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Eridan flushed and swatted at her hand. "You're such a lusus! And... I don't think any of us really have time for flirtations of any kind," he sighed, a little disappointed but also thinking about something else. "I wouldn't be able to tarry even a few hours extra for something like that. We should find Gamzee as quickly as possible."
The seadwellwer was quiet for a while as they walked, deep in thought. "If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have given her a second thought. I wouldn't have done a lot of things." If he were a weaker person he might be tempted to cry from what he was thinking about, but Eridan wasn't that much of a guppy. "We might not find him for a while, and who knows how he'll be... if he'll even be the same person?" Oh no, he could feel an episode coming on--the reason he had the name March Hare to begin with. Eridan pinched the bridge of his nose and urged himself away from hysterical despair. 'Get mad, don't get sad,' he urged himself, thinking of all the people's asses he was going to kick when they got to wherever their clownish friend was. It helped, even if it wasn't the healthiest solution.
"Enough of that shite; let's sort this bilgeheep into shape, Kanaya. We can't abide low morale above the S.S. Save-the-World." Eridan stomped up the gangplank to look for something distracting to do on board.
2016-12-01 01:57:01 -
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Concern glinted in Kanaya's eyes, but she thought it best not to press the issue any further. Her first thought was to locate her moirail; Sollux tended not to outwardly show any kind of sadness, especially in highly stressful situations in which he needed to work well with others. He translated his stress into work ethic, and even that could be detrimental, as she had seen him, on more than one occasion, ignore food or rest for the sake of getting things done.
She sat out on the deck with him for a bit, letting him lay in her arms for a half hour or so as they touched base. She mentioned how she was flirted with and Sollux stated frustratingly that no troll should talk to someone as elegant and as poised as Kanaya like that. Soon enough, Kanaya made her way to Vriska, who was manning the ship as well as other affairs; namely, yelling.
"How long are you going to sit there moping?!" She demanded, her hands on her hips, "You aren't the only one upset, Tavros!"
He winced under her words; Vriska had weasled her way into Tavros and Gamzee's quarters and taken to trying to forcibly get him in gear. Tavros wasn't responding well to her treatment, "I- I'm sorry, but there is not anything for me, to do right now..."
"But you could be planning!" She pointed out, sneering, "Everyone else on this fucking ship is nervous and scared for that senseless clown, but that doesn't mean you can just give up!"
"I did not give up," Tavros snapped, his brows furrowing, "We are waiting on the responding, of Zodiac, presently. It is helpful that you have scouted out various routes to the capital, and that, we are all working together. But-"
"But nothing!" Vriska turned abruptly, shouldering past Kanaya with an angry 'outta the way, Maryam' and slamming the door shut behind her. She was in her captain's quarters soon enough, the door shut and locked, and Tavros was left behind in the room that Kanaya eased open the door of. Anyone below deck could have heard their fight, she just hoped that it wouldn't make tensions too much worse.
2016-12-01 02:22:44 -
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Kanaya was far too optimistic. In the middle of Vriska's harping a ship shakingly loud "SHUT UP!" reverberated down the halls from the kitchen. Some less obscenely loud shouting followed but the general contents were rude and accusatory towards Vriska in particular because she didn't get it, possibly because she was incapable of caring.
While this was out of line and not helpful at all, Karkat found he couldn't even approximate giving a damn. He had some preference for Tavros purely because of his attachment to Gamzee, and yes he had also gotten annoyed at the brownblood but that was mostly because of his own frustration. While he wasn't being productive in any way, Tavros needed to sort himself out in his own way. Maybe that took a little time, but he was at least acknowledging he had feelings, unlike a couple of the rest of them.
The cherry blood was hopping mad and only getting worse, having no way to vent anything at all. He was a little too civilized to go around breaking everything like he really wanted to, so at least the china and tables were surviving his outrage. He'd found where he suspected they were very likely taking Gamzee, and dug up some reports from the few archival texts they still had. He tried to burn off some of the overwhelming feelings he was having by pacing, though if this was having any affect whatsoever his face didn't show it.
