• Graded • Saboateur

[Zip]

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41st Vhalar 717

There was no proper Etzori navy at Foster’s.

What amounted to a maritime defense force at the Landing was a ragtag combination of repurposed merchant vessels, sailor and seaman willing to turn occasional mercenary and bet their ships and their lives on quick dosh, and the ever-reliable pirates who had a turnover/desertion rate of about, well, the numbers don’t speak too well for their credibility. Yet even with all the makeshift arrangements to muster together something resembling a maritime defense force, this was no Navy.

Not in size, not in training, not in coordination, not in the way they could be deployed at a moment’s notice.

But it was all Foster’s had.

The point is: every ship mattered.

Much of Foster’s lifeblood came from the sea, and the loss of every ship hurt. Pirates managed to take a brigantine or a frigate every odd season or so but the real dangers that nobody wanted to talk about lurked beneath the depths of the Orm'del Sea. The stories spoke of serpents of such size and girth that they put humpbacks to shame, and schools of fish-creatures that rammed the hull till the boat could no longer support itself. The stories spoke of giant water striders that stalked boats in the night and disappeared in the morn, only to suddenly materialize in the distance as the sun went down again. The stories went on and on and on and on and one could never know whether the truth started and the bloated myths ended-

But today the danger came from land:

Two of the more iconic vessels at port, the Judicator and the Robin, were on fire.

Boxcode credit: Yolande

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[Robin Stark]

There were bandits surrounding the ship, -the same bandits that had been harassing Foster’s this season past- hollering and hooting. Some of them carried torches - but Robin felt, rather than saw, the real culprit - there was someone urging the flames to greater heights, to consume wood without end.

There was a defier among their ranks.

The fires screamed in ecstasy. The flames danced along the wooden planks and cotton masts. They promised charcoal and smoke, gifts to be taken by the sea and sky. They stretched up and up and up, a billowing tower of red and yellow and burning white.

“Fuck,” he swore; the fires weren’t paying attention to him. The ground trembled under their feet. He took a peek at Zipper, who had an expression on her face that was more irritation than horror, as if this would yet another mundane daily annoyance she was forced to deal with. The Etherist wasn’t going to like what he was going to say. She never really did, if he was being honest, but she really, really was going to hate this. “I won’t be able to do anything about the ships. That’s flamekin fire.”

The wind coddled him, a twisting breeze of smoke and salt. It whispered jeers and boos, catching the taunts from the bandits. “I could sink the port,” he offered, shrugging.

“Robin,” Zipper said. There was that slow tone again, that ‘hey kid, let’s think this through’ condescension. “I know you don’t give a shit, but at least try, yeah? Quench the flames.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Just try. I’ll see whether I can pinpoint him when he pushes back.”

“No, you don’t understand,” he sighed, wondering if an explanation was the words. She never bothered to listen. “I can’t go against another defier’s magic.” Also there was the questionable morality of killing the fires, or even trying, but she wasn’t going to want to hear that.

She looked at him like he had just killed an adorable otter; she didn’t have her priorities right too. Men were coming up the docks now, some carried buckets, others carried blades, all of them heading to save the Landing’s beloved ships.

“You can’t do much with water,” she said. “But we have one last chance before the men reach there: burn every last bandit. The survivor will be our defier.”

Robin breathed through his nose. His expression was pained, split between not wanting to listen to Zipper and wanting to watch every part of this rotten sea station under two feet of brackish water. “Fucking fine,” he stepped into the tide.

Ï don’t like this either.” Zipper said. “But it beats letting those men march to their deaths.” He didn’t for a single trill believe that she cared. No, it was probably that ‘presentation’ crap she was always going on about. How the appearance of something made it reality.

“A favor, friend,” Robin reached his hands into the warm jetsam. It sang back in clipped promises, an endless bounty beyond the shore. An endless blue freedom. “Flood the port,” he asked, bringing his hands to his left, his ether rooting from his legs into his feet into the sea. The water rippled in response, eager to please and hungry, lifting itself over the wooden docks, a huge wave splashing over the bandits.

Except for one.

