other senior crew. It seemed to Artem that she was trying too hard to impress them all, as if she had something to prove to them. He couldn’t fathom why she might feel the same about this as he was. At this point in her life, she was a well-renowned member of the Broken Dagger, and Artem, for all his efforts to be his own person, was more or less her lackey. There was no leash involved (not yet), but their world was a small one, and they spent a lot of time together. Most of the time, they didn’t talk, caught up with the work of running the ship. Regarding their free time, still not much was said. He could tell she preferred the silence to any of his rogue attempts at conversation. These days, a few years after their first meeting, they’d said as much as they’d needed to in order to develop some sort of bond. And until the time came that they needed to discuss anything further, Artem was quiet for her.
The time came sooner than he’d anticipated. He would have thought another few years, at least, would pass before they really opened up their rib cages and bared their hearts to one another. But as luck would have it, the coin flipped again, changing their lives.
It was a beautiful night. The sky was full of stars, not a cloud in sight. Artem was polishing the weapons from the armory with a few other crew members on deck. The breeze warmed them, the mist from the sea cooled them. All was balanced and calm. He saw Lilith enter the captain’s quarters, but never saw her come out, even after they’d finished cleaning the swords and knives and had moved on to maintaining the rifles and pistols. Tanner, one of the men coming from downstairs to take the night-watch, stopped by around midnight.
“I can take what’s done back down,” he said, and someone pointed him toward the growing pile of weapons ready to be replaced in their storage. Tanner called over another man, John, who was half-blind but very capable and an instinctive fighter. John helped the man carry the long arms and blades to the hold. When they returned, John took another load, and Tanner mentioned that he’d be right back. He disappeared behind the doors to the captain’s rooms, but only for a moment. A shouting ensued, and Artem leapt to his feet along with the others on deck, running over to discover the source of the noise.
Tanner stood, staring, in the doorway between the captain’s bedroom and the study. They crowded behind him, craning their necks to see through to what he was looking at. They all soon wished they hadn’t. The captain was dead, a pool of blood soaked into the white sheet over the mattress in an uneven ring. The man’s eyes were open, along with his mouth, hands outstretched and stiff with rigor mortis.
“Does… does anyone know… ?”
Who did this? Tanner pushed back against the group of them, hurrying past them. The alarm was raised and they followed him, Artem close behind, his thoughts having jumped immediately to his so-called, would-be, friend. Lilith was the last person he had seen go in there, but he had never seen her come back out, so it wasn’t unlikely that he didn’t notice someone else going in. Besides, she wouldn’t do this, he told himself. She was loyal, if nothing else.
Tanner was giving instructions when Artem caught up to the group, telling people to search for a weapon, a guilty party, anything that might point them in the right direction. “Tanner,” Artem approached him, once they had all dispersed to search the cabins.
“I think I have an idea as to who is responsible.” Artem was loyal, too. But if Lilith had done this… he had to get to her first. He would defend her, help her and protect her, if that’s what she wanted. Doubtful. He still held the belief that it was better to turn yourself in than run from the law, even pirate law. A witch-hunt would only end in more loss of life. Tanner looked at him expectantly, fully trusting, which Artem didn’t understand. The man was brotherly, yes, but ruthless and unforgiving when it came to traitors. He thought only the highest praise of pirates and no one else, so Artem had expected a little more resistance from him. Yet none came. The man nodded. “Lead the way, I’ll gather the crew.”
Artem was about to open his mouth, protesting that it was only an idea, and that he didn’t know for certain, but Tanner had turned and gone. Artem stood there momentarily, confused and uncharacteristically scared for someone other than himself again. Strange. He was at a crossroads. What to do to best help Lilith? Lie, and mislead the others? Or protect her by betraying her? He knew which would be worse for him. Any punishment cooked up by the Broken Dagger as a whole would be minor compared to the fury Lilith would impart upon him if she knew it was his fault she’d been found. If she’s even guilty. You don’t know that. He had to get to her before they did to find out the truth. For once, he thought, this was something he could do right. He could remedy his past mistakes, make up for anything he’d done. Admittedly, he had made too many missteps before. I can save her this time.
The fact that this was Lilith in trouble, not Jane, didn’t enter his mind. Still, his delusion spurred him into action just a bit too late. There was more shouting from belowdecks, and the scuff of boots on wood, and he turned to see Tanner, bound and being led at gunpoint. He was trying in vain to convince the men and women of the Broken Dagger that this mutiny was folly, the captain was already dead, they should go and see the quarter-master about it, not him.
