rainbowlounge | RP Time? You betcha!

"Lucien? What did I tell you about running off on your own?"

Somewhat unsurprisingly, his son didn't answer him with more than a grin. And a splash, once Claude had drawn closer.

Leave it to any child of his to throw off his nice new boots just to stick his feet in the first likely looking stream that came along.

It wasn't even as if they'd gone that far out of town, but away from the roads, from the other sorcer-sorts and Aethies, even the breeze felt calmer, though it had hardly caught to much all the while they'd been walking. Claude being glad they had any at all, as hot as it had been the past few days.

The storm the night before had left lacy scatters of twigs and leaves and knocked down spider webs. Clean and still damp, the leaves overhead and tangled in the grass, they looked pieces of stained glass. And the trees, when they nodded, they sounded clear as harp strings with nothing else to cut the sound.

Out of farmland use and the whiles of any humans at all, the stream had been left so clear, so delicious looking. Just begging for some little blond imp of a boy to come along and kick his heels in it.

Well, one already had. Claude didn't bother with another sigh. He pulled his shoes off and laid them in the stones at his side, stretching lazy as he reached his own toes towards the glittering surface.

And promptly jerked back with a yelp. "Child of mine? That's /cold/."

"I know," said Lucien. "I think it feels nice."

"Maybe if you're part bear. I've always halfway figured, you know."

They had some teasing hums between them and Claude crossed his legs, feet now on the warm pebbles along the bank where they damnwell belonged.

"I think I got that from your side of the family," his son suggested after a while. "Anyway, why do you think it's like that? I don't hear anybody around."

"That wasn't tagging along?"

"Well..." The boy knitted his fingers in his hair, tugging himself a wingtip curl along his temple. "I think I'd only notice Nene if she was /gone/."

"And as for our new friends?"

"They couldn't have gone far. They know we have candy." To which, he nodded. Ever so sure of himself.

Ah, children. Children had gotten him this far with their self-assured beings. And children had found him what was really a rather strange clearing on closer inspection. The stream wore deeper through some places in the grass than others, showing shifts of rock, glints of moss and tree roots sneaking by. It divided the clearing just about cleanly in half.

Besides, on the edge of the forest easing back into being, a great, old ash stood.

Covered in tiny flowers. Pink and violet and hints of white. All of them, growing in streaks as if the bark had long ago turned to soil, though the tree seemed healthy and strong otherwise.

Besides.

"Papa," said Lucian, voice hushed. "There aren't any birds here, are there?"

"No," Claude answered after a moment. "It's just you and I and /a bunch of stinkers who ran off from us/."

"Oh, so that doesn't include me?"

"Child of mine."

They had a few more hums, there in the quiet of the clearing.

There, before something very strange and very faint began to creep along Claude's Aether lines.

It felt like being tickled almost. Anyway, it made him smile. Lucien too.

And next, there his son darted off again, racing over the grass and into the middle of the clearing, where he stood staring into the sky and whistling. Expecting a giant Gust to come sailing down in the form of a giant bird? It might just be that.

Welcome!

Note that anything your characters do in the clearing may result in posts back of things happening around them, even if these aren't exactly invited. Something's lurking around here, and it wants a snack!

Feel free to bring your own fairies, ghosts, mages and seriously confused regular people.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She shook her head. "Nah, mostly I spend it. And what I don't spend I hide in my baby sister's house. I trust her to keep it safe 'til I have more ships of my own to spend it on."

Andy nodded. "I always thought that was a stupid thing to do but my friend Jeff insisted. He's always wrong anyway. What do you spend it on? And do you always get gold?"

Dallu answered his second question first. "Most ships don't carry gold."

"True," Taz said. "A lot of it I spend on maintainin' the Glory, weapons, food, liquor, clothes--Dallu, if you make the joke you're thinkin' I swear I'll cut yours off again. Yes, in front of the boy."

Dallu grinned, but kept his mouth shut.

Andy made a face. "Ew," he said. "I've walked in on my moms having sex way too many times to be interested in that, thanks."

Well, for the time being. He did like girls, he knew that.

Didn't mean he wanted to see any naked just then.

"See? You'll break the poor boy's brain," Taz said.

"I stopped, didn't I?" Dallu said.

"Anyway," Taz said. "You said you had many questions?"

"Yeah," Andy said, seizing gratefully on the change of subject. "How do you start being a pirate? Do you just get a boat and go?"

"We-ell, sometimes I'm an honest merchant," Taz said, with a toothy grin. "I just raid other ships from time to time, when funds are low, or we're fightin' another Clan. I got my ship when the Captain I worked under retired. My Clan Head didn't like me for that ship, so he gave me the Mornin' Glory, who was brand-new. Been tradin' and piratin' as needed since. Dallu joined me two years after I made Captain."

Edited 2013-05-20 05:02 (UTC)

"So it's like..." Andy searched for words. "It's like working at McDonald's sometimes and then picking pockets on the weekend."

"Sort of, I guess," Taz said. "What's a McDonald's?" Kid must be from farther away than she'd thought. Especially since Dallu looked just as confused as she felt.

"Place to get food," Andy said, obligingly. "You go up to the counter and order and they give it to you so you don't have to make it yourself. They make okay burgers but they're really generic."

"Ah!" That made sense--taverns were more common, but she'd seen quick food stands in Asendar and a couple other big ports. Gods alone knew what a burger was, but you got different foods in different places, so that was less of an issue. "Then, yeah, it's sort of like that. Balance between honest trade and piracy varies, dependin' on a lot of things. I try to keep it even, more or less, much as I can. Certain parties would not be kind were we caught raidin' them."

Andy wrinkled his nose. "I don't think anyone would be pleased to get caught being stolen from."

"She more means the ones with the power to drag her to Asendar and put her in prison," Dallu said.

Taz nodded. "I can fight off the angry ones, easy. But prison? Never."

"Okay," Andy said, agreeable. Prison did suck. He'd never yet met anyone angry enough to fight him but he'd definitely seen the inside of a prison. On a field trip, but that had been plenty. "Why do you do piracy then? I mean, why's it worth it?"

Taz considered this. "Because it's profitable. Because, when it's inter-Clan piracy, it's...I don't want to say it's somethin' to be expected, but it ain't punished like it would be if I were caught by mainlanders. And because it's...fun. Chasin' down another ship, provin' I'm better'n the other Captain...I like bein' one of the best, and I like showin' other people I am. 'Specially since I'm not of a good line, and I'm young for a Captain, and definitely young for havin' a navigator like Dallu."

RP Time? You betcha!

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