Above decks things were more calm, if a tad melancholy. Eridan had gone off to find something to do but there wasn't much work to be done. He'd checked all the ropes (superb condition) sails (fantastic) and other trappings of the ship and had found nothing at all that he could fix or improve upon. Having only one other idea, he took some rope and made himself a harness, swinging himself over the side to remove barnacles. As he worked he sang a historical seadweller shanty, some ballad about a ship sunk beneath the waves: "And every man knew, as the captain did too,
T'was the winds of Eleven come stealin'..."
2016-12-01 04:11:02 -
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Kanaya, after talking with Tavros for a few minutes, eventually convinced him to come up to the deck to get some fresh air. It might do him some good to get out of the respiteblock for a little while. He agreed, though was reluctant for fear of a run in with Vriska, then walked with her. He stood out on the deck, Kanaya holding his hand gently in her own as she got him to calm down.
"I just...I just need a little bit more time to adjust," He mumbled miserably, "I know that I could be doing more. I haven't given up. But she...she is not close, to Gamzee, in the way that I am. He's my matesprit."
"I know," Kanaya soothed, running her thumb over his hand as she spotted Sollux leaning over the railing to idly watch Eridan. He was mostly on the lookout for any sort of delivery bird, but otherwise, he hadn't much to do himself. The yellowblood largely left her alone, as he knew her doting nature wouldn't stop by his interference. He grew tired of watching and moved below decks, somewhat in search of Karkat. He entered the kitchen once he spotted the cherryblood, "Not gonna join us out on the deck?" He asked, leaning against the wide door frame of the kitchen.
2016-12-01 04:49:04 -
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The seadweller didn't notice Sollux watching or the other two up on deck, but he did start to feel better as the ship got cleaner. Finishing the somewhat depressing warning to sailors to watch the weather, he ventured into somewhat cheerier sounding territory with his singing as he continued to remove the drag inducing sea life. "...and she wheeled her wheel barrow, through the streets broad and narrow, singing cockles and mussels alive alive oh~"
Karkat had stopped pacing since he was getting no where and instead had started pouring his rage into the maps he'd accumulated. Maybe if he could find the simplest way out... but he quickly got frustrated again and shoved them away. They were so woefully incomplete he'd never be able to plan properly.
When Sollux came down at least he didn't want to completely obliterate anything in his path anymore. "No, I'd bring down the mood," he replied, looking like he was about to tear his hair out. He really was a deplorable mess. The cherryblood's hair was even more chaotic than normal and his eyes were bloodshot and lined with black bags. "I can't figure out a good way to get in to the Undercastle with a high probability of everyone living. These maps are near totally helpless." He looked at the papers in disgust and shoved them an extra inch away to show them who was boss.
2016-12-01 05:11:24 -
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The yellow blood headed in curiously, peering over Karkat's shoulder when he said they were helpless. It seemed strange to him that there were maps like that around, unless they were fairly old and inaccurate to begin with. The maps appeared to be incomplete, stopped halfway through for some other endeavor. He raised the brow above his red eye, his hands shoved into his pockets. The government worker was a little distracted; he could still smell Kanaya's light perfume on his clothes from when they cuddled earlier, and he made a mental note to figure out what perfume it was so he could get more of it for her. She deserved the best, after all. Sollux sighed quietly.
"Maybe they go together," He offered with a casual shrug, "Like a puzzle. Useless apart but helpful when put in the right way." Sollux walked around to sit at the table, peering over at the papers curiously as he mentioned offhandedly, "Maybe you should take a break, Vantas, and let a fresh pair of eyes look these over."
