Ari thought for a couple of seconds and grinned. She seemed to notice the disingenuousness of Dolphus’s words.
“…So she basically won, didn’t she? You guys didn’t have a captain all this time, no wonder you crashed.” She laughed out. She seemed to have completely moved on from the previous conversation. “But don’t you worry, there isn’t a ship I can’t repair. After all, that’s all my family has been doing for longer than anyone can remember. I just need my tools and-“
A blank expression appeared on her face. Her toolbox was not with her. When was the last time she’s seen it? How could she have forgotten about it?
“My toolbox!” She exclaimed with a distressed, almost panicked expression, her hands clutching her head. “It must have been washed ashore together with the boat! We must go there and take it! The box is very important!”
Dolphus’ face flushed with embarrassment and he turned away, lest his irritated expression and something more akin to a natural level of blood in his face be seen any further. I should’ve known not to bring that up. Alexis is gonna kill me for even opening my mouth around this genetic freakshow.
…Maybe it’d be deserved…
OH WOULD YOU SERIOUSLY SHUT UP RIGHT NOW?!
Dolphus continued another couple of paces until he realized that she was not walking alongside him. The sounds of Mako trudging through the underbrush continued ahead of him, and if not for them all would have been quiet.
Against his better judgement he turned back, looking quizzically with something of the injured pride still showing in his features. So she’ll need her tools, okay. Is there a problem with that or something?
“W-What?” Dolphus feebly answered, his body leaning away from the seemingly hysterical Wohlford. I don’t… isn’t it just tools, though? Surely there’d be some aboard the Caelin’s Hand that we could use… Right?
“That was yours?” Mako turned around, hearing Aris cry. “Don’t worry, its already on the ship, when I was looking for survivors and supplies, I stumbled upon it.”
“The box!” Ari yelled out, grabbing Dolphus by the wrist and bolted forwards at full speed. “There is no time to explain! We must retrieve the box!”
Even if she heard what Mako was saying, she didn’t understand a thing, her entire body overrun with adrenaline and blood pumping in her ears. She mindlessly dashed past him, risking to knock him over.
Their advance towards the beach suddenly became much quicker.
Dolphus’ shoulder threatened to jump out of its socket for a moment, the massive palm of Ari nearly crushing his wrist as she ran, with such massive and powerful strides that he was practically turned into a kite behind her. He eventually gave up trying to land his feet on the ground and slow her down as the prospect of her ripping his hand off at any resistance was an uncomfortable one.
"A-Ari!!" He finally wailed out, desperately wishing he had another hand with which to hold her arm and lessen the pressure. His perspective of facing the ground was an interesting one, as he watched the underbrush begin to clear, and the soil turn rough and sandy…
Ari abruptly stopped in her tracks and stared at Dolphus, her hand still clenching his wrist. She was breathing heavily and her hair was even more chaotic than usual.
“Right… sorry…” She seemed to have calmed down a bit. The initial adrenaline rush had worn off and she partially regained her senses. She finally let go of his arm. She realised that she had completely forgotten about the soldier on her back. Sharply throwing him off of her shoulder, Ari stepped onto the sand and began making her way towards what was left of her boat. Did it look a bit different from the last time she’d seen it?
Dolphus enjoyed the laws of physics so very much right then, as his head slammed into Ari’s side, likely not moving her whatsoever, the rest of his body accordioned accordingly, and the whole thing plummeted to the ground shortly after, only held aloft by Ari’s somewhat absent-minded grip.
Dolphus tried desperately to rub the shoulder of his one arm despite being barely able to touch it. Ari abruptly dropping the soldier and meandering off across the sand was extremely unhelpful, and Dolphus looked between her and the soldier with panicked eyes which tried to hide the utter disappointment he was harboring for Ari right now.
You could kill him now.
Dolphus closed his eyes and sighed deeply. And then what, blame it on Mako? No. Not here, not now.
So, with a weary groan, Dolphus grabbed the soldier by the back of the collar and dragged him along the beach at a rapid pace, easily catching up with Ari before she made a fool of herself.
…And once that fantasy had past, and Dolphus had stopped making hissed breathing noises through his teeth at the condition of his shoulder, he grabbed the soldier by the back of the collar and struggled along, barely making it eight feet before he abruptly stopped. His fingers loosened, lightly traveling over the soldier as his attention was rapidly refocused elsewhere.
The Caelin’s Hand.
At that point, the ghost sailors had done the majority of the repairs, and it was comparatively much better than it had been before, although a little patchy in its appearance. But to Dolphus, it looked beyond totaled, as if someone had ripped across it with a dagger. The Caelin’s Hand was truly beyond repair despite all the repairs happening don’t look at that part.
“No.” His knees sunk into the sand as the last vestige of color left his face. “N-No…”
As Jade wandered on down the beach, she came across something peculiar. A Cane laying next to a small body shaped depression. It looked familiar.
Up ahead there were neat piles of Debris where the small boat had been. The wreck had been picked clean of usable materials. As Ari and Dolphus approached they may have had a hard time recognizing it.
