Rouge XIV (Patreon)

Rouge and Vexxx both had rope in their inventory, and they tied themselves and their mounts to the railings on either side of their little section of deck, leaving just enough play so they could move to avoid any flying debris. The crew hadn’t had time to tie things down properly, and for the first time, Rouge saw them all out working at once.

It was difficult to tell in the torrents of rain that surrounded them, but Rouge was fairly certain that there were only five crewmembers on the Western Star. Horatio, too, was tied to the ship, but his rope led to the hatch, which was locked tight against the wind and water. He scurried around, checking the tie-downs that kept the cargo crates lashed to the deck. Bonny and Scar were doing something with the sail, rolling part of it and attaching the unused part to another, heavier rope that seemed to be holding up the mast.

Captain Jean stood by the big wheel that guided the boat, legs braced wide as she held it firm. For the first time, Rouge could confirm her suspicion that the captain was missing one leg below the knee, and had an actual peg leg. Which didn’t really make sense, since most priests could restore missing limbs, for enough money, but if she really was a pirate, maybe it was just part of the aesthetic?

The last crew member was a redhead with very short hair. She had to spend most of her time below, since Rouge hadn’t caught even a glimpse of her before, but she was just as competent and assured as the others as she moved around, helping each of the others as needed, without a word being exchanged. Indeed, the whole crew worked like a well-oiled machine, with little of the shouting and panic that Rouge would have expected, based on movies she’d seen in the past.

Rouge wiped ineffectually at her eyes as she looked toward Vexxx, who had the biggest grin she’d ever seen on his face. The lightning mage looked like he was in his element, even drenched in rain, with his red and yellow robe soaked and whipping around in the gale-force winds. He had at least had enough sense to put away his conical hat, and water streamed through his close-cropped black hair.

::Why do you look so happy?:: she demanded, reaching out to wrap her arms around Wally’s neck. The ostrich had hunkered down and curled his toes into the deck, the thick talons digging in and making him the most stable thing around, though he kept his head tucked beneath his wing most of the time.

Vexxx snorted, not even sparing her a glance as he watched the tempest swirl around them. ::We don’t get storms like this in the Pacific Northwest. We hardly even get thunderstorms. But my mom and I were in Florida for a lawyer conference when I was about twelve, when a hurricane hit. It wasn’t a bad one, but everyone hid in the hotel until it was over. Except me. I told Mom I was going to go get some ice, and I snuck outside instead. It was… amazing.::

He turned his face up, though the rain was hitting with enough force to sting, now. ::It was like the world just let go. Like chaos finally broke out, and it didn’t matter what anyone tried to do, because we were never going to win. For a few minutes, until some security guards came out and made me go back inside, I felt like nothing mattered. Not school, not my mom, not… anything. That’s why I became a lightning mage. I saw someone use [Tempest] not long after I started playing, and it was almost like I remembered. It needed to be stronger, though, and bigger, so I just keep feeding more and more points into Int, but I never quite got there. But this… This is almost like the real thing.::

Rouge clung to her ostrich as a towering wave curled up and over the side of the ship, pulling at them, trying to carry them away to the depths of the sea. She didn’t know what to say. She had never seen her cousin so relaxed and open, before, and if she wasn’t so worried that their vessel would crack open like a nut when the next wave came, she’d have tried to take advantage of it.

Lightning flashed, and the brief moment of illumination made her vision flicker from [Darkvision] to normal vision, momentarily restoring color to the world. And the color it restored was red. Her eyes focused on something that had been concealed by the driving rain and the monotone gray. A wall of red.

No. It was a much larger ship, its hull painted deep crimson, directly ahead of them. Everyone else seemed to have noticed, too, since all the crew members had frozen in place, no longer racing from one task to the next. Then the Captain’s hands moved, turning hard to the right, spinning the wheel as she tried to avoid running into the looming vessel.

She failed. The narrow front of the Star contacted the other ship, and Rouge flinched, fully expecting that they were about to wreck, and all of them would be in the water within moments. She called her Mambele to her hand, ready to cut the ropes before they could haul her and Wally down with the ship, and barely managed to shout, ::Silus-!:: before it was too late.

Then there was silence. The wind, the rain, and the waves ceased as if they’d all entered a sound-proof room. The red hull of the larger vessel engulfed them like a wall of mist, and they were inside. Rouge stared around as silent figures moved around them. They were pale, mute, and faded in and out of sight as they went through the motions of everyday life. A dozen scruffy men sat around a table, lifting their tankards as they ate and drank, their mouths moving in eerie noiselessness.

