You expected an immediate denial. You expected her to lash out that some lowly pirate would never be worthy of her, or perhaps that she needed to save her marriage for a political alliance of true import. She does not say any of these things. The Empress of the planet that nominally rules over everything you have ever known stares at you for what feels like months.
Long enough, in fact, that you tilt your head with a cocky grin. "What? Can't believe your luck?"
"I'm waiting for you to give me a serious offer." She says bluntly, folding her arms defensively.
"Oh that wasn't an offer," you say sweetly, patting her head in the most infuriating way you know how. "It was a demand."
"Who do you think you are, the star's gift to Tabgach?"
"Eh. Kinda." To be fair that's not so much 'wrong' as 'incomplete'.
She balks. "No, y-you are actually insane."
"Don't sell yourself short honey." You give her your most dazzling smile, and see her blush deep. You're quite the handsome lad when you want to be. "You really want the war to end? This is how you do it. Unless you've already got a fiancé or are carrying out some secret love affair with one of your servants or something? … And if so my demand becomes 'tell me everything about them.'"
"W-well no, but-"
"Then I don't see the problem." You shrug. "Take it or leave it."
She pushes your hand off of her head, scowling. "Ya know what? F-fine. Make it back, none of my girls get hurt while they're with you, and I'll…… make you my consort." She mumbles out that last part like it's causing her physical pain.
"Up-up-up!" You hold up your finger. "Husband. I'm not settling for less."
She folds her arms, scowling. "I will not be your meek tavern whore, I'm the Empress and you will treat me as such. I still have my pride."
"Fine, that'd be boring anyway." You say with a dismissive wave of your hand as you fall to one knee. "Look, we can discuss the exact details later. But, pending those negotiations… Shenzhou Ning the Indomitable, Divine Empress, the Emissary of the Heavenly Court and blood of the Jade, will you marry me?"
Ning stares at you. For a moment, the air seems to hang still. Even the concubines listening in that think they're too stealthy for you hold their breath. In the garden, cherry blossoms fall around the two of you, and for the briefest of instances you feel a flicker of fear she'll say no. You don't have a plan for if she decides to damn the consequences…
"… Bring me Lord Chang's head," she says quietly, "And I will be yours until the last star falls from the night."
A bit more dramatic than you'd expected, but eh. All things can be worked on. You grin and stand up, pecking her cheek and eliciting another blush.
"Okay. Now… I need one more thing from you: a ship."
-
Dalnim takes her sweet time saying goodbye to the concubine that gave her a foot rub, but at the very least you're underway now. Bao and Aki come along with you, both of them manacled (you don't ask where they got the cuffs from) to keep up the illusion that you're absconding with them. You make your way through several secret passageways, easily avoiding the guards. Partly because you're just that awesome, partly because the mistress of the place gave you a step-by-step guide to the docks.
You find a small private ship,
Dalnim gapes. "That engine is a tripolar hydroaccelerant?!" She whispers, excited. "Oh I wish we had more time."
Bao chuckles at Dalnim's apparent enthusiasm for nerd stuff you don't care about as you put Aki into the boat. "Yes, well, it's rare nowadays, but the Temple of Unfounded Repentance used to have an entire luxury yacht line in its archives. Unfortunately, it was lost."
When you lift Aki into the boat, she giggles in your arms and embraces you. "I heard someone's becoming our new emperor!"
You smirk and leave her in the boat. "You're supposed to be my prisoner, at least until we're out on the sea."
"Oh I know but still!" She squeals. "I love weddings! Please tell me you've got cuties to be groomsmen!!"
You roll your eyes. Ping seems to know more about the noble stuff than you'd expect of a pirate, maybe he can help you with the ceremony. Or better idea, a way to skip past it to the fun part where you sail off into the sunset with her at the altar… or…
Hrm. Will you do that? Seems like a bad idea to do that to the empress of the world, even if she doesn't seem fully on board as of yet.
Dalnim raises an eyebrow, the boat engine momentarily forgotten. "Wait, you're getting married? Didn't you and that Caihong chick have something going on?"
"… no?" You say, raising an eyebrow at her. "Caihong's my first mate and she tried to kill me once."
"Oh… I could've sworn…" She shook her head. "Well one of your crew told me that he was hoping someone you had would come around after something bad they did on the trip."
"Oh, Eun?"
Just as your thoughts turn back to your crew, you feel a sense of foreboding. You're not sure what the necrons are doing, but you hope your crew can survive it…
-
It will take time for you to reach your crew, days at the very least, even with your control over the storms. In that time, much has the potential to go wrong. Fortunately, your crew is lead by Caihong, and she is no fool. You are on your way, but they'll have to survive without you.
How bad is the situation for Caihong and the crew? (Next post will focus on them)
[Good news]
[] [Good news] - Crew Escaped
By threats, by luck, perhaps sheer unbridled gumption, Caihong is able to rally the crew, cast the ship off, and get out onto open waters before the necrons can do them serious harm.
[] [Good news] - The Necrons are mad
Driven into madness by their long sleep, the necrons fight as a mindless, uncoordinated horde, only attacking immediate threats and things they find in their explorations.
[] [Good news] - A knight fights
The Tech Monks are able to repair Chan's war machine enough to fight against the necrons.
[Bad news]
[] [Bad news] - City gone
The tech monks' temple and the city connected to it have been wiped out by the necrons, and the land around it is dying.
[] [Bad news] - Crew bloodied
Half of your crew is dead.
[] [Bad news] – Warp rift
A hole is torn in reality, from which scream the neverborn.
[] - Write-in:
Good news and bad news write ins will be counted separately but I ask you label them. If the Good News and Bad News votes contradict each other, we'll go with the higher vote between the two, and then the secondary for the other.
Suggested by
@Tabascoheath
[] – [Bad News] Write in: Green Pirates From the Sky?
The whole city is an ugly three way brawl between the Monks, the Necrons, and... buff green pirates? Seemingly intent on fighting and looting to their hearts content, it seems this eclectic not-quite-jade horde with surprisingly good taste in hats is just as intent on fighting the "glowin' metalboyz" just as much as the "not glowin' metalboyz"
Suggested by
@*name*
[] - [Good & Bad] Write-in: All of the Above — good and bad news, the city is being sieged, 1 half of your crew is in the thick of it, and now the sky is being ripped apart and spitting 4 different kinds of daemons for a 6 way free for all. Meanwhile the other half of your crew has sailed off and providing cannon fire to the first half, the robots are mad and infighting making it a 7 to 11 way brawl, and a knight is now punching a huge daemon in the face and stepping on some skeletons. some would say that charging in is a guaranteed death, but Nah, your a Primarch, you'll Win
Clarification:
only the default ones consolidated, if people want extra shit, they should add extra sub-blocks (like -[] ); i'm assuming that for every [Good] sub block they provide a [Bad news] sub-block for balanceand to make the mess even funnier
Yes.