[Zip]

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Even when he was not being completely obstructive, he simply refused to listen to her direct commands. Had to go the lesser solution; the weaker solution. Had to prove her wrong when she said he couldn’t direct water.

It was, sadly, still a step of progress in their working relationship.

And it did its job.

Like Robin, the defier in the centre of the gang of bandits clearly clued in on kin elements being coaxed. Like several of the others, he wore a hood and a mask. He looked around, his eyes searching, until he found Robin within the waves a distance away. His eyes narrowed. As the Foster’s men crashed into the bandits, blades clashing, extinguished torches used as makeshift cudgels, the defier ran rather than support his fellow bandits.

Zipper gave chase.

The earth cracked and rippled from under Robin, a wave of mud carrying him faster than he could run; as he passed Zipper, they caught each other’s gaze. She saw the urgency, clenched jaw and furrowed brow. Her stomach untied in relief. At least he was taking the mission seriously.

“Stop running, brother!” His words whipped in a sudden gale, tumbling against the earth and sky, crisply broadcast.

And Zipper found herself in a rat race with some very confused elements: the wind couldn’t decide whether to push against her, obstructing her pace, or guide her on.

“Don’t brother him,” she called out. “You hate these pricks.”

He dusted his ether into his every footstep and the earth responded greedily. “We,” he started, the ground trembling as it pushed him forward, “don’t hate him. We need him!” The clouds rumbled from above, echoing his words over and over and over.

“Agreed. We need him alive. Which is why I’m only breaking his legs.” She stopped running, centred herself and pressed a hand to the wooden docks. Her ether found the wood, the wood blazed a pathway through its own length, finding the piece of the dock where the Defier would be within a trill-

And ate itself to form a huge wooden clamp that closed around his body.

And it would have worked too - if not for his Guardian.

The flames erupted around him even as the clamp snapped shut, burning away at the wood with a ferocity and speed that could have only come from a protective, weaponized element.

Still, it gave Zipper and Robin time to close the distance. She flung an ether missile for good measure, though it fell short of the Defier as he broke free and continued running.

Boxcode credit: Yolande

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[Robin Stark]

“Zipper, stop!” Robin cried, the winds spiraling from the sky. They screeched with stormed rage and begged for his ether. “You’re just making this worse,” he yelled, his magic flooding into the air around him. He breathed in, closing his eyes, and pressed his foot into the ground. The stone and soil collapsed into sand.

She was ready for it this time. She pushed right back at him, hardening the soil before her boot would have sunk in.

“Stark,” she said, her voice dangerous. “This is a really bad time for shitty inter-discipline loyalty to take root.”

“He won’t run from me,” Robin countered before he sprinted off towards the other defier.

“Our current situation says otherwise.”

A blaze erupted around them. It burned at the sand, coaxing it into clear glass. It howled, angry, protective, and hungry. Robin stared at Zipper, his eyes white-wide. “He knows this won’t kill me,” he said, backing out through the flames. “Let me talk to him.”

“You’re asking for trust? You?”

“I’m telling you,” he whispered, the fire laughing, shrill and loud.

This clearly did not satisfy her, but she seemed to relent a bit. “I want him alive and talking. I’ll cut him off from the other end. Go.”

Robin nodded, and leaving her to the fire.

“Hey Robin.” she said, her words slightly muffled by the crackle of raging fire.

“Yeah?”

“You’ve been alright. Don’t screw this up.”

He splashed into the sand, the earth rippling around where he’d been. The darkness welcomed him, a careful embrace, warm and comforting. It whispered, cracks and glow calling him from the below. The under shook in delight, reminding him of the deep safety.

He pushed against the urge to stay. Robin kicked his feet, against the pressure, the world bringing him back to the surface. Bringing Robin to him.

His hand broke through the crust, blind and reaching. Robin grabbed a limb, a leg, and pulled. His other arm reached through, catching the other leg. Something fell. Robin’s head and neck breached, his legs pushing against the dark, forward, and he tumbled, still holding the other man.

Then his hood fell.

A woman. Blonde and young, a scar over her right eye. She yelled at him, in the same fucking foreign language Zipper was always screaming at him. “Fuck, looks like Zipper is gunna have to help after all?”