“I had nothing to do with it, you bunch of scavengers! All of you, listen to me! The captain was dead before I got there, you arrived just seconds after me!” His imploring didn’t make a dent in the frowns of the pirates. Artem took a step back.
“Artem, tell them! You saw!” When Artem gave no response, still trying to catch up to what was happening, Tanner looked around at the other faces, perhaps trying to figure out who was giving the orders now. It was too dark to see, or they were well hidden, for Artem looked too, and couldn’t decide who held the gun.
“John! Johnny, you were there, you tell them!”
John shook his head, “no, I weren’t, you sent me down a’stairs, remember?”
Artem shook his head as if to clear a fog. “Wait, wait, just wait. We all saw the blood. The captain had been dead for at least an hour before Tanner went in there.”
“Why are you defending him, Corcer? Got something to hide yourself?” A faceless voice spoke from the group, a woman’s voice that struck him to the bone. She didn’t even know how right she was.
“No, listen! Tanner is right, he couldn’t have killed him. Go see for yourself if you don’t believe him. I do.”
“All the same, I think I like ‘im better tied up like a hog, ‘til we know for sure.” A man’s voice this time. Murmurs of assent reached Artem’s ears and he nodded. Disagreeing with the crew again would likely cost him the trust he hadn’t necessarily worked to build, but had earned over time anyways. Then it was quiet, but only for a moment, before someone asked,
“where’s Lilith?”
At first, Artem thought the words had come from his own mouth. But as heads turned, he realized they hadn’t. So he wasn’t the only one to think of Lilith. Thank God. The ugly mixture of relief and guilt tasted like clay upon his tongue. His gut told him it was her, though knowing the character of pirates, it could have been any of them. Why are you so sure it’s her? He tried to think back on every interaction he’d witnessed between her and her captain. Nothing stood out. His own interactions with the man had been brief, on purpose. The tension between them had never really dissipated. Artem had avoided the captain when he could, which was more often than not, but he couldn’t say the same for Lilith.
“Come on.” Artem said softly, leaving some of the crew that was awake to guard the suspected murderer. The rest followed him to Lilith’s quarters. Outside the door, Artem took a breath and held it, half-aware that it might be his last, depending on the state she was in. The people behind him nearly forced him through the door, which bounced against the wall with a loud ‘bang’, and then silence again, the sound of waves fallen to the background.
She hadn’t even tried to hide the dagger. It lay beside her on her bed, the red on its silver blade glinting in the dim light. Artem and the others stopped. He could feel them behind him, staring, but while all they saw was the guilty party, Artem saw her smile ironically. She was waiting for you.
Lilith had been closed off for as long as he’d known her, and probably before that, too. He liked to think he could read her face these days, though, better than he could in the beginning, but her eyes were cold and hard and strangely empty when he looked at her. She was someone he didn’t recognize. It was like looking in a mirror. She may have looked at each person in the group, but he only really took notice when she looked at him. No, not at me. Straight through me. It didn’t feel like she was seeing him as someone she used to trust. He saw nothing but his own horror in her eyes, reflected back at him.
He didn’t hear a word she said until she said his name. His last name. She hadn’t called him by his last name, not ever, not even after he finally divulged it to her. But she was different now. More formal. More like a captain. And Artem didn’t exactly like what he saw. Had he just lost the only person he had a connection with? Again? How did you manage that? He backtracked in his mind, his head pounding, trying to remember what she said just moments ago.
Quarter-master? That wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted to leave, right then. He wanted to throw himself overboard. Just swim down, it’s easier than swimming away. Such a short time had passed between him worrying that he might betray a friend, and his actually friend betraying him. That’s not what this is, don’t get mixed up. It’s not personal. It was never personal with Lilith. His heart ached, but he closed his mouth and lowered his head twice, in slow-motion.
“I… accept.”
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Post by 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚞𝚜𝚝 on Jun 23, 2019 23:59:41 GMT -5
Thanks I appreciate it, my muse has been struggling lately w everything going on and it feels good to get back into writing something. Plus it always helps when i have a good post to respond to lmao
I just keep picturing that if lilith ever does tell artem the truth about what happened to her before the coup that he'd be like Ok I'm going to hug you, this is your warning, please do not stab me in the stomach thnx c:
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