2016-12-01 18:57:02 -
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"I tried that!" he said, exhasperated. "Look, I combined them." Karkat rifled through his pile and shoved it over to Sollux. "They wouldn't chart the place anyway. It was innanely blisteringly fucking foolish of me to ever have thought otherwise!" he slammed a fist on the table ineffectually. "Past me is almost more detestible than present me," he grumbled to the table. He knew it was entirely possible that he had overlooked something, but he also doubted the queen would allow a mostly secret location to be mapped.
Talking seemed to calm Karkat down, and a couple moments later he seemed suspiciously mellow. "Not that you arent welcome to take a look. ... you know what it's like to worry about Kanaya... she's capable but the way people think about her, about Gamzee..." Karkat dropped his head into his hands again, elbows propped on the table. "They're going to hurt him and I can't do anything to stop it. They probably already have."
2016-12-02 03:32:13 -
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He listened intently, his chin resting in his palm with his elbow on the table. Sollux had entered the kind of concentration he reserved for work; it was nearly unbreakable, completely honed in on the task at hand and pretty much forgetting about anything else in the world if it didn't have to do with the problem he was trying to solve. The maps were distressing to Karkat, and he assumed it was partly because they were so difficult and partly because they were on a bit of a time crunch. Every idle minute was a minute of pain for Gamzee as far as everyone was concerned, and dwelling on something for too long meant wasted time.
"I'm sure whoever has him is taking advantage of the fact that he's alone and they hold power over him," Sollux said, not at all comforting. He sat back in his seat, hands resting on his stomach, "But that's all the more reason to figure out these infernal maps. Someone, somewhere, was using these, so they have to make sense somehow. If not a puzzle, perhaps invisible ink finishing the maps, or an incantation that shows the remaining pieces and how they fit together. You're right, they wouldn't explicitly map out a place that people aren't supposed to see, a place that isn't supposed to exist. That doesn't mean that there aren't other options."
2016-12-02 05:34:15 -
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The cherryblood didn't have enough energy to be indignant, even though he wanted to explode at the yellow troll's lack of empathy. Instead he sat up and put the maps in some sort of order, rubbing under one eye when he leaned back to look at them. "So we test that idea out without ruining the maps in hopes that some revolutionary force decided to encrypt them against warmbloods with a superiority complex...or maybe FOR warmbloods with a superiority complex!" Karkat shot up from the table and headed to the cabinet.
"What's the best way to reveal invisible ink? I think we're shit out of luck for incantations unless someone around here knows that sort of magic. There aren't any stupid fucking little clues I'm missing in the corners or some shit like that, are there?" If one of the maps hinted at how this hypothetical hidden map was revealed, that would make it a lot easier. Karkat looked for a red colored glass first, muttering to himself as he went through the dishes, "maybe through something red, or under red light, or brown or yellow?"
2016-12-02 15:44:22 -
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"You said earlier that you couldn't find a way to get us there without one of us dying. The White Rabbit has already told us that our particular timeline, with his interference, practically prevents any of us dying during this journey." Sollux said, keeping his calm. Where Karkat got angry while he looked critically at the problem at hand, the yellowblood kept his cool when analyzing the situation, "So it stands to reason that, because of that, it's quite likely that he could have tampered a bit with maps beforehand, that he could have done anything."
He shook his head, "We would need heat to weaken the chemical bond of the invisible ink." Sollux stood up from his seat, eyeing the pot on the stove cooking. He inclined his head, "Maybe we should try the steam? It wouldn't do anything too awful to the paper itself."
2016-12-03 03:05:56 -
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The cherryblood eyed up the pot, maps, and psionic. "Yeah, let's try that." Maybe the ink would run if nothing else, but he'd made copies already so that was fine. After dropping what he'd been looking for, Karkat picked up whatever map had ended up on top of the pile. The object got somewhat hastily shoved over the steaming pot. Karkat didn't hold it too close because of the dampness, but he felt like he was pulling at strings here and so wasn't graceful about the process.
"I don't have much faith in the White Rabbit. He may think himself superior to others but he's conceited. Who knows what he's overlooked..." but perhaps Karkat was being too pessimistic. He waited eagerly for the paper to do something promising, wishing for hope against his doubts.