She spat out a word that he had heard Zipper used a lot. Which probably meant it was a slur.

“I’m on your fucking side you --,” and she spat at him. A fat loogie slung right at his face. “I fucking stood up for you, you piece of shi --.” She kicked out at him in fury till he could not bear to hold her anymore, scrambled to her feet, stumbled a little, then continued to run.

“Mother…,” he sighed, pushing himself off the ground. The earth was resigned to watch. He rolled his eyes, praying to any which immortal that Zipper was still stuck in the fire wheel and wasn’t watching the shit show he’d entered.

Robin jumped at her, tackling her with all his weight. She slipped out of his grasp, pushing at his face with fingers and nails. She cried out as he grabbed her ankle. “Listen, blondie, I’m --,” she twisted her body, her free foot meeting his hand -- painfully. “Immortals, dammit, don’t any of you backwater fucks understand --,” he grimaced, catching her other leg as she tried for a second kick, “common?”

She responded with a third kick.

She never got to a fourth.

As she turned her head up and tried to right herself again, all she saw was a certain Zipper-owned boot rising up and smashing down on her face.

[Zip]

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There was very little that equaled the cheap thrill of hearing a nose cleanly broken. Zipper wiped the blood-smeared point of her boots on the docks. Her kick had knocked the mage out cold, her head crashing against the docks. Absorption had quelled the impending Guardian she knew was coming, and she continued to hold out her hands for any sign of elemental emergence.

“Zipper, fuck, I said not to hurt her.” Robin sighed, dropping the defier's feet onto the ground. “All you needed to do was play interpreter and --,”

“I didn’t,” Zipper said. “She ran straight into my boot. Honest mistake.”

He didn’t realize he was giving her the same look she’d given him a thousand times. Robin would have hated his -- almost -- perfect imitation.

“This-” she pointed first at Robin, then at the downed blonde “-this whole loyalty to your own kind thing? Not how it works. I would have done the same if he-” she turned to look at the mage again, frowned, then returned to Robin. “-she were an Etherist.”

“You don’t get it. It isn’t the same for you,” he said, looking at the blonde with the bloody nose. The earth cradled her nervously, a bed of dust and loose pebbles. It whispered in shakes. The wind demanded her protection.

“You told me you couldn’t stand Defiers. What-” Zipper rolled her eyes. “It’s the tits, isn’t it? I won’t judge.” she said, judging.

“No, it’s her assumed vagina,” Robin rolled his eyes, “It’s, uh, difficult to explain. Think siblings. How you feel about Finn is how I feel about her.”

“So you’re saying we should kill her before she open her mouth again.” Zipper smiled a little smile.

“As long as it’s quick and painless, sure.”

“Well no can do. I’m gonna drain her dry, and then I need you to carry her back with us. We’ll drop her off at the Garrison”

“Fine. Let’s go,” Robin said, bending down to grab the unconscious woman. He threw her over her shoulder, “No torture.”

“No promises.”

Robin smiled, like they were still joking. “No promises.”

Boxcode credit: Yolande

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[Zip]

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After a day of action, they spent a bit of the evening staring out at the docks, at the two once proud ships now charred to near-uselessness. There was a crowd gathering around the ships. Many were angry, many were shouting and screaming, some were openly… weeping? It was a little comical to both Zipper and Robin. A little comical and a bit sad - for different reasons when it came to both mages.

They watched as the crowd willed the ships to their former glory. As they demanded and hoped for reprieve.

“They hate us,” Robin sneered, a wisp of the port breeze spinning around him, “And you could so easily fix what they lost.”

“I fuckin’ could,” she said. She had no intention to do so. The crowds were fickle - would they hate her for being a mage or loved her for fixing the ship. Besides… “But what’s more valuable? Two ships of commerce - or the unified will towards stopping the bandit problem today has caused. Those were good ships.”

Robin laughed, “They just not good enough, you mean,” he breathed in, watching as the water sloshed over the burnt wreck.