The Caelin’s Hand also, looked unrecognizable, it still appeared to be damaged, with the timber from different sources creating the illusion of a large rent in the hull. As they watched, crews maneuvered the new Mast in place with pulleys.
“I told you, the tool-box is on the ship!” Mako called after her.
“Now what’s the matter?” Mako walked over to Dolphus. He looked up at the ship. “Ah.” Mako turned back to Dolphus. Don’t you dare start moping around, as if this is my fault. You decided to get hurled overboard, and then I helped saving your stupid life, and then, for some strange reason, you think that I’m the one who’s the problem? There are worse things than being marooned.
A flash of frustration appeared in his eyes.
“Look, why don’t you just go up there? They are waiting for you.”
The horror caused by the quite apparent damage sustained in the wreck was rapidly overtaken by an uncontrollable flurry of thoughts all piling on and only partially worming their way down through his brain.
Can anything be salvaged of the wreck? Is it truly completely irreparable? Ari’s a shipwright; is there any chance she’ll be able to salvage it? At least until we make the next island? Perhaps will we have to take her boat instead, maybe salvage pieces from the Caelin’s Hand that we can get where we’re headed? Will we need money to procure a new vessel? Am I going to have to be the one to procure that money? I’m way too tired to even start thinking about any of that; did my quarters survive? Is my cloak there still, or did I lose that? What would Alexis think if she knew that I-
Dolphus blinked, turned his head towards Mako in confusion, and then looked down at the Armada soldier. In truth, Mako was just trying to get rid of him, but the word choice made it seem to Dolphus that Mako was offering to guard the soldier while he went and caught up with Ari to participate in whatever awful thing was about to occur.
Well that’s awfully nice of Mako. I wonder when he decided to volunteer like that?
“I uh- thanks.” Dolphus mumbled, wobbling to his feet. He tried to say something else, but chose to just force himself along after Ari instead. Hopefully this fellow won’t be waking up again for a while… And also that Mako won’t decide to do anything foolish in the meantime.
Hey, this is literally the first time Mako has done anything inconveniencing for your benefit. Try to give him at least a LITTLE bit of a chance.
The boat was completely unrecognisable. Now it turned into a small pile of broken planks. It looked as if everything that was even remotely usable was hurriedly picked apart and dragged away. And naturally, there was no sign of Ari’s toolbox.
WHAT
Ari sharply turned around, stormed up to the bandaged man with a furious look on her face. She stood uncomfortably close to him and looked as if she was about to grab him by the collar… or do something even less nice at any moment.
“Nobody. Ever. Touches. My toolbox.” She eyed Mako with the most intense look available to her.
Suddenly something behind Mako caught her attention. As she looked at it over his shoulder, a terrified expression appeared on her face.
So that’s where my boat went.
The ship was patched up with a mess of random pieces of timber. There was no rhyme or reason to it, it was a chaotic patchwork of wood, put together by someone who clearly had no shipbuilding knowledge whatsoever. And the most serious bit of damage, the broken keel, hadn’t even been repaired. Were they really going to sail on this ship in this condition? It wouldn’t even hold for a day, let alone endure an entire voyage in these dangerous seas. The sight that opened before her eyes was truly an insult to the art of shipbuilding.
Dad would have a heart attack if he saw this.
But not before killing the one responsible for this. And me, for letting it happen.
She turned towards Dolphus, still standing directly in front of Mako
“Bring me to the one responsible for maintaining the ship.” She hasn’t been this furious in a long time.
Dolphus barely got any chance to close the distance as Ari suddenly turned, rapidly approached, and nearly stomped overtop him to get to Mako. He had to backpedal heavily to make it out of the way in time, easily falling back into the sand and making a substantial effort to get back up again.
I’m so tired…
And not just tired but also of this specifically.
Dolphus’ eyes traveled nervously as he tried to think of who best fit that description, putting in an effort to not be intimidated by Ari’s face turning so red it was giving her hair a run for its money. Alexis might be able to… No, they would kill each other. Can’t have that. Oh wait, Mariner’s huge; surely he’d be able to set her straight if it came to any kind of conflict.
“This way.” Dolphus spoke through his mask as much as possible to prove how truly unbothered he was by her performance, and turning to go managed to take three steps before his foot slipped in the sand and he faceplanted.
I am going to jump back in the ocean and hope the squid comes and crushes me to death again. He wiped the sand from his chin as he struggled upwards yet another time. So glad Alexis isn’t here to see me be this embarrassing.
…I hope. His eyes briefly swiveled about, watching the water line.
Mako just stared blankly, for there was nothing to say.
“Can you please be patient? We both still have things to do, respectfully. And, you can’t start making demands, until you meet with Mariner and The Captain. You can probably go up onto the ship with Dolphus, and meet them.”
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Ari exclaimed as she marched past Mako. He was saying something but her focus had already shifted. She just shrugged in response.
Ari watched Dolphus plummet face first into the ground, for seemingly no reason. She helped him back onto his feet, trying to be as delicate as physically possible, to avoid toppling him back over. She already managed to learn her lesson from past interactions with the kid. She gestured towards the unluckiest soldier in the Armada, who had been abandoned by Dolphus moments earlier.