2016-12-03 03:13:48 -
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"There's no doubt about that," Sollux scoffed, watching the paper for a few seconds, "But he hasn't been wrong yet. What scarce amount of assistance he's given hasn't been fruitless, necessarily. And if he's truly the one that brought Alice here, then maybe he isn't as bad as we anticipated."
When the paper was moved, he waited for it to dry a little more before peering down at it, "Huh." It seemed that something was coming up, darkening and connecting things together in a way that Sollux hadn't thought of. "I didn't think that'd actually work."
2016-12-03 03:22:53 -
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The rest of the maps were steamed in quick succession. Karkat was as concentrated as Sollux had been earlier; it would be hard to distract him. However he did look a little brighter now that he possibly had something to figure out. "It was the right guess," he remarked without any real emotion attached. He was too distracted to offer anything warmer.
While he waited for the most recently warmed maps to dry and develop, Karkat poured over the maps he'd steamed first. "Okay, this shit looks a lot better here..." he scanned it, finding landmarks he knew and tracing them towards paths to the center and outside access ways. "This is good, we still need more about where we'll be going, but it's a good fucking start."
2016-12-03 04:43:58 -
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He nodded some, providing minimal input. Sollux was familiar with the maps in only the sense that it aligned with his strain of work. Otherwise, he wasn't too helpful and allowed Karkat to take full reign of what was going on with the maps. He eyed the other male sort of carefully, watching him work diligently. It was admirable, but he knew the signs of working too hard and if Karkat was already so stressed, working atop it may not be so helpful.
"Do you want some tea?" He questioned, brows furrowed, "Your dedication to finding Gamzee is mirrored with the rest of us, but you shouldn't overwork yourself, Karkat. Rest is just as important as work."
2016-12-10 18:46:51 -
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"Tea would be nice," he responded, caught up in what he was looking at almost immediately after. It took him a little while to respond to the rest of what Sollux had said, and it almost seemed like he was going to ignore him. "I'm not fucking overworked. I'm a moirail on a mission." It was sort of a casual way of saying 'you don't actually care as much' though he probably wouldn't directly say something like that to Sollux, or most of the rest of the crew. Some part of him knew that they were trying with their letters and asking people to help them, but Karkat just wanted to GO already. What if replies came back saying the Zodiac was too busy with other things to rescue one troll, and that they should be concentrating on bigger issues here? They would have wasted that much more time and Karkat would certainly go rogue.
"If this doesn't get done before we get there it will be lost time. There's still going to be loads of fucking shit to do once we even get back to the capital: watching guard schedules, planning the timing of this, getting any sort of magic shit we'll need to not get anyone bloody caught again... We should be getting as much done as trollingly possible beforehand so shit can get modified smoothly later on. I can get rest later."
2016-12-11 18:09:57 -
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"I know you care about him deeply. And it probably doesn't feel like anybody fucking understands or whatever," He started on the tea, setting a kettle full of water on the stove, "But I get it, okay? I think you're forgetting that I was in a similar situation with Kanaya stuck out in Undlegire and my only means of transportation was unavailable. It's hard and you want to do whatever you can immediately. Everything feels too slow. But at the same time, don't forget that Gamzee isn't just important to you, he's important to me and Alice and everyone else." He was trying to keep calm, but a red and blue sparkle was crackling from his eyes as he set out a tea cup and saucer, "And it's bullshit that you're assuming I don't care as much as you! You think you're somehow exceedingly special, Karkat? He's not just /yours/, do you understand? He's part of a /family/ now, and it's fucked up for you to send out these little casual jabs like you're some kind of fucking saint. I'm trying to tell you something important, so get your head out your righteous ass for two seconds. You don't have to shoulder so much alone just because he's your moirail. He's part of a whole familial unit, not just yours." Angered, Sollux turned away abruptly and stomped towards the exit of the kitchen, heading out briskly and rounding up as many of everyone on board as possible.