“Not the exact wording I would use,” she said. “Good enough? Too classist. They’re just… not at all. They have small concerns in a small life. They’ll live and die and laugh and mourn every time something hits their world: a shadow beats incursion, a carnival of freaks.” She pointed out at the charred ships. “A burning boat. They’re victims finding strength in a crowd. How could anyone live as a brick in a house? I crawled up from that life that they’re so happy with it. I don’t understand.” To Robin, she must have she seemed almost frustrated by the whole thing. It was inexact but not incorrect.

“I can’t remember what it was like,” he shrugged, a careless wind blowing into him, spiraling up and into his hair. “I was initiated young.” Robin sighed, “I don’t understand them and I don’t want to,” he crossed his arms, and he glanced at Zipper, for only a tick, before looking back over the crowd.

Boxcode credit: Yolande

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[Robin Stark]

“You’re okay, Stark.” she said. “You’re okay.”

He stared at the people alone on the docks. They huddled together, angry together, crying together. Robin decided they were alone, really. They didn’t know the quiet orchestra of a ocean sunset. The whispers of the crackling fire and the careful tremors of earth. The wind had brought him so much, words and seasons, and he knew them all. They were all empty and their isolation would kill them, like Karem promised.

He smiled at Zipper, quick and fleeting. He wouldn’t forget how easily she’d stolen the four from the blonde. He couldn’t forget how easily, with a touch, she’d burned his spark deaf and mute. She couldn’t know how they mistrusted her. How the wind and the earth conspired against her.

He wouldn’t leave her alone with the defier. Robin knew that Zipper wouldn't hold to her promises if he left the two alone. She would strip her completely of her magic, of her connection, and leave her dead to the elements. They would cry for their loss. He'd felt that loss, that separation, the sudden loneliness. Karem had warned against it. That much he could promise the four.

“You miss Ne’hear?” she asked, strangely curious.

“Treth,” Robin said, “Ne’hear was a nice place, but it isn’t where I grew up. I’ve been having dreams about it, recently.” he smiled. It had been so long since he'd been home. He thought of Felicia. He thought of the dream with the light that and the farmhouse. He thought of chasing it throught the fields. He wondered if it was real.

“I miss Etzos. I’ve been out of the city once before this, and I’ve never missed Etzos this much.” She said.

“Where’d you go, before?” He asked.

“Rharne. Long story.” She said.

“When you were in the army?” He asked.

“Further back. Seeker initiate. Another long story.” She said.

She had something of a life, for sure. She had a life. Perhaps one day she would let him know about it.

[Zip]

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The next six words he said put her back on the defensive:

“You could tell me over dinner,” he said, his tone clearly trying to straddle the fine line between joke and statement, allowing him to back into either depending on her answer. He liked her -no, that was giving them both too much credit- he wanted to fuck her. That much was obvious.

He was easy on the eyes - and that was it. Everything else about him annoyed her at best, horrified her at worst.

And yet she was half-tempted to take him up on the offer for dinner, an offer they both knew would end with both of them somewhere else. Instead...

She gave him an incredulous look. “I don’t eat. You know that.”

“It was a joke, Zipper.” Called it. Called it like it was her pet mutt.

“Not a very funny one.”

“Would you have said ‘yes’?”

“No. I literally can’t digest food,”

“Do you miss it?”

“What?”

“Food.” He made a motion in imitation of a spoon scooping up food. “Chicken. Pork. Carrots.”

She thought about it for a moment. Thought about the last thing she remembered eating. Trying to scrunch her memory for the very last time before the mutation took away her ability to eat and replaced it with some dead, lifeless imitation that was Quality consumption.

She couldn’t.

“Yeah.” she said. “Just like crystal.”

Silenced weighed between them, a sunken stone. The wind carried the hushed sounds of the crowd and twilight waves. They smell the sea. The smoke lingered from the blackened wreckage.

Zipper was the first to leave.

Boxcode credit: Yolande

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[Qit'ria]

Your Review Has Arrived!