“Leave this dead weight here. I’m sure Bandages will look after him. And we will go there and have a serious talk about how we’re going to make this thing sail again.”
Dolphus was beginning to learn his lesson from rather recent interactions with Ari, as well - She hurts people without realizing it until well after. And it was with this knowledge in mind that he noted her apparent carefulness, accepting her help while shying away from it as much as he could.
No matter what you do, DON’T TICK HER OFF.
A smile threatened to jump onto his face for a moment, but he coldly cut it off before it had the chance to form. I should not be thinking about how I could use her to get rid of people by motivating her to get mad at them. That’s not a nice, pleasant thought.
Ok well it is kind of pleasant, at least for me.
“Right,” Dolphus replied with the air of if I disagree I might get hit over the head and cracked right down the middle as a result. Not that he was thinking that or anything, obviously, I mean c’mon.
Nodding his thanks to Mako, not once considering that maybe Mako didn’t actually want to play guard duty for an unconscious guy, he turned towards the ship, then shook his head to throw the sand out of his hair. A tired glaze shot across his eyes briefly, and he swallowed in response. It’s wearing off.
“Right, uhh, do you want to check your ship first? Mayb- uhhhhhhhhh,” Dolphus leaned around Ari despite Ari not actually being in the way whatsoever. “Is that your ship??”
“Was.” Ari threw a somber glance at the sad remains of her boat. “A beautiful small ship with one mast, fit for a crew of six. It’s a pile of trash now, your crew has picked away everything that was usable.” Yeah and used it for the worst repair imaginable. She threw an angry look at the big ship on the other side of the beach. “There’s nothing left to look at. Let’s go.”
@N01InParticular your last chance before the two goobers go looking for Mariner
Alexis strode towards the small boat, clearly, it had been through the same terrible storm they had gone through last night. Right now, she has spotted three people. One was a rather large woman, quite a bit taller than herself, actually. She was currently in the process of tossing what looked like a soldier off her shoulder. And, oh, great, the walking mummy was over here as well.
Oh, hey, Dolphus is over here too.
wait
Alexis picked up the pace, now practically sprinting over to the group, tripping a little in the sand but recovering quickly. She made no attempt to disguise her approach; at this point, she didn’t care. getting to dolphins and making sure he was safe was her chief concern.
Dolphus swallowed and gave a nod, his internal systems pushing close to their limit to keep him functional. Were it not for his lineage, he would surely be a nervous wreck by now.
Turning back towards the Caelin’s Hand, he casually buttoned his vest back up without thinking, wondering if he was imagining it feeling looser than normal, when his train of thought was completely derailed, crashed, scrapped, melted down, and remade into fireplace pokers by the sound of someone approaching which demanded his full attention.
Dolphus’ walk abruptly slowed and then stopped.
His head turned, dragging the rest of his body along with it. There, almost frantically running over, was Alexis, and suddenly the rest of the world didn’t seem to exist. Now the only thing that mattered was what she was going to say after what felt like months apart.
Are you okay? Who’s that man over there? I was so worried about you. Who’s this lady you’re escorting? Where did you run off to? You don’t have the authority to desert the party. I expect a good explanation for this. When will you learn your place here?
The slew of possibilities slammed into his mind, tossing him about uncontrollably in a sea of uncertainty. What will she say? Will she be pleased or displeased? Will she be concerned or not? Did I do a good enough job for her?
His hand quivered, recalling Ari’s touch. It was so far from Alexis, and yet, as she neared, it seemed like it could have truly been her if he tried hard enough to make himself believe it.
Caeseus was tired of being ignored. With a word to Tharos he stalked off towards Alexis. He had a report to give and he would give it. As he walked he remarked on the 3 individuals she was going to see.
There was the small fellow, Dolphus, and Mako. Those two he knew of course. Though he doubted they even knew his name. In fact he was certain only Mariner and Tharos did. Tharos, now that was a surprise. Tharwyn was normally very protective of him, but he could think on that later.
Being dead came with certain privileges but it also came with the unfortunate aspect of all the living treating you like a servant. Careful he thought, best control that temper, that’s what got you killed at halfshell bay.
That just left the Big person, he almost did a double take, if they had a shell he’d almost believe they were a.small Halinth, clearly they were new.
As he approached the group he curtly removed his helmet and shifted it under one arm.
He was an older fellow, probably in his late forties when he died. His brass hair, flowing down to his shoulders, now streaked with iron. He maintained a clean shaven face, not that he had to shave anymore. Although he supposed if he really wanted a beard it would grow…
He’d become so lost in thought over the peculiar circumstances of unlife in the honoured dead. He almost didn’t realize he’d almost walked right into the group. He had to mentally lock himself back to his purpose.
Sensing a conversation he slowed his steps and waited for the opportune moment to speak. Standing approximately 10 or so feet away, close enough to hear, without intruding.
Mako had started hauling the body of the unfortunate soldier, muttering how heavy the soldier was, before looking up to catch sight of Alexis sprinting towards Dolphus. Huh. I guess she is really concerned.