He got Tavros up, and Vriska, and decided Kanaya and Eridan should stay behind to man the ship and protect it, while him, Tavros, and Vriska headed into Fouville. They were going to get some more information about slavers, their patterns, and any other information they could gather.
2016-12-11 18:28:38 -
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Karkat stood there in horrified awe as Sollux let loose. He was so boilingly enraged again that he couldn't even speak, not that he had time to anyway when Sollux quickly stomped off. Afterwards he would have liked to have shouted a number of things including but not limited to 'I don't think that' and 'maybe if you weren't so fucking wooden all the time it would be easier to tell you felt anything at all.' The mutant stayed there, shaking and internalizing all his rage. He felt very much like he was loosing everything now because Gamzee wasn't there. He couldn't socialize correctly, or keep his anger down, or feel like he was at all useful. It wasn't like he brought that much to the team; so he could read old script and had weird blood. Big whoop, maybe he should have stayed in that cell for the rest of his miserable existence. Karkat ignored the angry tears of self-loathing that were forming (ignoring them totally made them go away right?) until one of them dripped onto a map. He blotted it off frantically, afraid it would ruin the thing, and pushed them away. Soon after he left the kitchen and everything in it, ignoring both maps and tea, to stomp off to his room and grab his pillow and a blanket. Karkat wasn't about to share a room anymore since he was being dramatic and hateful. He was the worst, it was him, and so he found some small cubby in the ship where he could close it off and stay away from everyone he was doing an excellent job of pissing off. Which seemed like everyone to him. There, he proceeded to sink in to bad feelings and possibly cry himself to sleep. Not that he would ever admit any of that. Karkat would pour over the maps again later when he wasn't so distracted.
On board things were going much better. Eridan had taken off the majority of the barnacles still plaguing the ship, and was regaling the winds with a bawdy tale of a sailor who couldn't hold his liquor. He watched the little parade march off the ship, and swung himself back up to the deck. "Shit. Someone's getting the lead out pretty late here. Hope Fouville isn't so bad as the last place we were. I guess they've got Vriska with them," he said to Kanaya.
2016-12-11 19:11:49 -
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Kanaya was definitely worried about her moirail. Any time that he'd been angry before, he would go to her and spill it all out. Instead, he was pushing that anger into production, and she realized that Sollux was trying to prove a point. A point that she wasn't too aware of, but a point all the same.
"I hope that he is alright," She murmured, arms loosely hugging herself, "Everyone is in complete disarray," Kanaya lamented quietly, looking down at her shoes before flicking her eyes up to Eridan, "I know that Gamzee's capture has taken a huge toll on everyone. But I am unsure if I can provide comfort to everyone in the way that I want, and now Sollux has gone..." She sighed heavily, "It is so frustrating, being unable to do much like this! Not knowing where Gamzee has been taken is immensely more infuriating than anything I have experienced." She only had hope because the White Rabbit said that they weren't a doomed timeline, and that no one in their party was going to die. Although that didn't rule out anything more serious happening to any of them, she at least liked to be more hopeful and assume Gamzee would be okay once they found him.
2016-12-11 20:18:01 -
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"It's like he was the glue holdin' us all together. That clown thinks everything was so miraculous and it turns out he's our miracle," Eridan mused. "I wouldn't worry about comforting everyone so much, Kanaya. If you overburden yourself with everyone else's bullshit you won't have time for your own. You certainly don't have to worry about me. I've got a handle on my shit. I'm more worried about Vriska. When she gets frustrated sometimes she takes it out on other people. If she starts doing that it'll only tank our morale more, and Tavros can't be there for her right now because, well, first of all I have no idea if he has any feelings for her like that at all, and he needs to get his own quack-beasts in a row."
Eridan sat on the railing and thought for a little bit. "With the other two... well, you know Sollux best of anyone here, and I don't think Karkat would accept any sort of comforting if I'm guessing right. If I were you I'd pick my battles and stick to the ones I've got a strategy for. Going in half-cocked tends to make shit worse in my experience." And boy had he done plenty of that in his younger days.
2016-12-11 20:42:00 -
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"I suppose you have a point there," Getting too wrapped up in everyone else was just going to be bad for herself in the long run. Although she cared deeply for everyone on the ship, there was only so much she could do before she wore herself thin. Vriska wasn't the type to take comfort well, she liked to shoulder things through by herself but tended to lash out easily, like Eridan had said. That explained why she'd flipped out on Tavros, who was still trying to get himself together and in working order, though it did seem like he was operating a bit better now. She didn't know how to approach Karkat, but she was also afraid that if she didn't do something, he might think that no one cared about him, which definitely wasn't the case.
"I just feel like a mother trying to manage all her children," She admitted, her ears sticking close to her head, "But you make a good point. I shouldn't meddle so much with no clear plan in mind. I think it would be best if we all just cooled down for the rest of the evening, then work out everything tomorrow. We can actually get a plan made tonight and put it into action when we are all well rested and pulled away from our emotions a little bit."
2016-12-11 20:55:53 -
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Eridan nodded, in complete agreement with Kanaya's immediate proposal. "Hopefully those three won't stay out too late. I'm going to go up and make sure the sails are tip top before turning in... It's hard to be a single mom, huh?" he teased a little. "Especially to so many children! I'm the eldest, right?" he grinned, climbing upwards on some of the outer ropes. "Hey, at least you'll have lots of practice for when you have actual wrigglers!" The seadweller laughed and walked the beams, checking the rigging and enjoying himself. There was something about the wind way up high that could be so relaxing on a calm night.
He headed back to the deck after he'd done all his checks above and went around making sure everything was orderly and proper. Not that it wasn't already; Vriska kept her ship pristine. For his part he wanted to make sure the ship could sail as quickly as possible, and making sure everything was proper would accomplish that. The steering would be impeccable, of course, and if he could teach everyone a little more about weapons mastery and maybe even some cannon running they would be in decent shape to take on anything bad that might get in their way.
2016-12-11 21:21:39 -
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The trio returned roughly two hours later. Kanaya had made sure Eridan and Karkat had eaten, though she didn't linger with either of them. She kept her comfort subtle and not overbearing: oft touches here, hair pets there, a gentle, solid smile that was encouraging, a silent way of saying that everything was going to be okay.
Sollux wasn't as restless anymore, and Tavros and Vriska both seemed to be in brighter spirits. Both Tavros and Vriska appeared to have made up; Vriska helped Alice onto the ship and, as gently as she could, fixed his clothing to be presentable and took a little notebook his head filled with scribbles. Their mission of gathering some intelligence went well, and Sollux was able to get a few routes down that Vriska figured out were similar cargo routes, but moreso in a way that was roundabout so as to avoid running into the Navy. Slave ships would just look like normal delivery ships, stopping this way and that, but in reality, they were picking up or distributing slaves in order to make a profit. It was sneaky business, but at least now Sollux knew one of the three ways slavers made their way to Starnette.
Vriska's first intention was to call everyone above deck for a meeting. With all this new information, they had a new gameplan to use and she wanted everyone's input. Kanaya and Sollux stood by one another, and Tavros stood in the middle with his arms crossed loosely. Vriska kept her stance by the steering, her hands on her hips. She was ready to get started whenever everyone was altogether.
2016-12-11 21:27:50 -
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After a short nap and a shower Karkat had come out of hiding to work on more of his mapping project. He had everything plotted on a few different pieces of paper now, and he was working through different routes that could hook up and work to get them to where he presumed the arena would be based on historical texts, hearsay, and what he'd been able to pick up in his time within the tunnels. While eating he didn't comment on Kanaya's little gestures, and picked at his food more than eating.
Eridan looked over the maps and made some strategic suggestions about stronger defense points and places that would be harder to get into if they did have to fight. Karkat let him annotate his drawings since it would be useful information to have. When he wasn't doing that Eridan made sure Kanaya got something to eat and drink.
Up on deck, Eridan placed himself somewhere between Vriska and Tavros in the circle. Karkat stayed a bit behind with his arms crossed, not up for loads of socialization quite yet. He was afraid he would just explode at someone if he got worked up again. The seadweller, however, was champing at the bit to know what new information they'd found and how he could implement it into a strategy. There was too much thinking right now and not enough action for him.
2016-12-11 21:58:17 -
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"Alright, lads and lassie," She began, fully authoritative with her captain's hat cocked just so atop her head, the feather billowing slightly in the wind, "Sollux, Alice and I all did some talking and investigating and came to the conclusion that the slavers take routes based on regular cargo routes. Whereas before, I had mind to think they were following the coast and ransacking whatever towns and such were nearby, we know /now/ that they've made their own routes that are similar to a cargo ship's, only they mirror a regular delivery one. They dot the islands, then come back to the shore. The pattern is very careful and hardly erratic, which is how you know it's a slaver ship and not a delivery ship, which would just have a bunch of random points to make deliveries to."
She moved on once she assumed everyone was paying attention. Beside the steering, she had an easel up with a map of Wonderland on it, and the edge of a human territory to the West. She pointed at Fouville, "This is where we are now. North of the mountains. The ship the carapacians used, according to townspeople's reports, originates from the other side of Wonderland, by the Lunar Ocean. Currently, we're in the Sun Sea. Most slavers don't fuck around with port cities, because they need all the valuable supplies. Instead, they pay for a docking space at the port, then go further inland to smoke out small villages and kidnap unsuspecting trolls to sell later. However," Her different eyes peered out at the group, "We've also figured out that they don't just sell slaves for potions, menial labor, or farmwork, but also for gladiator-esque battles. I'm sure you all are familiar with the old myths and legends of underground gladiator battles held in Starnette. The propaganda likes to say that such a thing doesn't exist anymore, maybe it never even has! But we know better about this damned faulty system," She rolled her eyes, "Gamzee, definitely, has been taken to Starnette for the purpose of recruiting him for a gladiator battle. Purples of Gamzee's size and strength are hard to come by, and while the carapacian slavers weren't planning on stealing anyone from Fouville, as they value the resources and trade here, kidnapping a 'violentblood', especially one from the Alice group, would fetch a very pretty prize from none other than the Queen herself."
With all that information in mind, and some other tidbits she hadn't mentioned, she looked to Karkat, "I heard you had some new data on the maps and could work us around it. Mind elaborating? I don't want to get anything wrong."
2016-12-11 22:08:18 -
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Karkat nodded and thought about how to explain it. "I ran into a dead end with the maps as they originally were. So little had been actually recorded there wasn't much to go off of. Captor suggested there might be invisible ink and after heating them it showed up. They're a lot more complete now, but we still have problems. There was a magical barrier where I was and no one ever came close to being down there. The ways we have to get to the arena will be much more frequently traveled by people we don't want to meet, if not trapped or blocked off. That said there are three different external routes to get into the corridors. There are a great deal more inside the castle but I doubt we want to try any of those.
"The floor of the arena is situated three floors below the castle itself. Where we were during the ball was about fifteen yards ahead of where it's located. If we were invited to another event it would be easier to get in, but that's fairly unlikely. However that might give the princess a good access point if we need her involved. As a side note the matches have been going on for a long time. I could hear them sometimes, but that part of the tunnel was fairly close. And I'm certain that is exactly where they are taking him, because his ancestor fought there. He was one of the most famous gladiators ever when people still talked about it." Karkat stopped talking, having said all he thought he could at the moment.
Eridan felt the need to interject. "We saw a couple indigos in Fouville, and one of them was seriously impressive... So it must have been because we were further away from the town. That bar was shady as fuck."
2016-12-12 01:35:07