Impossibly, the Star seemed to be rising. Rouge’s head passed through deck after deck,showing her glimpses of what was going on around her. More men dug through boxes overflowing with bags, bottles, bolts of rich cloth, new-looking tools and other common items lay discarded against one wall. Young boys came in, gathering up and taking the rejected items away. Next, a room full of people, manacled to a wall, looking defeated. A long, open space filled with men loading cannons, their muzzles pointed out through holes in the wall. The weapons jumped as they were fired, but still no sound broke the absolute quiet.

At last they emerged into the open air again. A storm raged around them, but not the one they’d left behind. No, this one was powerful, but the flashes of lightning were distant, the waves rocked the boat without threatening to capsize it, and the rain was constant but not torrential. Much like Scar, Horatio, and the rest of the crew of the Star, the ghostly figures around them moved with calm deliberation, tightening ropes and shifting sails.

“Jean!” The voice made Rouge jump, and she whirled to stare at the approaching figure. He was tall, probably approaching seven feet in height, and wore a scarlet silk coat and matching waistcloth. A tricorn hat sat atop his head, and had a bushy black beard that engulfed his lower face and a good part of his chest. He also held a saber nearly as long as Rouge was tall, pointed directly at Captain Jean.

The woman at the wheel of the Star stood frozen, staring at this apparition, and for the first time since Rouge had met her, her face held an expression other than anger.

Fear.

Glancing around, Rouge saw that all the rest of the Star’s crew looked just as frightened. Even Bonny seemed to shrink into herself, while Horatio had actually fallen to the deck.

::What’s going on?:: Silus’ frightened voice came into Rouge’s ears, snapping her out of her shock.

::I have no idea,:: Rouge admitted. ::We sailed inside this big ghost ship, and now we’re just… hanging here. There’s a guy I’m guessing is the captain, and he just called Captain Jean out. Can you see anything else?::

::It’s weird down here,:: Silus squeaked. ::I’m in a room full of cannons, and the people here are just doing the same thing, over and over. Load the cannon, fire the cannon, then kind of flicker and reappear back at the beginning.::

Looking around, Rouge noticed for the first time that the ephemeral people on deck were doing the same thing. A man pulled hard on a rope, swinging part of the closest sail around, then tied it off. A fraction of a second later, he reappeared in the same spot he’d started in, pulling on the same rope. It was like they were watching a ghostly loop of the same twenty or thirty seconds, set on eternal repeat.

Rouge’s head whipped around as the bearded - Man? Ghost? - roared Captain Jean’s name again. She stared from the threatening apparition to their captain, seeing the woman’s nerveless fingers fall from the wheel. Since they were no longer in the water, the spokes of the wheel spun lazily left, right, then settled into a new position and fell still. It was the only motion in the tableau until Jean took a step to her left, leading with her good leg.

The man’s eyes fell to the peg leg as it came into view, and he smiled slowly, lightning leaping in the black pits of his eyes. Not reflected lightning. Literal lightning. As Rouge processed this, she also realized that his beard was so bushy because it was static-charged. Sparks jumped as the hairs shifted, individual strands lifted away from his chest and each other as if he’d just rubbed his face with a balloon.

::Vexxx? Can you tell what’s going on? He’s all filled up with lightning. That’s your department, right?:: she sent over private chat as Jean slowly began to make her way toward the stranger. Step. Thud.

Her foot and wooden peg leg echoed against the deck, making the only sound other than a faint hum that Rouge associated with being too close to the electrical substation near her house.

Beside her, Vexxx shrugged. ::The game doesn’t really give me any special abilities regarding lightning other than my skills and spells.::

::You knew the storm had a lot of lightning in it.::

His brows drew together. ::So would anybody who looked at it.::

She shrugged, though she kept her eyes on the woman who had stopped just outside the reach of that ridiculous sword. ::Not really. I could see flickers of lightning, sure, but you were certain there was a lot of lightning in it. Like, an unusual amount, or you wouldn’t have commented on it.::

Frown growing deeper, Vexxx nodded. ::That’s… true. Okay, so what I notice about this guy is the lightning storm in his eyes, the static in his beard, and the arcs of electricity between his buttons.:: His voice took on an edge of sarcasm. ::And the big tag that says ‘Lightning Ghost, Level Ninety’.::

Rouge squinted at the big baddie in front of them. Once again, her relatively low-level [Examine] skill was letting her down. Everybody was right. She really did need to work on that.

Pirate Captain (NPC) - Level 90

Nothing about ghosts or lightning, and since he looked like a pirate captain, that was pretty much all she got. Also, what was that about the buttons? She squinted harder, and sure enough, there were tiny curves of light flashing between the big silver buttons on the pirate’s coat.

The pirate pointed his sword at Captain Jean, and an electric haze crackled around it as he said, “Daughter! How dare you betray me?”

Rouge and Vexxx exchanged shocked glances, and Vexxx muttered, ::Family drama. And me without my popcorn.::