Zipper

Pre Review Checklist

Requirement	✓ or X	Comment
Approved Character	✓	--
Updated Thread List for Previous Season	✓	--
Updated Skill Point Ledger (Raw, Adjusted, Thread Earned)	✓ ✓ ✓	--
Updated Devotional Tables	N/A	--
Updated Purse (Seasonal Expense, Wage, Thread deductions)	X X X	Appears to not have collected wages, expense, or spent money since creation
Updated Fame Ledger & Table for threads	✓ ✓	--
Thread Being Reviewed Linked In CS	X	Asked Zipper to add this

Review

Requirement	Fulfillment	Comment+
Solo or Collab	Collab	8 Skill Knowledge Base
How many posts?	5	+2 Skill Knowledges
How many requested?	10	--
Are all posts greater than 250 words?	✓	276, 427, 352, 356, 268
Is the thread greater than 1500 words?	✓	1679
Knowledges appropriate?	✓	--
Loot appropriate?	N/A	--
Fame appropriate?	✓	-2 Acts of magic
Devotion appropriate?	N/A	--
Injuries appropriate?	N/A	--

Gotta love Zipper, spunky, rude, act first, dont apologize later. And of course the always present mention of boobs Below is your well deserved loot. If you have any questions, please PM me. Also please add the provided stamp to your review request found here and please update your CS with all of this information.

Code: Select all

    [center][img]/gallery/image.php?album_id=39&image_id=7932[/img][/center] 

Loot

Reward	Amount	Comment
Skill Points	+15	--
Magic Points available?	Yes, Transmutation	--
Devotion	N/A	--
Fame	-2	--
Injuries	N/A	--

Knowledges
Skill Knowledge:

1. Deception: Telling a bald-faced lie
2. Detection: Picking out a truth phrased as a joke
3. Detection: Picking out key details in a crowd
4. Detection: Sensing sexual interest
5. Leadership: Directing a subordinate
6. Running: Chasing down a mage
7. Running: Running against the wind
8. Tactics: Exploiting elemental immunity to identify a Defier
9. Unarmed Combat: Soccer kick to the face
10. Unarmed Combat: Finishing a downed opponent

Non-Skill Knowledge:

1. N/A

Robin Stark

Pre Review Checklist

Requirement	✓ or X	Comment
Approved Character	✓	--
Updated Thread List for Previous Season	✓	--
Updated Skill Point Ledger (Raw, Adjusted, Thread Earned)	✓ ✓ ✓	--
Updated Devotional Tables	N/A	--
Updated Purse (Seasonal Expense, Wage, Thread deductions)	✓ ✓ ✓	--
Updated Fame Ledger & Table for threads	✓ ✓	--
Thread Being Reviewed Linked In CS	X	Please link this thread into your CS

Review

Requirement	Fulfillment	Comment+
Solo or Collab	Collab	8 Skill Knowledges Base
How many posts?	3	+0 Skill Knowledges
How many requested?	8	--
Are all posts greater than 250 words?	✓	555, 626, 338
Is the thread greater than 1500 words?	✓	1520
Knowledges appropriate?	✓	--
Loot appropriate?	N/A	--
Fame appropriate?	✓	-2 Acts of Magic
Devotion appropriate?	N/A	--
Injuries appropriate?	N/A	--

Teamwork, leadership, a friend who makes questionable decisions... What's not to love? Gotta love watching "heroes" kickin names and takin as. Below is your well deserved loot. If you have any questions, please PM me. Also please add the provided stamp to your review request found here and please update your CS with all of this information.

Code: Select all

    [center][img]/gallery/image.php?album_id=39&image_id=7932[/img][/center] 

Loot

Reward	Amount	Comment
Skill Points	+15	--
Magic Points available?	Yes, Defiance	--
Devotion	N/A	--
Fame	-2	--
Injuries	N/A	--

Knowledges
Skill Knowledge:

1. Defiance: Struggling for the wind's favor with an opposing Defier
2. Defiance: Coaxing earth and wind to aid in a chase
3. Defiance: The kinship between practitioners
4. Defiance: Summoning a wave
5. Unarmed Combat: Takedown
6. Unarmed Combat: Ankle grab sweep
7. Unarmed Combat: Grappling with an elusive opponent
8. Endurance: Taking multiple stomps to the hand

Non-Skill Knowledge: