Hunting Beasts on Nocturnia (Shoguns)

[Flame]

Syph #1 / Jaq #1

It defied belief, there was no other way to say it. The rush of waters flowing unnaturally skyward had thrust the Dancing Red and thus her crew forward and upward. Standing at the bow of the ship Jaq grinned as he looked about. It was an amazing sight. He stood on a structure of brilliance, he wondered what exactly allowed it to do this. Was he capable of such a thing? Perhaps. But for the time being, the wind in his face even as it grew ever thinner was exhilarating. A more powerful feeling than he'd felt in a little while.

He peeked over the port side of the ship. They'd been rising for a while, already the lowest clouds were so close that he felt he could nearly reach up and touch them. His head tilted downwards, the angle was not good enough. The channel they flowed up was wide enough to fit another boat so they had some level of safety. To see the ocean he suspected he was looking now along the curvature of the world. "This is ..." He found himself in a strange enough way speechless to even make comment on it. A thump came onto his back, "So what do you think we'll see at the top.".

The doc was clapping him on the back staring ahead to the incoming cloud. Their path seemed to be moving straight towards its vastness. "An island. They say the log pose always points to one." Jaq responded to Del who looked at him rather amused by response it seemed. "One would hope so. Here take this." He passed a small vial over to the boxer who looked at it curiously.

"It's for altitude sickness, I'm giving them out to everyone. Should last for twenty four hours at least. I've got more below if you need it." Del said before heading off to pass on his goods to more folk. Jaq glanced at the vial and the clear liquid within it. He didn't see the point of this, he felt fine, what even was altitude sickness anyways. Red eyes peered down the vial and then over to the doctor who was chatting with Kitty now. What was that devious man up to ... Jaq's eyes narrowed as he glanced back at the vial before pouring its contents over the edge. Couldn't be too safe.

Above him the massive cloud that they though to be the bottom of this island was fast approaching. They were probably what one hundred maybe two hundred meters out? It was hard to judge. But he wanted to be above board when they passed through it and to the surface, if there was one.

---

Surprisingly not out with her crew Syphalia sat at her desk. Before her unfolded a newspaper, creases were everywhere about it. Atop it were a handful of bounty posters, names that were familiar to her. All too familiar in fact, they too were creased multiple times as if they'd been folded many times. She put her foot against her desk leaning back in her chair. You always knew they were going to resurface. He was too strong to not make a name for himself. Syphalia bit her lip and pushed hard against the desk.

Her strength got away from her and her chair toppled over her with it crashing onto the floor of her cabin. Sprawled out on the floor Syphalia stared emptily at the ceiling. What was she to do about this ... it was easy to think that she could get away with doing nothing but, it seemed unlikely at best.

The door to the cabin opened and Arlen peered in. "You okay?" His eyes met hers looking confused to see her laid out on the floor still somewhat sitting in her chair even though it lay on the ground with her. "Yeah I'll be fine." The quartermaster glanced about, his sharp eyes would not miss it at all. He did not react however even knowing what she was looking at. Arlen's eyes met hers, they held each others for a moment in a conversation full of implication. The smallest movements, it was a dance so to speak. They read each other, it was the blessing and the curse of having known each other for so long at this point.

"Do you need anything else." She asked impatiently, Arlen blinked if taken aback by her response. "Del Ray has an altitude sickness concoction for you."

"Already took it, he brought it to me before he went onto deck."

The quartermaster nodded at that. "And about the other thing. That I told you about from Kenzan." Syph blinked feeling oddly forgetful in the moment. Her eyes searched, what exactly had Arlen told her about. Her mind had been so awash with other thoughts she'd forgotten. And then like that it clicked. "Oh that. If we get some free time, definitely. I can help with that. Anybody else showing signs of it?" She asked, not that she expected Arlen to know, but he seemed like he might.

"Lilin. Maybe Lyn?" The quartermaster responded. Syph nodded her head, she was surprised about both to be honest. Though perhaps the latter one a bit more. That might help, that might do. Syph's eyes narrowed in thought. "Now shoo, I need time to think."

[Jade]

Lilin Post #1 / Tally Post #1

Even though the Dancing Red was riding a stream of seawater, leaving the greater ocean behind was a decidedly unnerving experience for Tally. She stood behind the wheel, four hands keeping them steady, while her remaining pair of hands idly toyed with the now-empty vial of medicine she'd been handed by the ship's doctor a few minutes prior. The existence of islands adrift in the sky above may not have been news to her, but it wasn't as if she'd ever been to one - and the thought was daunting for someone who hailed from so far under the waves.

Tally glanced behind her, back down the stream they'd traveled, back down to the sea below, and sighed before turning back to face the way they were heading - allowing her to catch a flash of pink and black to her left. "Hm," she slipped the empty vial into the pocket of her shorts and grinned, tilting her head slowly toward the left for a moment before twisting over to the right, meeting the roguish grin of the ship's resident thief. "Hello Ophelia. Trying to sneak up on me?"

"Oh, you know very well that you wouldn't have an inkling if I was trying, darling," Ophelia explained very matter-of-factly, and then came to stand just in front of the helm, running her gloved hands over the wood.

The fishwoman watched her for a moment before looking back up toward the clouds. "Figured you'd be hanging around Lilin, since you two seem so close." Tally waited for some sort of response from Ophelia for a moment, but when none came, she flicked her gaze back down toward the well-dressed thief. "Did you need something from me?"

Ophelia lifted her hands away from the wheel and stepped back past Tally, heading toward the back of the ship. "Oh, no. Not in particular. I just thought I'd come up and check in on you, since everyone else is taking in the sights and you're just... Up here, hard at work at your post." She walked out of Tally's peripheral vision, though her movements - the sound of her measured steps against the deck - were still audible. "It's odd, isn't it? To be leaving the sea behind. I wonder what this island will be like - will it be like the islands we know, down there, or will it be unlike anything we could even dream up?"

"Hard to say," Tally responded, sifting through memories of stories she'd been told and overheard. "I've heard of all kinds of sky islands - one that is held anchored in place by an immense tube that connects it to the sea, one that is held aloft by millions of balloons..." She gave a big shrug with her top set of arms. "We'll see when we get there, I suppose."

---

The ship's ascension was far too slow for Lilin. Ever since her apology and hearing words of forgiveness, the imp had redoubled her typical antics - like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and now she was free to be her old, annoying self yet again. She stuck with the ship, to be sure, since she had no intention of flying off without the lot of them so soon...

... But she was still irritated about how long the journey was taking. Her pipe was nearly glowing red-hot from how hard she'd been going through her little herbal pouches to try to abate her boredom; the Dancing Red had a thin trail of smoke pouring off from the mast, going back maybe fifty yards before dissipating. Lilin nearly tore the newspaper in her hands apart with the force of moving the pages about to get to the next story, and then once it was in front of her, her eyes darted across the page at top speed, absorbing as much of the content as quickly as she could manage it.

"Lilin!"

She folded the newspaper in half and looked down over it, down at where Del Ray was standing at the base of the mast. He was holding something in his hands - a vial of some sort - and as she noticed it, he held it up higher for her to take. "It's for altitude sickness!"

Lilin turned her nose up at that, giving the doctor a dangerous, toothy grin. "Pass. I know what we're making heading a-toward. Don't need it."

"Just hold onto it anyway, then. Catch!"

Before she could argue, the vial was tossed up toward her - not quite high enough, probably on purpose on Del Ray's part, but the little devil's left side became indistinct and black smoke began to pour out of where her arm had been, catching the vial in a thick cloud of the stuff before retracting and coalescing down into her arm. Lilin popped the top off the vial and took a sniff of whatever it was, but it was definitely nothing she could place - but it did smell strong, and so she put the stopper back in and put the vial into an inside pocket of her jacket for safekeeping.